Recently, my girlfriend and I traveled to South America for five weeks. After a week in Patagonia, I arrived in Calama, northern Chile, where my camera bag was stolen at the bus terminal – just two minutes before departure and in less than five seconds. Despite tracking the bag with an AirTag, the Chilean police did nothing. The loss was shocking, and it took me weeks to come to terms with it.
What made it worse was that I had two photography bookings at the ***** Relais & Châteaux Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel and ***** Relais & Châteaux CIRQA in Arequipa. For two weeks, I desperately searched for a replacement camera in Chile, Bolivia, and Peru – without success. I informed the hotels, but instead of canceling, they offered unexpected support:
“We deeply regret what happened. We highly value your skill and agree to use your iPhone for photos and videos.”
Thanks to the trust of the hotels, I shot with my iPhone, and their feedback was overwhelmingly positive:
“Once again, we wanted to express our gratitude. Your images have beautifully captured the essence of the hotel.”