By Mike Huber
Having a battle buddy in Colombia was great. Not just for company but for safety. Matt and I had met while backpacking through Asia and kept in touch as we both traveled throughout the world. In January, we coincidentally found ourselves being neighbors in Medellin, Colombia.
For almost three months we would hang out a few times every week. Usually just getting some beers and people watching around our neighborhood. There is never a shortage of sights to see in this city (see my previous blog and the photos here). At the end of each night, we would always text to let the other know we made it home safe without missing a kidney or being kidnapped. The tradition of checking in with each other continued even when my travels brought me to my next destination, Ecuador.
Matt informed me a few Sundays ago he had a date and would catch up via text after the date. I never received a text that night. OK, I thought he probably fell asleep as he starts work quite early on weekdays. He is a lead project manager for a communications company in the United States. One of the things Matt and I clicked on is he has been working remotely for 5 years, and during that time he traveled most of the planet while his company thought he was based in Seattle. Of course, from my previous life working remotely and doing the same, I totally dug his perspective on that.
As Monday came and went still with no word from him, I decided to reach out to one of our mutual friends who was also in Medellin. She returned my text quickly. She had found him unconscious in his apartment Monday morning. He was in pretty bad shape. She managed to have a doctor come to the apartment and administer an IV and look him over. Outside waiting for the drug to work, there wasn’t too much that could be done.
It took four days before Matt was able to walk without falling, and his speech was still slurred by the time I was able to speak with him on Thursday. His laptop, phone, and credit cards had all been stolen. What’s worse, they got him to unlock all his bank accounts and those were drained.
Being a solo traveler myself I had to find a way to help him. Fortunately, they had left his passport. With no phone there was no way to PayPal him money, but with his passport I would be able to Western Union him some cash to at least give him some reprieve financially as he slowly began to untangle the mess. This was a mess that that would continue to spiral in ways neither of us could even imagine.