What a relief it is being out of the city! It’s not been the easiest my first two weeks in Quito, dealing with opening a bank account, getting my visa registered, back and forth back and forth, ¨Come back with your passport, no a copy won’t do we need the original.¨ The culture shock set in quite early for me when I was mugged midday my first day here. I decided I would walk from my hostel into the historical center of town. About a 25 minute walk. I packed up my backpack, including about 4 books that I had been reading because I didn’t know which one I’d want to read. I made it to the center and stopped for lunch. I decided I wanted to get back to my hostel a bit on the early side so I left the historical center pretty much right after lunch. I didn’t make it far. I was walking along a main, busy street when all of a sudden someone behind me sprayed me with a liquid on the back of my neck. I could feel it dripping down my back and shoulders. I didn’t know what it was until I smelled it. The smell of human shit enveloped the air around me. I looked around me for the source – not that I would have pursued coming into direct contact with him (or her). Now what? Would a taxista even let me into his car? I started to feel panicked.
A man on the street saw what had happened and offered me tissues to clean up. I asked him what it was on my back and he said, Es mierda. It’s shit. He said people had been doing this to tourists. He pointed across the street, saying I could go there to clean up. I didn’t see anywhere and asked him where. He told me to follow him across the street so I did. There was a big wall monument there and he said I could hide behind the wall to clean up. I said I wasn’t going behind the wall. I saw signs for public restrooms and thought I could use them but they were closed. I started to walk away saying I was going home. The man yelled to me saying, ¨Where are you going you have shit all over you.¨ He said, ¨Come here let me help you.¨ I was very upset at this point and turned around and went back. He took my backpack and put it on the ground by the wall. I didn’t feel good about it but I wasn’t actually thinking, and was hoping that he was honestly trying to be helpful. He started to wipe off my back and 5 seconds later I turned around to check that my bag was still there and it was gone. Everything seemed to start spinning and I thought I would pass out. One or two men nearby on the street yelled to me, ¨There he goes, there he goes!¨ I started running in the direction they were pointing, yelling for them to help me. I was in hysterics. I never saw anyone with my pack. Now I know he must have been behind the wall. The men in the street were involved in the scam as well. Then I ran into a store and asked the two women there if I could clean up in their restroom. As I changed my shirt and rinsed off my hair they went and got the police. Finally, the police gave me 2 dollars to get a taxi ride back to my hostel. And that was that.
Needless to say, I’m looking forward to getting to the jungle and out of the city. But it’s important to move on and not to let the experience bring me down. It happens and worse things happen to people every day. I’ve been trying to look at it as a good practice of detachment. It has, however, colored my feeling toward
A few days ago I left
Until next time – Hasta Pronto!
