A shit day in Lima

Well, we've had it so good all this time, bad luck was bound to catch up with us at some point. It finally did today when someone broke into our lockers while we were having breakfast.

Sal and I were waking back down to our room and I could see the door slightly ajar and the stuff from my daysack spread all over my bed. It took me a second to register why it was there and why my SLR camera and purse were missing.

I ran straight upstairs to the reception to report it, and when a staff member came to look with me, Sal told us that her whole day sack and small handbag had been lifted out of her locker too. A third locker was also broken in to, though we still don't know who it belongs to.

It looked like they had smashed and grabbed Sal's stuff, tried to break into Ciaran's locker and not been able to, and then broken into mine.

The management at the hostel went through their CCTV tapes and we could see where the guy had come in, when he had left with the stuff and him getting into a taxi outside, after he left.

You have to be buzzed in the front door of the hostel, and there's usually a security guard, but coincidentally the security guard had quit the day earlier.

The guy who robbed us looked about our age, maybe younger. He had either been to the hostel or had some inside knowledge, as he knew exactly where to go - on the videos he headed through the reception straight downstairs to where our room was, which is downstairs and away from the reception. You can see him trying other doors, and even going in to our room before backing out when he saw a couple in there. He waited around until they left, slipped in the door of our room, and then you see him leaving with his rucksack considerably heavier and fuller than it was when he entered the building. He must have had some heavy duty tool on him, as my padlock was quite thick, and he managed to bend it open.

Argh! It's so frustrating! We locked our stuff away, you do that because you expect it to be safe, but even locked away it wasn't! It's just such bad luck. And Sal had her whole bag stolen! So now she has no passport, no cards, no money, no keys, no kindle fire, no iPod. Luckily she was using her phone at breakfast, as was I my tablet, but all her other valuables are gone. You also think, 'if I had just gone back to the room 20 minutes earlier', but luck just wasn't on our side.

The hostel gave us all the CCTV recordings but the police weren't interested. We spent over an hour there while they wrote up the report for us, mainly needed for insurance purposes, but that was all they intended to do. When we got out of the police station we headed straight to the British Embassy, as we're due to fly to Cusco tomorrow morning, and Sal needs a replacement passport. But guess what? The British Embassy only opens 8am to 12pm Monday to Thursday. A 16 hour working week, how nice for those embassy employees.

So, Sal is now on a 22 hour bus to Cusco, so that we can all still make it to Cusco in time to start our trek on Monday. We went to Peruvian airlines but they said that Sal can't fly without a passport, nor with a copy of it. There was more stress when the bus company said they needed her passport to make the booking, but luckily they accepted a photocopy. Ciaran and I are taking the flights in the morning, as we won't get them refunded on our insurance, because we both have our passports.

This absolutely stinks, what a horrible start to our trip with Sal. We'll have to stay in Peru now, instead of going on to Bolivia, but we'll make the best of it.