The Story of My Lost Wallet

Some day I'll finally post about how amazing the Inca Trail was, but for now I just don't have the energy to type it.  Instead this is the long boring story of how I lost my wallet after a year-and-a-half of travel, eight days before I was scheduled to fly home.  HAHA

On the forth day of the Trail, the day when you wake up at 3:50am to walk into Machu Picchu, I lost my wallet.  It was the weirdest thing.  The night prior, we had a place to shower and get a beer, so I put my wallet in my front sweatshirt pocket in order to pay and stuff.  After my shower I put on my jammies, but because we had a big 'last' dinner, where we tipped all of our porters, I kept my sweatshirt/wallet handy for that too.  When it was time for bed and I was all tucked into my sleeping bag, I put my camera battery in my bra as usual (so it wouldn't drain from the cold) but got irritated that my wallet was still in my sweatshirt.  Typically, I was too lazy to do anything about it though.  In the morning, we had ten minutes to get ready and there were porter dudes right outside my tent trying to take my tent down.  When I arrived at breakfast I realized the wallet was gone.  I searched with a flashlight until we had to leave, and the porters unrolled sleeping bags and helped me look, but it was gone.  I think it got flipped into the grass or something.  I couldn't report the card missing for about four days and nobody used it.  So I gave my wallet to the Inca Trail.  I lost about $60US and my debit card and my drivers' license.

The point of that LONG story is that now, I am without a wallet on the road.  Thankfully, I had an extra Visa card and $135US in my passport holder.  But nobody takes Visa here in Puno Peru.  And the $135US is for my Bolivian Visa.  So more thankfully, Teri lent me $200 and 200 Peruvian Soles to get home on.  But the stupid hostel that I have been holed up in for 5 days, dying of cholera won't take Visa either even though they have Visa stickers ALL OVER THE PLACE, took $96 of that cash (I paid in Soles first) for my stay, laundry and an additional $50 for the 9 HOUR BOAT RIDE I have to take tomorrow morning at 5:20 to get into Bolivia.  Yah.  Apparently the roads are closed because of protesters and I can't take the $3 bus.  OK, so to recap:

I have $235 and 36 Soles ($12) to get home on.  The Bolivian Visa costs $135.  I have to pay $25 to exit Bolivia.  And I have to take a 9 hour boat when I'm very, very, very, very, like Peru Sick.
That leaves me $87 to get from Copacabana, Bolivia to La Paz, Bolivia, two nights lodging, ride to the airport, and food on the planes. 

I think I can do it.  Fortunately Bolivia is the cheapest country in the universe.  And I don't have any time to go to the salt flats anyways, or to do Isla del Sol.  I'm basically just entering Bolivia to get to the La Paz airport, because that's where I'm flying home from.

Here's hoping I can use the other Visa at the Lima/Miami/Chicago airports for food.