And then there were three

It was a rocky road to Foz do Iguaçu. The original plan was for ten of us to sleep in the hostel Friday night; three slept there. It doesn't take an auditor to understand those are not good numbers.

The cast of starcrossed travelers:

• Me and Laura- my partner in crime here is Sao Paulo
• Erik and Johanna- also in Sao Paulo and in consulting
• Danny Burns- Curitiba intern and college friend
• Emily Rong- Campinas intern
• Anika, Raheem, Will, and Ellen- Rio interns

The drama started around 1:30 pm on Friday when I received a call from Johanna, who was flying out to Foz do Iguaçu with Erik around that time. I was busy talking to my senior manager so I just ignored the call and texted her. That is when she texted back "We can't go to the falls." Naturally I get a little worried. Was it "we" like her and Erik or "we" like the ten of us? After I got done talking with Fernando, my senior manager and mentor, I called up Johanna and she informed me that after arriving at the airport in Sao Paulo named Congonhas she realized that her and Erik's flight left from Campinas airport. Whoops. They decided the best option from that point was to go to Rio for the weekend instead.

We were down to eight.

Everyone was supposed to meet at the airport in Foz do Iguaçu around 1:20 am late Friday night. Laura and I were on the plane with the Rio interns and as we are departing the plane and going through the airport I see Danny talking with one of the airport people. You never talk with an airline person about something positive, only if you've missed a flight or lost luggage. In this case, we lost a person. Apparently Emily has missed her connecting filght, flew to some other Brazilian city, and is in the process of taking a six hour bus to Foz do Iguaçu. To top it all off, we get this information from the airline and Danny can't reach her. Right as I walk up to Danny she calls and we give her the hotel information so she can meet us there in the morning (if she isn't kidnapped or lost by then).

We were down to seven.

Outside the airport we divide into two taxis to go over the border to the hostel we are staying at in Argentina. Laura, Danny, and I go in one taxi while the Rio interns go in another. We pass through the border no problem, arrive at the hostel and check in, and then begin to try and get ahold of Emily again. Making phone calls was a huge problem because we all had Brazilian cell phones but were in Argentina so the calls weren't going through.

At this point we can't get a hold of Emily, who called us from a stranger's phone later that morning around 5 am, and the Rio kids have not arrived at the hostel yet and we arrived over 30 mins ago. Just when we are starting to get extremely worried and about to call the American consulate we then get a call from Raheem, who only has time to say "We have a big problem. Anika can't go across the border" before his phone dies. Yes, this is a big problem.

Anika is from Bangladesh and therefore needed a visa to get into Argentina, which we didn't know. So here we are, 2 am, in Argentina, and we have basically no way of communicating or helping anyone.

We were down to three.

We were planning on just leaving a note at the front desk telling Emily where to meet us in the park around lunchtime but as luck would have it, she started knocking on the hostel door about 15 minutes before we were about to leave. I answered the door and she just let out a huge sigh after being in transit all night. We were back up to four, but for the rest of Saturday it would be just us because the Rio interns ended up staying in Brazil with Anika and exploring the Brazilian side of the park.

There you have it. I don't know if it is more like The Oddessey or a horror film but we none of us were sold into white slavery so I call it a good day.