On the second morning of our 18-day trip to Chile I was pick-pocketed. I could have let it color the rest of the trip, but then the bad guys would have won.
The four of us were just beginning to explore Santiago, the capital, by trying to figure out the subway system. It was morning and crowded. I was just about to step through a turnstile when a young lady touched my right shoulder. She said something in Spanish while pointing to one of my traveling companions going through just ahead of me. Confused, I looked at her and then him while continuing to focus on catching up with the others who were walking down the tunnel.
Five minutes later I reached for my cell phone in my left front pants pocket and realized it was gone.
“Maybe I left it in the hotel room,” I thought, but a part of me already knew what had happened.
I called Verizon to report it when I got back to the room. The tech guy was very helpful and assured me the the phone was essentially useless without a passcode. I shouldn’t worry, he said, and asked if I would like for them to send me a replacement. That seemed like a lot of coordination of destinations, so I decided to wait until we got home.
Not having a mobile device would be no big deal, I decided. The next day, as we were on a bus driving past a city park, I noticed how many of the people were staring down at their devices — most of them.
I shook my head.
“Look at that,” I said to myself. “It’s going to be a good experience not to be tied to a phone.” I admit I felt a little superior.
We visited a museum dedicated to remembering the victims of the rule of dictator General Augusto Pinochet during the 1970s and 80s. We climbed the hill where a massive Virgin Mary looks down upon the city. We drove to the costal city of Valparaiso and enjoyed the colorful graffiti street art as well as the house of the Nobel prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda. We ate fantastic food at out-of-the-way restaurants.
I thought about my cell phone several times when I wanted to take a photo or make some notes. Oh, well. At least I had a regular old camera and a pocket notebook handy.
We flew to Rapa Nui (Easter Island). The camera was useful as I took about a bazillion pictures of the Maoi statues. I kept noticing how many people were sitting in charming and/or funky restaurants or walking along the beach or sitting on a wall facing the ocean all the while staring at their devices. I probably would have checked my email had I had my cell.
After five nights we flew back to the mainland and headed north to the Atacama Desert. I wondered if the transition from wet sub-tropical sea level to one of the most arid places on earth would be rough, but we had no problem. We floated in briny lakes dotting huge salt flats and marveled at smoking volcanoes and bubbling geysers.
We lost count of the llamas and vicuna, the flamingos and other beautiful creatures we saw. There were times when I wanted to send a text, but I couldn’t do that with my regular old camera or a paper notebook.
Chile is a beautiful country. During our trip, we took several flights to go up and down the long, narrow, coastal country. This meant we spent lots of time waiting in airports. During one particularly tedious wait I remembered that someone had pointed out how similar the Chilean flag is to the state flag of Texas. I would have Googled that to make a comparison, but, of course, I didn’t have my phone.
I am on the flight back to Indiana now. When I lost my mobile device, I wanted to imagine that I could live apart from modern technology. I wanted to think I could live off the grid. To be honest, I can’t wait to get home. One of the first things I am going to do is call Verizon to have them ship me a replacement.
