After putting my travel companions in a taxi for the airport and getting a few more hours of sleep I set out for Juayua. 3 buses and several hours later I made it to a gorgeous hostel with the most beautiful courtyard. Yet as pleasant as it was to sit around in the garden, I decided that I should better go see the town and whatever else there may have been in the vicinity. One such place was a set of waterfalls described in the guidebook as being a short 2km hike from the city center.
Not possessing a map I inquired with Maria, the lady at the hostel, how best to get there and which she emphatically stated that I should not go on my own but rather take a guide. She pointed me to a printed piece of paper which included a description of the falls and stated that guides were recommended as there had been assaults at the falls in the past. I decided to head into town and see what came of it. Almost all places in El Salvador seem to have a reputation of being dangerous and avoidable and so far nothing had stopped us from visiting them.
Having wandered around the tiny village square and spotted signs for the falls I decided to give them a go. The path first took some of the city streets, then turned to a gravel road leading between some smaller houses and plantations. Eventually there were only plantations surrounding me as I descended towards a little river and a bridge crossing it. Figuring that the waterfalls had to be on this stream and seeing a path leading alongside it, I decided to turn off the main road and follow the trail.
This, along with not listening to Maria, was probably my biggest mistake. Having stopped at the stream I thought I heard voices behind me and looked around. I may have seen some people walking by above on a trail, however, out of the corner of my eye something else caught my attention. I saw a man approaching wearing a bandana over his face, a hat and carrying a big machete. At first I thought that he was heading off to cut something in the fields, but the bandana over the face did not fit that scenario. I quickly realized that what I had assumed to be local exaggeration was in fact reality and was happening to me.
I had with me my camera with my new lens, a spare wide angle lens, my credit card, bank card and some cash. For those who know me, my camera is my baby and anything happening to it has been my biggest worry and worst nightmare. My damage/theft insurance isn’t even enough to cover it.
When I saw the man I started running and screaming for help. I ran through the river. However, before I could get to the main road he caught up to me and tried to pull off my camera but because it was strapped around my neck and shoulder, he could not yank it off. I struggling fighting with him and realized that his machete was not sharp. I started bagging for him to leave my camera. In the few words of Spanish that came to mind I told him I would give him all my money. He seemed to agree and I handed him the little case I had been using as a wallet. He put it in his pocket and kept on insisting to get my camera. Just as he put the little wallet away, I realized that it contained my bank and credit cards. I tried to communicate to him that it had my bank card in there and for him to give that back that he could keep the money. To my great surprise he pulled it out of his pocket, handed it back to me and let me pull out the cash and just give that to him.
At that point he still kept on struggling for my camera. I began to detach my memory card and lens hoping that maybe he’d be satisfied with just one piece of equipment. In the struggle and with the knowledge that the machete wasn’t sharp, I managed to grab hold of its handle and continued wrestling with my attacker (he was about 20 years old, quite scrawny and not very strong). Eventually he chucked my lens into the bushes, pointed for me to get it and to let go of the machete, to be quite and he ran off.
I do not think he expected me to fight back. He looked more scared than I, especially once I started grappling with him. In the end, my own stupidity cost me a $3 pair of sunglasses that I had bought in Masaya and had grown to like and the bit of cash I had on me. In exchange I walked away unhurt, still in possession of my camera, my lens and my bank and credit cards and with quite the story to tell.
Apparently I was only 5 minutes away from the waterfalls which were supposed to be quite picturesque. Regardless of this episode, I still very much enjoyed Juayua, consider the people of El Salvador to be incredibly nice, helpful and hospitable and the country to be generally quite safe. If anyone were planning a trip to the region I would have no hesitation in recommending El Salvador. Situations like I got into can just as easily happen in London, Paris or Vancouver.
I can now say that I’ve been the victim of two incompetent and relatively unsuccessful robberies and have been able to laugh at both after the fact. (The first was in 2003 in Pamplona where the robber decided to sit down on a lawn 50 meters away from us and go through our bag that he managed to steal from us as we slept. Had he kept on walking we would not have gotten any of our belonging back. However, having woken up and spotted him, we managed to recover everything with the exception of some jewelry.) Knock on wood, I will never again be in a similar situation, but if it were ever to happen again, lets hope that the robbers are equally incompetent.
No comments:
Post a Comment