Paraguay

 

Keep On Keepin On

Paraguay - May 29, 2006

First of all, thank you all for your many encouraging emails and prayers. We both can't explain how much that has meant to us both during this trying time. Although our lives have been very different without a laptop, contacts, itinerary, etc, we are still both very confident that we will continue on this journey with a fervor and passion just as before. God called us out on this mission before we had any gear to begin with, and we are certain that His favor and blessing will continue regardless of what the coming months look like.

The past few days have been a whirlwind for both of us. We both decided it would be best from a logistical and financial standpoint if we split up, so Patrick headed back to Santa Cruz, Bolivia after a short weekend in Ascuncion, Paraguay and is now in the beginning phases of talking with local police and Interpol to try and track down the criminals, file reports and compile an inventory. Our newly adopted Bolivian mother pulled almost every string she had to get Patrick a 90% discount with a plane ticket, which saved incredible time and money. Thank you Liz!!

I spent a few days Ciudad del Este, Paraguay working on a slew of internet tasks and insurance. I also had a great opportunity to visit two incredible landmarks because of my vicinity. The first was Iguazu Falls, one of the largest waterfall systems in the world with over 300 falls (some over 200 feet tall!). I also was able to spend a few hours on Monday and observe Itaipu Dam, the largest hydroelectric plant in the entire world. Itaipu provides power for over 80% of Paraguay and nearly 25% of Brazil. It is large enough to nearly power the entire state of California alone. Although these numbers are incredibly impressive, the major downside of this $25 billion monstrosity are the enormous environmental concerns the plant has caused. The 1350 square kilometer reservior, 220 meters deep, drowned Sete Quedas, a set of waterfalls that was apparently even more impressive than Iguazu Falls, and stagnant water has become a malaria vector to the region.

Ciudad del Este wasn't exactly the most pleasant place to stay. Smuggling is a major occupation in the city, with some estimates putting the value of this black market at five times the national economy. The city has a reputation of being one of the most corrupt and dangerous cities in South America, due to it's high crime and existing rumors of Al-Qaida and Hezbollah headquarters. Apparently the drugs, violence and corruption were bait for Hollywood. In 2005, it was a filming location for the upcoming Miami Vice movie with Colin Farrell and Jaime Foxx.

We´ll keep updated as much as we are able on the laptop status...
Thank you again for your support and prayers.
Lee

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Houston... We Have A Problem

Paraguay - May 27, 2006

First off, let us both apologize for the lack of recent updates on this site. The reason it appears that we have not posted for nearly 2 months is because our posts have been corresponding with the events on they days they happen, rather than when we actually publish them online (in other words, some of our entries dated from March were just published in the last week or so). The reasoning for the delay in posting is that we did not anticipate being away from the internet for the amount of time we have been. As a result we usually write our thoughts in long-hand, outline form as they happen and translate that into our stories as soon as we are able. Also, our ancillary work on photos (which have numbered 10,000 since mid-January), video and travel planning has been a unique challenge in updating content as much as we possibly can. Know that we are trying our best to keep this site as fresh and up-to-date as possible.

On to current news...
We had a hellacious 38-hour ride last night from Santa Cruz, Bolivia to Ciudad Del Este, Paraguay. Around 8pm on Thursday, we departed from Santa Cruz anticipating a long, dusty and bumpy ride. Around 12:30, Patrick woke up and decided to get some water from his backpack, only to notice that it was missing from the above storage bin. Along with a simple jug of water, this bag contained our Sony Vaio notebook, a plethora of software for publishing, editing and writing, digital camera, iPod, Garmin GPS receiver, Two 1GB memory cards, iGo travel charger (with all of our tips for charging our video camera, digital camera, iPods, computer, and power for our external hard drive), 4-in-1 data flashdrive and Skype headset and camera, Kershaw knife and Petzl headlamp.

In more simple terms... our life was in that bag :)

We immediately informed the bus driver, who was kind enough to loan us a flashlight, but still could not find the bag after roaming back and forth on the dark and muggy bus aisle. Our worst fears of the pack being stolen from the bus were solidified several hours upon our arrival to Paraguayan customs (3 hours from the border) where a complete search was performed on every person and bag in the bus. Our hopes were that the bag was still on the bus, but it never turned up.

We believe our bag was stolen as we were asleep, just several hours into our trek. It appears this could even be an inside job by bus officials, who had prior information of our bag's contents and appearance. Several passengers we spoke to on the bus also informed us that 2-3 passengers exited the bus early on in the night as we were sleeping. As a result of this fiasco, Patrick and I have decided to split up. He is currently in Asuncion, Paraguay attempting to get back to Santa Cruz via bus or plane to file a police report and try and track down any information (and hopefully our bag) and I am currently in Cuidad del Este, Paraguay near Iguacu Falls. We are currently planning on reconnecting either in Brazil or Argentina.

What this means for us at the moment:
As mentioned prior, everything we rely on from a day-to-day basis was in our laptop. This includes our entire contact database (for all past, present and future projects), all email, our trip itinerary, our financial data, company tax infomation, a slew of personal and company data and 2 months of blogs and photos (nearly 2,000) yet to be posted to this site. We were just a few days from uploading a batch of stories and photos from our past month in South America but at the moment have no way to retain that data. The other devices in the bag were also extremely valuable to us (using the GPS device for exact coordinates, iPod for audio books and music, iGo charger to charge all electronic devices and digital camera to capture all photos visible on this site).

We currently do not know yet how this will affect this website in the short term. We have an external hard drive with a backup of our data, but we recently have been receiving errors (so do not know if we can retain that data yet). At the moment, our blogs and photos from the past 2 months that we were hoping to post within the week are lost. We are still trying to figure out how we can re-write and publish those stories, but there is a chance the photos will be missing. Long term, we are hopeful that we will be back up and running as before but it may take several months to reaccumulate, reinstall and reconfigure all of the data that has been lost.

For those of you that feel called to help, we could really use your prayers... for guidance, direction, clarity and most of all that this bag will turn up in the next several days. This development also creates some new financial complications as well for us but we are trusting and believing that God's hand of favor is on this situation.

Thank you all for your continued support and encouragement. We are so blessed by all of you.

Many blessings,
Patrick and Lee

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