There are far worse places to be stuck than Belize. I mean Belize is an amazing place with extremely friendly people and there are lots of things to do and see. However, being stuck in Belize because you lost your passport is just not something an average person would plan for. I bring this topic up because half way through our most recent trip I came to the realization that I had lost or misplaced my passport. Normally, I am a very prepared person who has an idea of what to do for even the most unlikely events. Surprisingly, I was not prepared for this.
The whole passport problem started, or at least I thought started, when I removed all water sensitive items from a backpack we brought with us kayaking. The following day we had an early checkout from our hostel. We quickly packed and moved to our next reservation at a very nice airbnb in the middle of San Pedro. Normally when moving from one place to another while traveling I triple check to make sure I have important items, and for some reason this time I did not even check once for my passport. That night, right before going to bed I realized my passport was not with the other passports. I then proceeded to unpack every single item we brought, dug through every pocket of every bag, and still couldn’t find it. I figured it must be at the hostel, and that I would grab it in the morning before we head out for an eight hour sailing trip.
In the morning, I rushed over to the hostel to check if they had a 
passport turned in. They didn’t, but told me to check back later when the housekeeper was in. I was slightly panicked but figured, its probably still in the room, they will find it, and I will have it back after the sailing trip is over. Eight hours later, they still didn’t have it! At this point, I was very exhausted and was kind of starting to panic. On the way back to our airbnb, I stopped by the police station for good measure to see if the passport was dropped off, again no luck. I then started to do research on what to do if you lose your passport and the “what you need in case of losing a passport” instructions were even more discouraging. I did’t make any photocopies of my passport nor did I know my passport number, which is apparently somewhat important. At this point, I figured I would just go to bed and have a fresh start in the morning to deal with it.
The next day was our last full day in San Pedro. I woke up bright and 
early and headed straight back to the hostel for a third time to see if they had found it. This time they assured me that they did a thorough check and nothing was found. I then walked to the police station, again nothing turned in. I then went to meet a fellow named Kyle who worked for the US embassy and was living in San Pedro. He informed me the US embassy was in Belmopan, an hour a way from Belize City. Which wouldn’t be that bad if I was in Belize city, but I was in San Pedro, which is basically on an island northeast of Belize City. To compile the issue, by this time of day I couldn’t make it to the embassy before they closed, and the following day was a major holiday in Belize so everything would be closed. So basically this would leave me a little over a day to get everything resolved before needing to catch a flight back to the States.
At this point I came to the conclusion that nothing could be done at the moment. We all decided that we would just spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing and swimming. So we all headed back to our airbnb to grab our swimming gear. While we were grabbing our things, our friend Chris pointed out maybe the only positive of my situation, and that was that I “at least had my US drivers license.” This led me to rant, as I often do, about how “I am more responsible than this. I never even take important things out of my hotel room when I travel. I would never walk around with my drivers license or a passport for that matter. I even normally shove my passport in my bed in case someone is able to come in to our room when we are out and about.” Right then a light bulb turned on, and I was about 55% positive that I had slipped my passport between a bed slat and the mattress. So we rushed back over to the hostel, and I embarrassingly asked for a fourth time if we could check the room because I thought I knew where the passport was. They of course let me go look, and low and behold, the passport was shoved between the bed and a wooden slat.
So what could have been an even bigger headache, turned out to just be embarrassing. However, as a result of the experience I have learned a few helpful tips for traveling abroad.
- Make a photo copy of your passport.
- Print out a few copies and place them in several different pockets throughout your luggage.
- Email a digital copy to yourself or place a copy in a cloud storage that can be accessed remotely.
- At the very least know your passport number.
- Have an idea of where the the closest US Embassy is.
