Two of my friends, David and Mark, asked me to create a website for them to post pictures and a few other random tidbits from a hike they were taking down in Latin America. I agreed, but since they weren't going to have internet access while they were gone anyway it was agreed that I could design it when they got back. I was busy with a couple other programming projects at the time and it's not that difficult to create a simple website after all.

That was back in the spring of 2007, and the hike was supposed to be about four or five weeks long. We expected at least a short phone call from Mark's uncle's house once they were ready to head back since his aunt and uncle were watching the car.

After a while of not hearing anything we were all getting a bit worried (especially my friends' parents -- you know how parents can be). Several phone calls and reports were made with the Peruvian government but nothing turned up. David's dad flew down, but still there wasn't anything to be found. A little longer still and we gave up hope of receiving a ransom note of any kind. It is generally well-known that guerrilla fighters are the main people hiding out in the jungles where David and Mark were hiking. They had known enough to be safe, we thought.

We finally got a phone call from David in the spring of 2008 -- a full year after the trip was supposed to be over. The story of what happened has piqued my interest so I've been trying to collect the details and put them in a proper order. This site is now my attempt to reconstruct what I've been told with time line help from a sketchy journal that Mark kept.