Chile | Careful with day sack on busesFenella Redding | 09 Apr 2018

We were travelling on an overnight bus from Sucre to San Pedro de Atacama and when I got on the bus I stupidly took off my money belt to sleep. Halfway through the journey we stopped at a terminal so the bus could fill up on petrol. Milly and I didn´t know where we were so I left my daysack on my seat and left the bus to ask the dirver. I had left the bus for about a minute and I was standing next to the door but in that split second someone had stolen my daysack as when I went back to my seat it wasn´t there. My rucksack had my money belt which contained my passport and my wallet, I also had my go pro, kindle, drivers license, washbag and important medication. For some reason I thought that all my valubles would be safer in my rucksack which would be on me but obviously that didn´t happen. Usually its safer to keep valubles in your main bag as most buses have good security.

We then had a nightmare next few days. We carried on our journey and when we arrived in San Pedro I immediately called the number of the Worldwide Embassy that Charlie had given us. The next day was stressful but thankfully I managed to book an apointment with the British Embassy for the day after and they sent me an email to print out so that I could fly witout idenity. I also used my photocopy of my passport and Id which was so useful and a must when travelling. The Embassy was so helpful and I managed to get my emergency passport 2 days after the incident which meant we could carry on our travelling without much delay. Basically when travelling around ALWAYS keep your passport on you or in your money belt and NEVER take it off unless its locked away safetly.