Dec: 13: Tara gets robbed (again)

We're currently on a plane on our way to Lima, Peru. Peru is our last country on the trip, before we return to Chile for two days prior to coming home.

It's both good and bad knowing it's the last country because I like going to new countries, but I'm also looking forward to returning to mine.

We had to leave way early this morning for the airport. Tara was worried about not waking up on time and decided to stay up all night. She spent the night talking to a couple guys in the hostel from Columbia and Ecuador. Around midnight, they went to the store to get something and were mugged on the way back.

Tara lost all her jewelry to include her watch, necklace and rings. The curl irony of the situation is they stole the Saint Christopher medallion her parents gave her for the night before she left as a birthday present that is supposed to protect travelers and the cheap watch we bought together at Wal-Mart (When I got this CD) the same night that she got in case she was robbed.

I think it's safe to say she's ready to leave Asuncion. She had a hard time breathing in the city because of the pollution and nothing says "thank you for visiting our city," like an old-fashion mugging complete with knives.

After every city we visit, Tara says she wants to come back someday to help the local people. She's really compassionate. I've seen her put money in donation boxes for hospitals and other causes several times throughout this trip. In Asuncion, little kids would come up trying to sell candy or beg for money and she felt so bad for the kids, she never made it back to the hostel with any change.

Bonus story not in actual journal:

I'm not sure why Tara's robbing was the focus of this blog. It might have been because we had to leave our hostel at 3 a.m. on this day and I wanted to write quickly so I could get to sleep on the plane. Or maybe I wrote it on the short layover in Brazil and slept on the plane from Asuncion to Brazil and from there to Peru.

My favorite Tara story on the trip happened on in the Brazil airport and she's not even aware it occurred. We land in Brazil and get off the plane and there's a sign with two arrows on it with instructions written in Portuguese and English. As I started to say, "I think we should go that way," and point, she cut me off to ask an airport employee which way to go in Spanish. He answers in Portuguese and points the way I had suggested. At this point, I decide I'm not going to say anything again the rest of the time we're in the airport and to let Tara figure out the airport, which at the time was only her second trip ever on a plane (the first being on the way down).

After we got to the next part of the airport, she asked another lady for help, who once again answered in Portuguese, which confused Tara since the language is similar to Spanish, but still different. I was only able to pick up three words she said, but once I saw where she was pointing, I knew what she was talking about and once we got there, there were signs that led us to where we were going. I found where I was supposed to be in line and got in it.

Tara looked around confused and decided she needed to ask someone else for help again, again in Spanish. I watched as the man she was asking for help pointed in my direction then walked her over to where I was and told her to stand behind me in line.

When we got on the plane, Tara said she was happy to be leaving Brazil because she had enough of not being able to talk to anyone since she didn't know Portuguese. What I didn't tell her at the time, and haven't since, is that every single employee in that airport spoke perfect English as well as their native Portuguese.