BootsnAll Travel Network



Adios Peru!

I’m pretty sure I now hold the honor of being the first person to ever have listened to Archer Prewitt on Lake Titicaca. That was how I intended to start out my next blog entry, when I still owned my iPod. Instead it starts out like this…

What do you do for a family who takes you in to their home in a strange country when you’ve been robbed of (almost) everything you own? By everything I mean money, passport, credit cards, even your sunglasses. I’m really asking because this is what happened to me 30 minutes after I arrived in Lima. Comments are VERY welcome on this subject.

Maybe I was asking for it the way I named my blog.

I met my airport pickup at baggage claim. I asked him for the name of the hotel he represented, checked his ID to make sure he wasn’t some random person and got in the cab. We were riding along talking about Fujimori and how Lima is actually a safe city. Then, stopped at a red light, a man approached my window and tapped. He broke the window out with his fist and grabbed my backpack out of my lap. I was actually holding it – it wasn’t on the seat beside me or anything. I tried to hold on, but its hard when you’re covered in glass and don’t want to cut your arms to shreads. TRAVLERS BEWARE. This is apparently not uncommon. When I went to the embassy the next day and told them I was robbed leaving the airport, they immediately guessed what happened. Put your bags under the seat or under your feet and sit in the front next to the driver. If I would have had this information, I would have just arrived home from Rio and would have had an excellent tan. Instead, I came home early and ate a Milky Way for dinner because I couldn’t afford a real meal.

I’ve been poor before. The middle class American version of poor, which means I lived off Ramen noodles and tortillas with butter. Its a whole different poor to live off someone’s charity and not even own a toothbrush. Sadly, its an even worse poor that causes crimes like this to happen. I can’t imagine being in a place in life where causing another person that much grief is justified by my own circumstances. I’m not saying I’m not REALLY angry. I’ve been looking for a mercinary to go take care of that guy :). I’m also a little mad at the cab driver because he didn’t do anything. I know he felt bad though, you could see it.

I do know that if Ursula, Stephanie, Sophia, Johnathan, Roberta or Miguel ever need a kidney then I have a spare. If it weren’t for those people, I would have been camped out outside of the embassy waiting for them to open the next day. I was left with only 11 soles. I stayed in their home, they fed me, they provided me with an escort to run my errands (embassy, re-issue travlers checks, change plane ticket, etc.), provided an armed guard back to the airport (the husband was packing), took me on a tour of the city, and even gave me $20.00 to make it back to the States on. And they wont let me repay them. The only thing I can think of to give them are St. Christophers (the patron saint of travelers). They were my saints while I was there. I will never forget what they taught me.

I regret not being able to continue my trip. But it was just stuff, and I probably learned more about human kindness in 3 days than I ever would have in the rest of my life.

I thought for about an hour that I was finished with traveling, especially by myself. But if I did that, that would mean the bad guy wins. I’m not a stupid girl, I’m really pretty cautious. It was just lack of information. I hope this prevents someone else from dealing with the same thing. I don’t want to discourage anyone from visiting Lima. It really did seem like an amazing city. Just do your homework first.

Anyway, this is my last entry. Happy Travels to all! Next year I’m off to Australia where I probably wont look like such a tourist. That should help.



Tags:

One response to “Adios Peru!”

  1. Alison says:

    Hi,
    I just found your post about getting robbed in Lima. I’m leaving for Lima on Saturday and now I’m scared! Our flight gets there at almost midnight and we are only at our hotel until 6:45 the next morning before going back to the airport for a flight to Cusco.

    Thanks to your post my husband and I will be very careful on the trips to and from the airport!

    Alison

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *