{"id":3532,"date":"2010-08-22T06:27:55","date_gmt":"2010-08-22T13:27:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/?p=3532"},"modified":"2010-08-22T17:28:19","modified_gmt":"2010-08-23T00:28:19","slug":"teddys-travels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/2010\/08\/22\/teddys-travels\/","title":{"rendered":"Teddy’s Travels"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019ve got something for your protection\u201d, M. told me. \u201cCome to my room\u2026 \u201c<\/p>\n

I eyed him skeptically. But hey, following a guy to his room\u2026 I was under a dark sky, early, early morning in Roatan, an island off the Caribbean coastline of Honduras. \u201cPor que n\u00e3o?\u201d (Why not?). I was wondering if I would get kissed or something. Every time he had a few drinks, M. would try his moves on the girls. But now, he was searching the inside of this backpack, looking for\u2026 I didn\u2019t know what. Then from the depths of his luggage he produced a little teddy bear, with a green t-shirt with two wooden buttons.<\/p>\n

This was how Teddy first came to me. Teddy didn\u2019t scream when leaving his father\u2019s arms for the arms of his new mom. Maybe he was in shock! Certainly he had no idea where life was taking him.<\/p>\n

The group was leaving the island, crossing Honduras and heading to Nicaragua. I was staying behind with Teddy (and his wooden buttons) for my protection. My clothes were ridiculous, compared with Teddy\u2019s. One week before, I had arrived in Guatemala City with no bag. I waited and waited and waited. \u201cSuch slow services, even slower than in Lisbon\u201d, I thought. My bag never came.<\/p>\n

At the IBERIA counter, an old couple was complaining that their bag was also missing. Their daughter\u2019s wedding dress \u2013 she was getting married the next day! \u2013 was in their luggage. I asked for an emergency kit or money for my immediate needs, thinking IBERIA would give me something \u2013 and something for the old couple. The answer? \u201cEssas cosas solamente en Madrid.\u201d (Those things only in Madrid).<\/p>\n

I left the airport \u2013 with no luggage \u2013 and headed to Antigua to join my group and M. (Teddy\u2019s father). For the following week, I dressed as a happy clown, with every piece of my loaner wardrobe coming from a different country. And week later, I was following M. to his room, and adopting Teddy.<\/p>\n

I had been screaming all the way from Antigua to Roatan, over the phone with the airport, cursing IBERIA in half Portuguese half Spanish. I was so mad, not even the banana pancakes could calm me down. I wanted to kill someone from IBERIA, but lacked the method to do it. I decided I would go back to Antigua \u2013 at any cost — and the get the damned bag myself.<\/p>\n

M. left with rest of the group — the Swedes, the Aussies, the girls from the Lakes, the rednecks, the British girl, and the Canadian hypochondriac and I took a roaring flying creature to the mainland, with Teddy by my side. From Honduras we went to El Salvador and from there to Guatemala and Antigua, all the way back.<\/p>\n

Teddy and I would join the rest of the group, two days later in Granada, Nicaragua, almost an eternity since Roatan. But first, we made a scandal at the IBERIA counter, where I\u2019m sure the memory of Teddy and I still provokes terror.<\/p>\n

A friend later pointed me a French movie called \u201cAmelie Poulain<\/a>\u201d. A man is too passive to leave his garden. His daughter \u201ckidnaps\u201d his garden gnome and gives it to an air stewardess friend. The stewardess takes it around the world and sends back pictures of the garden gnome in different, famous, places.<\/p>\n

\"TeddyAngkorVat\"<\/a>Teddy was better than a garden gnome. He joined all my travels and I sent pictures of him to M. and the rest of my travel group. I took Teddy to Rio de Janeiro; \u00a0he got drunk there on my 40th<\/sup> birthday, I took him sailing down the Mekong, from Thailand to Laos, to visit the Ho Chi Min mummy in Hanoi, to Saigon, to the killing fields in Cambodia, and to the Angkor Wat ruins. I forgot to take him to Rome, last year, he was really mad, so I took him twice to NYC, and Miami Beach where he got more tanned than Gunther, a friend he made in Bangkok, at the gay beach.<\/p>\n

Teddy has now a Facebook page to let know all about his travels. And he\u2019s getting ready for Goa, in India, and Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan \u2026 and who knows where else. Security controls all over the world are used to Teddy\u2019s profile at the x-ray machine.<\/p>\n

I thank M. every time Teddy pops from my bag in some faraway place, I start laughing. I\u2019m glad I followed M. to his room that morning in Roatan\u2026 I\u2019ll never forget that moment.<\/p>\n

Cristina Gar\u00e7\u00e3o<\/a> \u200eis a Portuguese journalist. She lives with Teddy<\/a> in Lisbon.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Why I like this story: I’ve traveled with Teddy! I held him up in front of the\u00a0 dancers at Angkor Wat so he could have his picture taken. Little bear is better traveled than I am, and he never complains.
\n<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019ve got something for your protection\u201d, M. told me. \u201cCome to my room\u2026 \u201c I eyed him skeptically. But hey, following a guy to his room\u2026 I was under a dark sky, early, early morning in Roatan, an island off the Caribbean coastline of Honduras. \u201cPor que n\u00e3o?\u201d (Why not?). I was wondering if I … <\/p>\n


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