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We were finally on our last leg of the journey between Ecuador and Peru and spent the night in a little border town filled with dusts and mosquitoes. We needed some cash, Peruvian money called sols, and asked one of the men selling money.

I was so confused! The man had a calculator, but we couldn't figure out how much Ecuador money was for Peruvian money. Yet, he seemed a little strange. He was overly excited to sell us money. Finally, we negotiated a rate and I was just happy to have a pocketful of Peruvian money and be on my way to the border.

We hopped in a cab, and it dropped us off at the train station. Yet when we tried to pay, the cabbie said "falso." The money was counterfeit! Nothing but a bunch of bad phonies. We had been robbed again! Instead of a pocketful of money, I had a pocketful of ashes!

Shawn