As was mentioned before in Bri and Rob’s post describing the Curse of the Chinese Lantern, we have had a run of very bad luck. After the manhunt and a somber day of watching Bri and Rob change all their passwords and cancel all their accounts, we settled into the Subaru and took off down the road to return to La Paz. We arrived at the marina late, and since we were leaving again early the next morning, we let our tired minds convince us to leave much of our gear in the car overnight.

This was a bad idea. The next morning as I filled a jug of water at the spigot, Katie rounded the corner and looked at Rob and I with a certain expression on her face that we both instantly took to mean bad news. “Did you guys happen to move the car last night?” she asked.

Gone. Our fly rods, reels, wetsuits, cooler, snorkel gear, tent from Camping Console, tablet computer, binoculars and a thousand other little things that we’d brought to the beach. Oh yeah, and the goddamn car! Maybe someday I’ll write a post to describe the convoluted, hair brained scheme we had to hatch to get that Subaru across the Sea of Cortez literally one week prior. And I will someday write a post to shine a glorious light on the life and times of the Suby: trusted companion and beautiful steed of the desert.

As we listed off the items and estimated their values, we realized how stupid we had been. And lazy. And tired. And apparently full of way too much faith in our fellow man.  Most of the gear was in the car top carrier, hidden from view, but that crook that night knew a good thing when he saw it, and he hit the jackpot.

There were no tracks to follow, and no clues to assemble. As we asked around, the general cynical conclusion was that the police were as likely a culprit as the banditos. We stood around and stared at each other dumbfounded, helpless, carless and confused.

Bri and Rob’s trip was ruined; not only was their sum of worldly possessions getting slimmer by the day, but we were now without camping gear or transportation to get to the East Cape and Cabo Pulmo for the rest of our adventure. We were destined to walk the malecon back and forth for ten days on end, our thoughts festering on the demise of mankind and all that is good in the world. We had given up all hope…

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