2014 - Page 7 of 11 - LIVING THE DREAM

How to Get an Emergency Passport While Abroad

If you found this article via a search engine, then you probably lost your passport or, if you are like us, had your passport stolen. Since no one can go back in time fix it, there is only one thing to do and that is head to an Embassy and get a new one.

But what if you cannot wait the 10-15(+) business days for a full replacement passport to arrive? Well, the emergency passport is your answer.

Since there is hardly any information published online about getting an emergency passport, what they are, and how they work, we are publishing our experience to help those who may find themselves in a similar situation.

As most long-term travelers and nomads will say, it is only a matter of time before you are a victim of theft while traveling. No matter how skilled you are at keeping your gear safe and how cautious you are about protecting your valuables, one day someone will get the better of you.

After 550+ days of travel since 2008, being gone for almost a whole year on this trip, and visiting hundreds of cities in 62 countries, our day finally happened in Puno, Peru.

And we nearly lost everything.

Finally, we made it to the world's largest salt flats- the Uyuni Salt Flats in Bolivia! Our excitement could not be contained as we watched the sun rise over the vast plain of salt that is almost as large as some small European countries.

With only a few mountains off in the distance, and an endless field of salt at our feet, we finally understood why the Uyuni salt flats draws in so many visitors each year.

It is unlike any place we've ever visited.

Armed with our two Roaming Gnomes, a toy llama, and a bottle of Pisco, we were quite excited to get out into the middle of it all and take some hilarious forced perspective photos.

After starting, we quickly noticed an issue. Our photos were awful!

The clock was ticking on our time in the salt flats, and we had to figure out a solution fast.

When you travel around Chile, you will hear one expression in particular over and over again: “Valparaiso is the cultural capital of Chile.” Other than a few poor attempts to describe the meaning of this expression, with the most common being “all the artists go there,” you'll be left wondering what it truly means.

We were so intrigued by this expression that we decided to extend our stay in Chile to figure out why everyone has such a high opinion of a city we rarely hear about. It only took a few moments in Valparaiso to understand, and the city quickly rose to a spot in our Top 10 favorite cities anywhere in the world.

But the question we were so interested in still needed an answer. Why is Valparaiso considered to be a cultural highlight of Chile?

How to Get an Emergency Passport While Abroad

After 62 Countries, We Were Robbed While Traveling

How to Take Perspective Photos of the Bolivian Salt Flats

Valparaiso – What Makes It Chile’s Capital of Culture?