Realizing You Lost Your Passport 24hrs Before Your International Flight…

The 24hrs before I left for Argentina were some of the most stressful of my life. After going through a 4 month process of getting my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certification, quitting my job at PepsiCo, and moving my stuff from Philadelphia to my parents house in North Carolina, I wasn’t sure that I was even going to make it out of the country. Before I left for Argentina, I did a 2 week road trip across country to visit my friends in Alabama, New Orleans and Dallas and I ended the trip at my parents ranch in Colorado. On the day before my flight, my friend asked if I had my passport as we were loading the car to drive to Denver. It was then that I realized that sometime during my road trip I had lost my passport. After a long drawn out process, which included overnighting my birth certification from North Carolina, I got my new passport 1hr and 30 min before my flight left! So for those of you who were wondering, it is possible to get your passport in the same day but I wouldn’t recommend it.

After a flight from Denver to Miami, followed by an overnight flight from Miami to Buenos Aires (with a 4 hour layover in Bolivia), and an overnight bus from Buenos Aires to Mendoza, I finally made it to my destination after 36 hours of traveling. For those who have not traveled in South America before, the overnight buses are actually a great option. The seats recline and there is a leg rest so they are actually pretty close to a bed. They ticket also includes dinner and breakfast (depending on the length of your trip) which is a great considering my ticket was only $43 from Buenos Aries to Mendoza and it took 15 hours. On my bus ride, there was a nice man who sat next to me. He spoke good English which was great since my Spanish is limited. While the talking was a nice way to pass the time during dinner, he then decided to offer me a “better time” if I was so inclined once the lights were turned out for sleeping haha. If he could’ve read my mind he would’ve know that I was not having any of that for many reasons including: 1) I had 2-3 hours of sleep the night before 2) I had been in the same clothes for 36hrs and felt disgusting and 3) that is just not something I do….For those who know me, you know that this is not the first time something like this has happened in my travels. When this happens I often wonder if this kind of stuff happens to other people or just me haha. If anyone has any funny stories like this from their travels I would love to hear them! More updates to come soon 🙂

Author: jordansjourneys92

Hi! My name is Jordan Gurkin and I am currently living in Steamboat Springs, CO after traveling around the U.S.(for 6 months) and South America (for a year). While in South America I lived in Argentina for 5 months and taught English and then I spent 6 months traveling through Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Bolivia, and Peru. I'm a blogger focused on bringing you budget travel advice, travel tips, storytelling and some of my recommendations on places to visit! View all posts by jordansjourneys92