You Gotta Be Kidding!

     Can you believe this?  Arriving back to the Paradiso last night they could not find our bags in their storage area.  It's 8:30 PM and we're to catch a bus at 8 AM the next morning.  All we had were the DIRTY, SWEATY clothes on our backs and our rain gear.  All other clothing and all of our medications were in those packs!

     It appears that there was a mis-communication between the manager who had instructed us to leave our bags in our locked room at 6 AM when we departed for the tramp.  She would have the bags picked up and moved to storage.  However the cleaning woman did not get the message and thought the bags had simply been forgotten.  She moved them into the office.  The manager saw them there but did not know they were ours.  Nor did she remember to look for ours.  So people saw them sitting there for two days (cleaning ladies reported vacuuming around them even) and then when we returned the third day, nada!  ZIP! Kaput!  No one knew what had happened to them.  You gotta be kidding! 

     The owner took Denny to the hospital immediately to get new prescriptions.  They insisted, of course, in doing their own tests.  (He is in good shape but still in fibrillation.)  We cancelled the bus trip south and stayed another day (free, thank you very much).   No workers claimed any knowledge.  The owner took full responsibility though -- an honest mistake had been made.  Someone took advantage of the situation.  He gave us his car and sent us on a shopping spree.  In a way it was fun but we had shopped so carefully, planned and packed so well -- hard to duplicate in one  afternoon -- even in Nelson! We have a whole lot of new Kathmandu gear this evening and look forward to heading south in the morning.  Kiwis are GREAT-- everyone was so nice -- so wanting to help. The doctor made sure we got all the meds and everything too!  AMAZING!    A great ending! (Of course we had all our $$, cards, passports, and tickets with us.)