Bay Area couple Jamie Neal and Garrett Hand apparently disappeared while bike touring in Peru. They dropped off of the grid in late January. Friends and family began asking for help locating them. Turns out they were on a boat enjoying life.
Peruvian police made contact with Neal and her boyfriend, Garrett Hand, while the couple was traveling by boat on the Napo River. They were unaware of the commotion and that loved ones were worried about them.
“The couple was found on the Napo River at a place called Angoteros,” Miguel Antezana, communications director of the Foreign Commerce and Tourism Ministry in Peru, told the station. “There they talked to the police and were very surprised by all the questions. They finally asked, what’s going on and the police told them about all the worry, etc. and they were of course very surprised.”
Story in the Merc-News: Peruvian police locate missing Oakland couple on bicycle trip in South America. H/T Meli.
In other local news, officials consider the possibility of a hoax regarding reports of a family who abandoned their 29 foot sailboat in heavy seas last Friday 65 miles off of the Monterey Bay coast.