Today, I thwarted a robbery attempt.
So far, all the things that I thought would never happen to me in this journey has happened to me. Some of those things are good: I never expected to have such a rich interaction with the people here as well as the backpackers I’ve met. I never expected to come across such a beautiful environment. I never expected to be understood as well as I am now, although my Spanish has been somewhat getting better over time.
But there are, obviously, the bad: I never expected to get robbed, as I did in Panama. I never expected to get laughed at by the police after being robbed. I never expected to thwart a robbery attempt, as I just did in Cuzco, Peru. I never expected to have to call the embassy. I never expected to have to use my second set of ATM card and credit card. I never expected to have to have money wire transferred via Western Union. I never expected to have so many car problems, and it actually stalling on me. I never expected to be this cold already. I never expected to drive above 12000 feet. I never expected to get sick and stay sick for over 10 days. I never expected to break my camera and spend the next 10 days trying to buy one. I never expected to have to bribe the cops. Twice. I never expected to be this stressed out about the journey.
But I also never expected to actually make it this far. But the greedy me wants to make it farther.
So about the robbery attempt. I woke up today to the hostal owners working outside. The window doesn’t do a great job of sealing out any noise. I went to use the internet and keep up a bit. I went immediately then to Plaza de las Armas, where I could hear some music being played. It was the military band playing as a parade went marching by the Plaza, in front of the main Cathedral. This went on as the band kept playing the same song for about an hour or so. I then went down to the actual Plaza itself, watching some sort of a religious ceremony with the Virgin Mary being carried around. I was just innocently watching the parade and turned around to this short dude that was way too close to me. I immediately get the wrong vibe and for some reason decide to make sure that my camera is still in my jacket pocket and notice that my camera is gone. I notice this guy isn’t moving and is holding this plastic bag with two hands. For whatever reason, I decide to reach under it, and bam, there it was, my camera! Yes, my expensive camera that I bought at Panama to replace my other broken, expensive camera. He has this sly smile on his face, and says something, “chi, chi,” or something, I’m not sure what exactly. But he’s pointing to the floor, and I assume this guy is trying to say it fell on the floor or something. Yeah, whatever… it fell on the floor and you picked it up and was trying to hand it over to me by hiding it under a grocery bag, and it still works perfectly. I’m about to kick his ass, but he quietly walks into the crowd, and I don’t want to make a scene. I quickly remember something I read in my Footprint’s guide: “a friendly attitude on your part, smiling even when you’ve thwarted a thief’s attempt, can help you out of trouble.” It was hard, just watching this bastard disappear into the crowds, knowing he’s going to try and rob someone else. Who knows, that grocery bag was probably full of items he stole from other people. But if I did make a scene on this Sunday, they may have believed him and not the English speaking ‘Chinese’ me and arrested me for kicking his ass. Jeez, I’m so sick of corruption. But how I recovered the camera by acting upon pure reaction and intuition was very surreal.
I bought a ticket to the main Cathedral at the plaza. I was thinking about skipping it, because no one else was going in for whatever reason and I was just so worried about other things. But it was a good move to go in. The Cathedral of Cuzco is one of the most, if not the most, impressive Cathedral I’ve ever been to. And yes, I’ve been to Notre Dame. But that one doesn’t match the interior design of the Cathedral here. Too bad I wasn’t allowed to take pictures, though. There are several signs both outside and inside the Cathedral that prohibit both photography as well as video, with or without flash.
I spend most of my day just thinking about my car and trying to diagnose potential problems with my car by reading up on forums and such online. It’s not too great of a help, but I feel like I have eliminated some problems, including the possibility of a cracked engine gasket. I need to check up on the radiator and the alternator tomorrow.