Alex & Lisa: UK to Buenos Aires

## The Setup

Alex and Lisa were only planning to be in Buenos Aires for one day - a 24-hour stop before catching a bus to Iguassu Falls. They arrived at Retiro bus terminal at 9am on a Sunday morning, exhausted after an overnight bus from Mendoza.

"There was a light drizzle. We pondered getting a taxi to the hostel, but decided to walk seeing as it was only half an hour away."

They emerged from the station and started walking along Plaza San Martín. It was busy. There were lots of people around. Their guard was completely down.

The Scam

"Alex, you've got bird shit all over your bag," Lisa suddenly exclaimed. Sure enough, there was a foul substance down the back of Alex's rucksack - and on Lisa's too. Alex looked up and saw they were beneath trees.

A woman immediately appeared, sympathetic and helpful. She'd "seen what happened." She fished out a bottle of water and tissues from her bag. Conveniently, they were next to a bus shelter where they could stop and clean up.

To get to their rucksacks, they had to remove their small day bags from their fronts. The moment they did, the woman grabbed Alex and spun him around to "help" Lisa - and in that brief moment when they weren't looking, somebody grabbed their day bags, ran to a taxi, and sped away.

The Loss

Everything was in those bags:

• Both passports
• Lisa's MacBook (with all travel photos)
• Both cameras
• All bank cards
• Yellow fever certificates (needed for future countries)
• Travel sketchbooks
• Artwork bought from street artists
• All remaining photo memory cards
• Jewelry from the Amazon
• "And plenty more"

"The worse thing is that they got my cigarettes," said Lisa, breaking their heartbroken silence. They both burst out laughing.

The Aftermath

A man tapped Alex on the shoulder pointing to where the bags had been. Alex chased down the road while someone else tried to get Lisa to go the opposite direction - they wanted the big rucksacks too. Lisa refused.

Police eventually arrived. One officer showed compassion. Another simply said, "You have to be careful in Buenos Aires." Not helpful.

At the police station, they waited 2.5 hours for a single A4 sheet - a report for insurance. They were then told to make their own way to their hostel. No escort, no help navigating.

The Recovery

The next day brought the embassy marathon. Options were grim: emergency travel documents (limited countries), 7-week wait for replacement passports, or fly home and sort it there (ruinously expensive).

They chose to wait it out. With photocopies of passports (which they'd thankfully kept separate) and an emergency credit card (also separate), they could travel within Argentina.

"We dealt with it in the only way we know how: we got totally, utterly, mesmerisingly drunk."

Replacing Everything

Argentina's import taxes made replacing electronics brutally expensive. A camera that cost £500-600 in the UK was £850+ in Buenos Aires. But they needed the mental boost, so they bought replacements anyway.

"Spending this much would mean we would need to significantly tighten our knuckles on the budget later on. But it would also mean we could truly begin to move on."

International shipping to Argentina proved nightmarishly bureaucratic. "I could write an article longer than this one describing the hoops we had to jump through."

The Lesson

"Make sure you have a photocopy of your passport and a spare bank card stashed away somewhere safe. We did, and it saved our trip."

Alex and Lisa eventually got their passports (in just one week, thanks to helpful friends back home), continued their travels through Brazil and Paraguay, and made it to their flight. But the experience left scars.

"We're still paranoid, nervous, and struggling to enjoy travelling as much as we were before. But every day we get stronger."

The Scam Warning

The "mustard scam" or "bird poop scam" is classic distraction theft. Someone squirts condiment on you from behind. An accomplice offers to help clean it off. You remove your bag to do so - and it disappears.

"If you spot that you are being targeted with a distraction theft, the best thing is to just walk on and ignore it. But once you're in a situation where you are actively being robbed or threatened, just let the stuff go. Your safety is more important than your things."