The camera

Normally, the camera was kept in the left front pocket of my jeans. However, as we descended into the canyon, the temperature rose. That, and the physical exertion, meant that I needed to change out of jeans into my shorts.

At first, I tried the camera in the pocket of the shorts, but every step would cause it to slap heavily against my thigh.

My rucksack would be a potential location, but I was snapping so many pictures that it would have meant removing my rucksack as frequently as every twenty steps.

However, the rucksack's shoulder straps have space between the strap and the padding. Space enough to tuck the camera into.

For the next twenty four hours, every time I took off my rucksack, I would forget the camera was there, and without being pressed against me, the straps would go slack and the camera would fall out. Fall out and hit the ground.

As we neared the Oasis, our second pit stop in our hike through the Cañon del Colca, we crossed a bridge and some of the people in our group wanted their picture taken.

The bridge is rather narrow, and in order to get both them and some of the scenery into the same picture, I needed to lean back over the railing. Lean baaaaaacccck and snap the photo.

The railing, pressing against my rucksack, lifted it, slackening the straps, and right after the picture clicks, the camera slipped out of its nestle.

Turning my head downwards, I followed it onto the wall of the canyon, where it bounced off and into the river below.

!!!!!!!!!

Photographic evidence of the trip into the Cañon del Colca is on facebook in the folder named Cañon del Colca.