I was robbed.

I’m currently in Rio Gallegos after a 36+ hour bus ride from Buenos Aires. I told my dad it reminds me of Barstow, California, and I was happy about that. If you’ve ever been to Barstow, you know it’s nothing to be happy about. But this town has 79,000 people in it (according to Chris’ guide book) and the last two cities we’ve been in have had 12 million each. So it’s just nice to be somewhere smaller and the old downtown has wide sidewalks and funky stores and the people are nice. And it reminds me of Barstow because it’s dusty, ugly, kind of dirty, but not nearly as hot… which is good.

Anyway, I was robbed at the bus station in Buenos Aires about 10 minutes before our bus left. The buses are not assigned a platform and you are given 10 platforms to watch for your bus. We were given platforms 4 through 14 to watch for our bus. When your bus arrives, you need to check your bags and find you seat ASAP, as the bus tries to leave 10 minutes after it arrives. Combine that with not knowing much Spanish things can get busy and stressful.

Chris sent me out to find our bus and while I was gone, he was approached by a guy who told him he had a bunch of stains and gunk all over his back (well, the guy motioned this as he spoke no English). When I came back, there was a lot of activity; the guy was handing me toilet paper pieces to clean up Chris, pointing at the ceiling to indicate the stuff was dripping from up there, and diverting our attention while his buddy grabbed my smaller travel backpack. I’ve read about this scam countless times and realized about 40 seconds too late that it was happening to us. I am usually SO careful and the fact that I was taken on this stupid scam makes me so sick and angry at the same time.

When I realized the pack was gone, both guys were long gone and our bus was about ready to leave. The bus operators spoke little English, but managed to let me know that they’d leave me if I tried to go and file a police report. So I had 36+ plus hours on a bus to cry, think about what I’d done, and get angry.

We arrived to Rio Gallegos this morning and I started damage control as much as I could. I did not lose my passport, money (minus $40 US), or my credit cards or bank card, digital camera, or iPods. That was a good thing. The pack that was stolen was my daypack and filled with the things I needed for the immediate 36 hours on the bus: I lost clothes, a jacket, headphones, journals and books, a stuff sack, a down blanket, two pairs of expensive sunglasses, toiletries, pills, jewelry, etc. So I called USAA (whom I keep my renters insurance with) and claimed my items. I have a $500 deductible so I won’t see much back, but every bit helps. I still don’t have a police report (to get my money from the insurance folks), but I spoke with the federal police today, and I can either claim it sometime when/if I return to Buenos Aires, or claim that I lost everything in Rio Gallegos. Surprisingly, USAA is cool with the latter choice, so Chris and I will contact the local police here tomorrow and say I “lost” my backpack in Rio Gallegos.

I also put a credit fraud alert on my accounts through the three credit agencies. I don’t think they got my SSN# when they robbed me, but they got a file that contained photo copies of my passport and some medical information that may have had my SSN# in it so I wanted to be safe. I also changed all of my online passwords.

I hate that this happened and I hate that it makes me look at everyone with distrust now. This stuff happens all over the world, and it can happen to anyone, I guess I’m just mad that I let it happen to me.

Otherwise, we’re fine. We FINALLY have a clean hostel with a clean bathroom which is awesome. This town is nice and tomorrow night we fly to Ushuaia and will hopefully get a cruise to Antarctica. So things could be a whole lot worse. Chris’ daypack had his laptop, passport, credit cards, and all of his money in it. If any bag from our four had to be stolen, mine was the best. I don’t look forward to repurchasing certain things and I’m very upset I lost certain things (including all of my jewelry and my immunization card) but at least we’re safe and fine. I will have my new immunization card mailed to my parents who can send it to my friend who works at the US embassy in Paraguay. We'll be going there eventually and think that is the safest route for mail down here.

Next post will be much happier.

Ps – to Uncle Bruce, thanks for the beer fund money… we’ll be using it tonight!