My backup battery died in the middle of a 12 hour bus ride in Peru

I was riding from Cusco to Lima on a Cruz del Sur bus last month. I had all my devices charged up and a portable battery pack ready to go. About 6 hours in, my phone died and I reached for the battery pack. It was completely dead too. I hadn't tested it before leaving and the charger port must have gotten loose in my bag. The bus had no outlets and I was stuck staring out a window for the next 6 hours. I ended up reading a crumpled travel guide I found in the seat pocket. Has anyone else had a backup plan totally fail on a long trip? What do you use instead of relying on one power source?

2 comments

2 Comments

graydavis1mo ago

Oh man have I been there. Had a power bank die on me in the middle of nowhere in Vietnam and learned the hard way. Now I always carry two smaller battery packs instead of one big one, that way if one fails I still got a backup. Also gotta make sure you test the charger port before you leave, not just assume it works. For long bus rides I'll bring a paperback book too, or even download some podcasts onto my phone since even a dead battery can still play audio if you save some juice.

wadem891mo ago

Man that stinks. I actually had the opposite problem - my backup battery worked fine but I forgot my charging cable in a hostel in Bolivia. So I had a full battery and nothing to plug into it. That was a long 8 hour ride across the salt flats just holding a useless brick. Now I keep a spare cable in my backpack lining at all times, and I also carry one of those tiny multi-cable things that has every tip on it. The real trick nobody talks about is bringing a simple pad of paper and a pen. You can journal, draw, play tic-tac-toe with a stranger, or make a list of everything you ate that week. Way less stressful than worrying about electronics.