Thus far, Sam and I have had some bumps in the road with our travels, but nothing worthy of panic. That is until we reached the Cape Town airport. We were so close to making through all of Africa without any major incidents. Then, our wallets were stolen right out from under our noses.
We took a taxi to the airport from our hostel in Cape Town, The Cat and Moose. We made sure to be there more than two hours ahead of time because you never know what can hold you up. The line for Qatar Airways wasn't long and we went straight to the ticket counter. Sam had the backpacks full of all our important items (wallets, kindles, camera, etc), and took out our wallets to get our passports for check in. He then put the wallets back in and set the bag down on top of our big backpacks on the cart. There were only a few other people also checking in.
While checking in, we learned that since we left the States, Argentina started charging U.S. citizens a reciprocity fee that we were supposed to pay before getting to the airport. The attendant had us come around he corner to look at the requirements on his computer screen. We think that at this time, someone who had been watching us the whole time passed by our bags and took both our wallets. We had no idea at the time, though. Neither us, nor the attendent who checked us in, saw anything.
We unknowingly headed to pay the fee and then went through security and immigration. We didn't realize the wallets were missing until we tried to get them out to exchange our South African money. As soon as this happened, we raced back to security to get back to the check-in counter. They told us several times that our passports were stamped and we were not allowed to go back. We kept insisting and someone finally escorted us.
The attendent who checked us in was surprised to see us back. We couldn't find the wallets anywhere, so they called security to look at video playback. Security confirmed with the attendant that they saw a man take the wallets out of our bag, but without a formal police report, they would not tell which direction the man went. Since our flight was leaving only in a short hour, we only had time to file a police report for insurance purposes. There was no time for the police to get involved with security to know the details. He made away with a large amount of cash and also our ATM cards and U.S. IDs. Sam had taken our passports out just before and we each also had our credit cards on us, so those were saved.
We called our parents and our bank immediately. We ended up having to board the day long flight to Buenos Aires with only about $12 in South African Rand. We felt like a black cloud was hanging over us. For both of us, it was the first time we really just wanted to go home. We spent the first few days in Buenos Aires getting back on our feet, but we're ready to go again.
(Written February 3rd)
We took a taxi to the airport from our hostel in Cape Town, The Cat and Moose. We made sure to be there more than two hours ahead of time because you never know what can hold you up. The line for Qatar Airways wasn't long and we went straight to the ticket counter. Sam had the backpacks full of all our important items (wallets, kindles, camera, etc), and took out our wallets to get our passports for check in. He then put the wallets back in and set the bag down on top of our big backpacks on the cart. There were only a few other people also checking in.
While checking in, we learned that since we left the States, Argentina started charging U.S. citizens a reciprocity fee that we were supposed to pay before getting to the airport. The attendant had us come around he corner to look at the requirements on his computer screen. We think that at this time, someone who had been watching us the whole time passed by our bags and took both our wallets. We had no idea at the time, though. Neither us, nor the attendent who checked us in, saw anything.
We unknowingly headed to pay the fee and then went through security and immigration. We didn't realize the wallets were missing until we tried to get them out to exchange our South African money. As soon as this happened, we raced back to security to get back to the check-in counter. They told us several times that our passports were stamped and we were not allowed to go back. We kept insisting and someone finally escorted us.
The attendent who checked us in was surprised to see us back. We couldn't find the wallets anywhere, so they called security to look at video playback. Security confirmed with the attendant that they saw a man take the wallets out of our bag, but without a formal police report, they would not tell which direction the man went. Since our flight was leaving only in a short hour, we only had time to file a police report for insurance purposes. There was no time for the police to get involved with security to know the details. He made away with a large amount of cash and also our ATM cards and U.S. IDs. Sam had taken our passports out just before and we each also had our credit cards on us, so those were saved.
We called our parents and our bank immediately. We ended up having to board the day long flight to Buenos Aires with only about $12 in South African Rand. We felt like a black cloud was hanging over us. For both of us, it was the first time we really just wanted to go home. We spent the first few days in Buenos Aires getting back on our feet, but we're ready to go again.
(Written February 3rd)
Holy crap, guys! Glad you are safe at least. Hopefully, this doesn't put too big of a damper on your trip. On to the next continent! Keep your chins up and have a great time.
ReplyDeleteBrett