The Robbery

Well, I have some really bad news... I went to a bar on Sunday night in Banos with some people that I met on the hiking trip and someone stole my money belt from my purse. In the money belt was my passport, my bank cards, my Visa, 2 memory cards with pictures, $200.00 US and various other things. Big hit it was. I don't really care to go into the details of it all, for example why I would have had all these valuables in the bar with me, but there it is. Bad news. I guess I have been pretty lucky so far though, and at least I didn't have a knife or gun pulled on me or something- there is always something worse happening to someone else somewhere.
I know you will all be feeling people bad for me, but don't- these things happen all the time and I'm trying not to feel sorry for myself or dwell on it.
I am in Guayaquil at the moment- basically a port city with not much to do or see but it houses the Canadian Consulate. Thankfully I have arranged a good host from couchsurfing- Miguel. He picked me up from the bus terminal, took me to get my passport pictures taken, drove me to the embassy today, etc. Some other CSers took me out and showed me around today too and we're going to get together tonight for some beers and guitar-playing. I'll bring the harmonica that I bought in Quito and want to learn how to play.
Hopefully my passport will be ready within a week and Visa is trying to get me a credit card by Friday. I hope to be crossing over into Peru by Wednesday or Thursday of next week.
Unfortunately this has soured my experience of the country a bit, even though I know that this happens all over and probably just as often at home. Also mostly everyone that I have encountered here has been amazing and all the Ecuadorians I tell about the robbery feel absolutely horrible that it happened. A woman working at a bike shop in Banos named Anita even came with me 3 times to talk to the owner of the bar where it happened to see if there wasn't anything more that could be done (eg: get the word out and offer a reward). Hopefully my next post will bear great news!