Our good travel luck came to an end in Buenos Aires. Michael’s red backpack was stolen while we were in the lobby checking into our hostel. As improbable as it might sound, we were on the second floor through a door with a security buzzer. While our attention was focused on the check-in process, a couple was buzzed in to ask about room availability, a third person came in and backed out with Mike’s backpack. We only realized it was gone when we were being shown to our room. This turned into a good news, bad news story that consumed our first couple of days in Buenos Aires.

The good news is that the hostel had the lobby on video camera. It was only as we watched the video that we realized what happened with the guy at the door taking a couple of steps in and then backing out with the bag. When we realized what had happen we were so mad (mostly at ourselves) and felt stupid. But once we saw how sneaky the thieves were, we felt better. The bad news is that even though we saw them on video, they were long gone.

The good news is that we would be able to use the travel insurance we purchased. The bad news is that we spent several hours at the police station getting the required police report. Upon finally finding the police station and finding someone who spoke a little English we were told to come back in one hour to talk to an officer from the Tourist Police who speaks English. When we went back they said it would be another hour or tomorrow. Since we had walked twelve blocks to get there we waited. When the officer arrived, he was very nice and took our statement. He worked with the clerk to have it typed up on a computer from the 1980s. It took forever with the translating and need for additional details. Additionally, we discovered that there is much paperwork involved in getting reimbursed by the insurance company. I am still working on that.

The good news is that we only lost clothes and shoes. Luckily we were carrying our valuables in our day packs. The bad news is Mike lost all of his clothes except what he had on. One thing that made us smile is that as we were packing to leave the ship we put all of the dirty clothes in Mike’s bag. So when the thieves opened the bag, they were greeted with a couple of pairs of shoes and a big pile of dirty clothes. The only thing they might have been interested in was Mike’s new Swiss Army knife.

The good news is that we were in Buenos Aires which is known for its shopping and malls so there was an overwhelming choice of clothing. The bad news is that Buenos Aires is quite expensive and we spent the first two days there wandering the streets and malls before we finally found the street with the outlet stores.

The good news is that we only lost the backpack and clothes. Michael is happy because we got rid of some things he was tired of carrying and it has considerably lightened our load. The bad news is that it was a great backpack (see the 2014 posts on picking just the right backpack). Michael had been collecting flag patches from each of the countries we visited and spent much of his free time on the ship stitching his fifteen flags to the outside of his backpack.

We learned a fairly cheap, very valuable lesson about how fast theft can happen.

Initially, it was hard not to have the theft color our attitude toward Buenos Aires but after a couple of days (once Mike had some new clothes) we were able to shake it off and enjoy our time there.