you know i have followed this story throughout and been gripped by it, but it has only recently occurred to me that as a Latin American Studies major i went on a field trip in 1977((i was a junior in college) to COLOMBIA (now granted colombia today is much much MUCH worse). i went from the U of Pittsburgh with a small group of students and a professor and a T.A. We stayed with families, did research for our individual projects (mine was on the political party system). we went out at night to clubs etc. My parents were the most overprotective people on the planet, i was NEVER allowed to do anything, and in retrospect, in light of this story, this could easily have happened to me. The worst thing that my father feared was that someone would plant dope on me on the flight home. The second time i went, i flew home completely alone, ahead of the group, changing planes in Medellin.
the whole thing sounds unthinkable to me now!
What 'babes in the woods' we were back then.
Now you're got ME thinking back to my niece going to Europe the year she graduated from Carolina; in all the excitement of the trip, I never once gave thought to ANY of this.
Not even when Drew and HowlinNephew took my mother (and her credit cards) for a long tour of Europe; I mean, I *know* Drew was out at bars, partying, and renting jetskis on the Riveria. Where was my mind?
And when HowlinNiece called from Switzerland to say that she was disappointed because it was overcast and she couldn't go parasailing, I was relieved, never realizing that what she did get to do, "canyoning," was ILLEGAL in the United States. What could I have been thinking?
I wonder what your parents would say today!