Mugged in La Paz
I have only just posted my entries for Bolivia (post-dated) and they are rather brief at present as I have been preoccupied this last week.
On Sunday morning, the day after returing from the Huayna Potosi climb, I left my hostal early in the morning (6am) when it was still dark, to walk the two blocks to the tour company where I was going to do a bike-ride down the "world's most dangerous road". I followed one young guy down a side street that was otherwise deserted and after about 10 yards I heard running steps coming from behind and then an arm wrapped around my throat. The guy in front of me turned around and grabbed me along with another 2 or maybe 3 guys that appeared from behind who together lifted me off my feet and carried me to the side of the road while I was being choked.
I passed out at some point and woke up face down on the cobblestones, minus my watch, my wallet, and my daypack with camera (and two weeks of photos) and a few other things. Fortunately, apart from a bruised neck and a grazed chin I was otherwise ok physically.
At that point I sprinted down to the office where I had some time to calm down, and decided to go ahead with the bike ride anyway (which was great by the way - 63km downhill along a precipice, but obviously I have no pictures).
To add insult to injury, the next morning while taking money out of my money-belt that had been in the hostal (El Solario) strong-box (along with my passport) I noticed that about $160 was missing, and soon discovered that at least 4 people had had money taken from their money-belts too. I think they suspect one guy who works there on Sunday nights but there is no proof. That night I talked to the owner about it and he offered me half of my money back (based just on my account of how much had been taken) and they moved the strong-box into a different office with more restricted access so hopefully that will prevent further problems. So I feel like I have had more than my share of bad luck this week.
Since then I have been dealing with getting a new bankcard, buying a new digital camera and memory card, a new daypack, hat, sunscreen, sunglasses, gloves, rainjacket and everything else I lost before I move on to Uyuni.
So I'm afraid there are no pictures from the islands in Lake Titicaca or my climb of Huayna Potosi, but I am still in pretty good spirits and looking forward to moving south.
On Sunday morning, the day after returing from the Huayna Potosi climb, I left my hostal early in the morning (6am) when it was still dark, to walk the two blocks to the tour company where I was going to do a bike-ride down the "world's most dangerous road". I followed one young guy down a side street that was otherwise deserted and after about 10 yards I heard running steps coming from behind and then an arm wrapped around my throat. The guy in front of me turned around and grabbed me along with another 2 or maybe 3 guys that appeared from behind who together lifted me off my feet and carried me to the side of the road while I was being choked.
I passed out at some point and woke up face down on the cobblestones, minus my watch, my wallet, and my daypack with camera (and two weeks of photos) and a few other things. Fortunately, apart from a bruised neck and a grazed chin I was otherwise ok physically.
At that point I sprinted down to the office where I had some time to calm down, and decided to go ahead with the bike ride anyway (which was great by the way - 63km downhill along a precipice, but obviously I have no pictures).
To add insult to injury, the next morning while taking money out of my money-belt that had been in the hostal (El Solario) strong-box (along with my passport) I noticed that about $160 was missing, and soon discovered that at least 4 people had had money taken from their money-belts too. I think they suspect one guy who works there on Sunday nights but there is no proof. That night I talked to the owner about it and he offered me half of my money back (based just on my account of how much had been taken) and they moved the strong-box into a different office with more restricted access so hopefully that will prevent further problems. So I feel like I have had more than my share of bad luck this week.
Since then I have been dealing with getting a new bankcard, buying a new digital camera and memory card, a new daypack, hat, sunscreen, sunglasses, gloves, rainjacket and everything else I lost before I move on to Uyuni.
So I'm afraid there are no pictures from the islands in Lake Titicaca or my climb of Huayna Potosi, but I am still in pretty good spirits and looking forward to moving south.
4 Comments:
How scary! Glad to hear you are ok and it hasn't ruined your experience.
Yikes!
Glad you're Okay.
Holy crap! Be careful, Michael ...
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