agustina prigoshin

I got to see a part of El Calafate that not a lot of people see: the police room in the back of the city’s tiny airport.

When we went to the counter to check in for our flight, we were asked for our passports and that’s when the room temperature soared to a near 130 degrees. I couldn’t find my passport.

It wasn’t only my passport, it my little case where I carry all my documents and in this case, my brothers’ passport too! My passport, my DNI (Argentinean ID), my green card, my drivers license and my brothers’ passport, everything that said that I’m Agustina Prigoshin!

The case was no where to be found. At that time, I had no identity.

I flipped my purse upside down, which is where I usually carry it and it didn’t come out. I opened my suitcase and took everything out, it wasn’t in there either.

A man behind the counter told me that I couldn’t board the plane without my passport and that’s where things got loud. After telling him that I paid for that plane ticket and WILL be on that plane, he suggested I go to the police and file a lost document report that will grant me access to board the plane.

Stupid man! Had he told me to go to the police first instead of telling me that I wouldn’t be able to board, there wouldn’t have been any hostility.

Anyhow, I fought back my urge to just sit on the floor and cry in panic and went to the police room behind the baggage claim.

I was in a room with five police officers all dressed like soldiers and I felt like a bad-ass. I felt like from the outside it looked like I was stone hard killer with no remorse, not a panicked woman on the verge of tears after losing her passport.

The police officers kindly filled out my paperwork while asking me questions in the hopes of figuring out where my document case could be.

I told them that I didn’t remember seeing it since I left Ushuaia on Sunday. I wasn’t asked for my passport when I checked in to board my flight to El Calafate and in Ushuaia, we switched hotel rooms after the first day because the wifi wasn’t working. So maybe I left it in the safe in the first room in Ushuaia…

I also explained that my ride to the airport in El Calafate had gotten to the hotel without telling me what time to expect them, so when the front desk called to let me know that my ride was waiting, I hurriedly closed my suitcase and ran out.

The police officer told me to start by calling the El Calafate hotel.

I called and was told that my case had been found! I told the man on the phone that my flight was leaving in 30 minutes and I’ll pay for a taxi to rush it over to the airport.

Luckily, my flight was a little delayed.

Within 20 minutes, a taxi pulled up and one of the hotel employees who I had spoken to many times while in El Calafate popped out with my case in hand. It turns out that he went into the room when we left to make sure we took everything and in the safe, propped up against the side, out of sight, was my case.

I’m eternally grateful to the hotel employee from Hotel Xelena and the airport police who were very kind and helped me out.

It’s not that big of a deal because I could’ve gotten temporary documents once I got back to Buenos Aires, but I really didn’t want to spend the rest of my vacation in the Argentinean police station waiting for a new passport and then the American Embassy so that I can get permission to come back home.

With my document case in hand, I was the happiest person to be boarding that plane. Even the police at the security check point noticed my grin.