What next?

Thank you to family and friends that have expressed their concern and have offered help. The situation is not dire by any means. I have access to money and I have a roof over my head. Stolen property is replaceable and I have travel insurance. Unfortunately I look like missing out on joining Shirley in Lima, Peru. Everything depends on when the temporary travel papers arrive.

Considering my options I will decide what to do next in the next day or so. Busy couple of days ahead.


First thing was to get travel papers as replacement passports can take weeks. The closest Australian Embassy is in Mexico and the incident had to happen on a Friday night and of course embassies are closed on the weekends.


Monday morning first thing made contact the Australian Embassy in Mexico and temporary travel papers arranged. The process of getting the travel papers is not easy and involved me sending money via Western Union, getting photos that comply with Australia standards, getting forms filled in and notorised and organising a courier. In Australia that may be a simple enough task but here in Nicaragua that took all day. Just finding an internet service that also had printing facilities was a nightmare.

The hotel owner has been very helpful and concerned. Apparently the Nicaragua authorities see see the hotel owner as having responsibility to make his hotel and the vicinity of the hotel safe for his clients. He had to make a separate report to mine. His hotel is very small and reasonably new. He has a good business and does not want to lose it.

The local detectives turned up to see the foreign policeman who had been robbed. They enjoy drinking spirits and were on for a talk. Being from a third world country they of course were not going to buy the spirits and the gringo (me) supplied the grog. The local rum is about $4.00 USD a bottle so it was not a fortune. They assured me that they would do everything they could to recover the passports and property. They were very impressed with my bike and they all donned my helmet and jacket to pose for photographs.

Late into the night uniformed Migracion officers turned up and joined the party. They made token gestures about the passport but I think they were there to have a drink.

Hope that they are not all show and no substance.

The morning after the robbery I went for a walk into the shopping mall. A young man I met when I first arrived (prior to robbery) in Nicaragua approached me again and said that he was very sorry that I was robbed. The news had travelled fast - wonder what part he played?. I told him that the passports were my main concern and offered a reward for their return. An offer was made to exchange the SD flash memory cards for brnad new ones. Later that day he sought me out at the hotel and said he knew who had robbed me and he was going to try to recover the passports. The camera and flash memory could not be recovered because they had new owners. Late on the Sunday he turned up at the Hotel with bad news saying that the passports had been thrown into the rubbish and they could not be found.

Yesterday, Tuesday, he turned up again. One passport had been found and he wanted a reward and he set the figure of $16 USD. Both passports have been cancelled and are no longer valid and it is a criminal offence to use them. They cannot be un-cancelled. Wish they had been found on the weekend because $16 USD would have saved a lot of mucking about.