We assumed that we would have a few weeks to explore the north of Peru so we booked a flight from Lima to Fort Lauderdale a few months ago on the cheap and nasty Spirit Airlines – we actually exhausted all of our time in Ecuador to spend time with my family so getting to Lima was merely a formality! This led us to having to make our way from Ecuador, across the border and down almost fifty percent of Peru’s coastline to Lima.
I went against Andrea’s wishes and reserved a bus from Tumbes, a border town in the north of Peru, to Lima, some twenty hours away. She preferred to take the hour or so flight from Piura, another city in the north of Peru, to Lima. The price difference was significant, so me being the TwoGoGlobal financial officer I chose the more reasonable option!
All I had left to plan was how to get from Cuenca, Ecuador, to Tumbes, where we were due to board the bus.This was easy – we take the 9pm Pullman Sucre bus directly to Huaquillas, where we change to the CIFA bus which would take us through the frontier and on to Tumbes, and all for $10 each. From what I read the bus to Huaquillas was seven hours, and with an hour or so into and out of immigration, and another hour to Tumbes, we should arrive in time for an early breakfast.
We actually arrived at 3.50am into the CIFA bus depot and were the only two getting off – most people continue on to the beach town of Mancora, something we definitely should have done but I had no idea we could get the Cruz del Sur bus from there. The lady at the depot informed us that we could get a ride to our hotel in the bus depot rickshaw, upon which she yelled for the driver to wake up. A brief exchange of words to get the price and Andrea and I were sitting in the open two seater cab attached to the back of a motorbike – if you’ve never seen a motorized rickshaw it’s made up of a motorcycle with the rear wheel removed, and in its place is almost a covered chariot, minus the doors. Anyone can see whoever and whatever is riding in this contraption!
Tumbes is rickshaw city
Our destination was Hotel B’liam, a new establishment not much more than a mile from the bus depot. So its almost 4am and we’re zipping through the dark streets of a border town, which incidentally are always dodgy places with more than their share of drug smugglers, counterfeiters, and undesirables, in an open sided taxi with all of our worldly belongings showing themselves off to anyone who cares to notice. The town did have some life, even at this hour, with street cleaners, women finishing up the evenings cooking, deadbeats, rickshaws, and the occasional car with dudes up to no good!
At some point in the short ride I remember passing such a car going in the other direction, but didn’t pay too much attention. Our driver kept on going and after a couple of short hills, where we slowed down significantly, Andrea and I both noticed a car coming very close alongside us with three guys who didn’t look like they were property hunting, at which point we both knew that trouble had found us. A second later it swerved in front of us, forcing us to come to a stop – the passenger door flew open and a hooded guy ran over to our driver, at which point I had already leapt from the rickshaw with my backpack and was ten yards away. Our driver was by now on the floor and the cars back seat passenger was relieving Andrea of her backpack, bringing me immediately to my senses – what was I doing? I was ten yards away from where my wife was, sitting perfectly still unable to do or say anything whilst being robbed!
Being cut-off, and right outside our hotel
Observing the situation!
With my backpack as a shield I ran for the fracas, to which the guy helping himself to our baggage decided that he’d better call it a night and dive back in the car. Just as he tried to pull the car door closed I grabbed it and threw it open, totally unsure of what they may be carrying I let it go again. The guy wrestling with our driver also rushed back into the passenger seat as the car was moving away down the street – the car only made it fifty yards before coming to a pathetic halt, coughing and spluttering in the middle of the road. It’s amazing that in the pit of a town the roads are immaculately clean, and finding a rock to launch was impossible. Running down the road in hot pursuit would have been crazy as I had no idea what they were carrying in the car, plus there were three of them!
There goes the second bag, and me racing to the rescue
Wayne, don’t get in the car, it’s a bad idea!
The entire episode was over in twenty seconds and Andrea and I were both dismayed as to how quickly things can go wrong. We knew we had been stupid for numerous reasons, from arriving in a lawless frontier town in the early hours to traveling in an open vehicle with all of our belongings, and what made it worse was the guy at the hotel reception telling us that if we had called them they would have collected us. Carrying a can of pepper spray would probably have saved us everything in hindsight too
Obviously we struggled to get an ounce of sleep, and even worse we were excited to see the video footage from a camera the hotel had mounted on the facing wall aimed perfectly at the crime scene. I hated revisiting the first few seconds of me heading away from the action! It did give me something to take to the ;local police for what it was worth. That was an adventure in itself, with me accompanying four armed cops around the ghettos of Tumbes trying to identify the car, examining local surveillance cameras and not being able to provide much assistance regarding id’s or clothing – we did find a car that was a damn good match but I couldn’t be certain, although apparently the police were confident they had a good lead. They did the best they could, and when we left for Lima my partial English speaking cop friend was still insisting that they knew the goods were at the border being sold and that they would have it back very soon. Watch this space…
We’ve both spent the last few days replaying the entire episode in our heads with a hundred different what ifs and coulda,woulda shoulda scenarios, where funnily enough it hasn’t made the slightest bit of difference. Next time we travel with a 9mm!
We were two days out from flying back to the US and had been crime free for the past 560 days, with a minor episode in Bonito, Brazil. I guess we had gotten blasé with our safety and paid an expensive price, in the $3000 ballpark with a few irreplaceable items on the list. Now we have our own story to tell, instead of listening to other travelers reporting their tales of woe!
3.59am on May 1st 2014
