Lessons learned...you sly bitch

Lance and I love to travel because we always seem to learn something new. Santiago did not disappoint. Santiago taught us that you can never be too careful, assholes are everywhere and so are kind, good hearted beautiful people. 

So, let's get down to it. Lance and I went out for our last night in Santiago (in fact, it was the ONLY night we went out there....Alanis Morisette Ironic is streaming through my head...). We had a wonderful steak dinner with delicious red wine, went to a great little jazz bar and listened to a local trio. It was lots of fun. We were hanging out in the Bella Vista district known for nightlife, food and music. We decided to walk home to our apartment which was about a 10 minute walk. Big mistake. We walked home along a ridiculously well lit park that was straddled by major roads. It wasn't a park the way you would think it. It was a long narrow walking path so that you could see the major roads at all times and it was probably only 50 meters across in width.  I had actually thought it was a safe bet (safer than walking along a not so main drag). There were no bushes that people could jump out of...just grass and street lamps and some local art installations and children's playground equipment. It was about midnight and there were lots of people around and our spidey senses were not firing.  However, after a couple of minutes, there was a lull in people and that is when they approached. Of course.

Two young men wearing hoodies came up to us and started speaking in Spanish but we could tell they were saying they were "police" and that they needed to see our ID's. Queue spidey senses! Neither of us can remember exactly what happened as it happened very fast but one of us said RUN when they got closer to us. I took off as fast as I could thinking that I was going to see Lance from the corner of my eye overtaking me with his long gazelle-like strides. I ran for about 20 meters to the edge of the park and realized he wasn't there. I turned around and was horrified to see that another man had joined in.  Two men (men? is that the proper term here? I think punks is better) were grabbing his arms as the third one was grabbing for his pockets. Lance initially resisted (instinctual I think) but after he realized they only wanted his wallet and cell phone he started saying "ok ok" and gave them his stuff. All the while I was literally screaming at the top of my lungs for help (inner voice saying "shit I wish I new some Spanish"). There was a man walking his dog not that far from where I was and he also started yelling but it was too late. The punks had our stuff and ran off.

It wasn't until after the shitbags ran away that I started to cry and shake and have a mini fit. I was terrified. Not for myself but for Lance - what if they had had a knife? He wasn't hurt and neither was I, but it could have been a lot worse. We didn't know what to do next and then we saw a group of three people walking along the edge of the park. We went up to them (me in hysterics) and asked if they spoke English. Luckily, one of them, Jose, did. This group of three made this night bearable and were like little lucky charms plunked down in front of us. They called the police (we got to drive around in the back of the police car and hunt for the little shitbags), escorted us to the police station, interpreted for us while at the police station, helped us fill in our police report and then they walked us back to our apartment so we felt safe. They spent a good chunk of their night, at least an hour and a half, helping us...total strangers. Jose made us feel comfortable and told us of stories when he worked on a cruise ship serving Canadians (many from Winnipeg apparently) and Americans ("do they only drink beer?").  Jose told us that muggings were unfortunately very common in Santiago. He himself had been mugged twice and guessed that about 1 in 10 tourists get robbed. He was very apologetic for what happened and said the shitbags didnt know what they were doing for (or rather, not doing) for Santiago when they acted like this. Jose and his friends confirmed that good people are everywhere and that we shouldn't let the negative actions of a few taint our perspective. 

As you can imagine, Lance and I were really shaken up after it all happened. I have only slept a handful of hours in the last couple of days on account of my nerves and our epic bus ride through the Andes (for real, it was pretty cool). Because our credit card and drivers licenses were stolen, we have changed our itinerary for the trip - we are choosing to view as exciting and a new adventure :)

Below are some pictures from the rest of our time in Santiago. Hope you enjoy them. We will post some more in the next few days of Mendoza. We are hoping to do some wine tours and some white water rafting here. Should be fun!