“I’ve got something for your protection”, M. told me. “Come to my room… “
I eyed him skeptically. But hey, following a guy to his room… I was under a dark sky, early, early morning in Roatan, an island off the Caribbean coastline of Honduras. “Por que não?” (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… I didn’t know what. Then from the depths of his luggage he produced a little teddy bear, with a green t-shirt with two wooden buttons.
This was how Teddy first came to me. Teddy didn’t scream when leaving his father’s arms for the arms of his new mom. Maybe he was in shock! Certainly he had no idea where life was taking him.
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’s. One week before, I had arrived in Guatemala City with no bag. I waited and waited and waited. “Such slow services, even slower than in Lisbon”, I thought. My bag never came.
At the IBERIA counter, an old couple was complaining that their bag was also missing. Their daughter’s wedding dress – she was getting married the next day! – was in their luggage. I asked for an emergency kit or money for my immediate needs, thinking IBERIA would give me something – and something for the old couple. The answer? “Essas cosas solamente en Madrid.” (Those things only in Madrid).
I left the airport – with no luggage – and headed to Antigua to join my group and M. (Teddy’s 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.
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 – at any cost — and the get the damned bag myself.
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.
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’m sure the memory of Teddy and I still provokes terror.
A friend later pointed me a French movie called “Amelie Poulain”. A man is too passive to leave his garden. His daughter “kidnaps” 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.
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; he got drunk there on my 40th 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.
Teddy has now a Facebook page to let know all about his travels. And he’s getting ready for Goa, in India, and Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan … and who knows where else. Security controls all over the world are used to Teddy’s profile at the x-ray machine.
I thank M. every time Teddy pops from my bag in some faraway place, I start laughing. I’m glad I followed M. to his room that morning in Roatan… I’ll never forget that moment.
Cristina Garção is a Portuguese journalist. She lives with Teddy in Lisbon.
Why I like this story: I’ve traveled with Teddy! I held him up in front of the dancers at Angkor Wat so he could have his picture taken. Little bear is better traveled than I am, and he never complains.