It's been an eventful afternoon in La Esperanza...
This week Nicole, Erhick and I made plans to go hike the nearby mountain with Estella (our housekeeper) and her seventeen year old daughter Karla. Erhick wasn't feeling well but I showed up to Estella's ready to go, but Karla and her said we couldn't because it was dangerous for us to go without a man. At the time I didn't exactly understand what she meant. Neither did the other volunteers because many previous volunteers have hiked there before. Anyway, we rescheduled for this afternoon.
La Esperanza is basically divided in three. La Esperanza Baja (closer to the center of Trujillo), La Esperanza Alta (where we live...very poor area) and the slums which are only about a 15 minute walk away but as soon as the pavement ends and the sand dunes begin you enter a completely different world. In La Esperanza Alta, people still live in solid houses with electricity and running water, but the slums are very small shacks made out of a type of woven straw and plastic bags. This is where the mountain begins.
I hadn't realized that the mountain would be so steep, that there wouldn't be any path and that the dirt and rocks would be so slippery. Not being a fan of heights, I wasn't a big fan of this mountain either. A bit more than halfway up Karla's leg started hurting pretty badly and since I had a satisfying view and no pressing desire to continue, Karla and I sat down while the others kept climbing. We talked, shared some chocolate-coconut cookies (my snack of choice) and Karla asked to see the pictures on my camera. She had just finished viewing them all when three men walked/ran down from above. Karla immediately crossed her arms and hid the camera under her shirt. Although my first thought when I saw them was 'uh oh' I innocently said hello. They looked like they were going to continue past us but at the last minute they surrounded us. one man sat slightly behind me next to Karla and put his arm around her. He kindly said 'Como estas?' and for a second I thought she might know them, but I quickly realized that she didn't and we were in trouble.
At that point I didn't know but the men were armed. The guy who had his arm around Karla also had a gun to her side. He reached for the camera and we briefly resisted but then as I screamed the gun was passed to the guy in front of me who held it to my face while the one behind me held me in a choke-hold and put his hand on my mouth. I quickly started telling them (in English, my intermediate Spanish skills don't function in stressful situations) to take the camera. They were about to go when they remembered my purse. Again my reflex was to hold on, but the gun was shown to me again and I let go. Erhick, Nicole and Estella watched from far far above and tried to ask us if we were alright I yelled out at them, but Karla being the wiser one told me to keep quiet.
Karla and I sat there shaking and crying while Erhick sprinted down. Them having a gun though, there's nothing he could've done and even if the five of us had stayed together this would still have happened. As we waited for Nicole and Estella to come down to where we were, I counted my losses: my camera, my purse, a photocopy of my passport, my keys, my wallet which contained only a 20 soles bill (roughly 6$) and my Quebec health care card, my nalgene bottle, a small alarm clock, two pens and two cookies. It's a good thing I've decided to ignore the Lonely Planet's advice to carry my real passport on me at all times in case a policeman asks for it. Nonsense. Other than the camera (I had uploaded all but the ten last pictures to the organization's computer and my USB key), nothing valuable. Plus, I hated that purse anyway. So on the way down, I joked about it. What else can you do?
When we got to the bottom of the hill I noticed locals waving me over pointing to the direction the robbers went and making a phone sign with their hands. They had seen everything. I ran down to hear what they were trying to say to me. The robbers had seen us start our climb and had immediately started climbing up from the side of the mountain. The people in the slum saw and knew what was coming so they had tried to call us down, but with the wind and all the music coming from down in the slums, we hadn't been able to hear them. The cops left before we reached the bottom but a cop car had been circling around the slum from only a few minutes after we got robbed. I couldn't understand everything that was being said, but I believe the people told the cops about the situation, but the men were long gone. A town meeting was also called which may or may not have to do with this, but it will surely be discussed. The people were concerned and sad that this was the impression we got of their area.
Looking back on it, I realize that despite holding a gun up to us, the men were pretty gentle. The choke-hold was plenty strong enough to hold me back, but wasn't painful at all and Karla wasn't hurt either. We were an easy prey and they didn't use more force than necessary. I'm also fairly certain that the gun was a fake because of the way the man was moving his hand. It was metal, but it looked light. Still, alone in the middle of a steep rocky mountain, gun or no gun doesn't make a difference.
On a happier note, the rest of my weekend was lots of fun! Yesterday morning I hung out with Karla. She had to go exchange a pair of shoes in Trujillo so I tagged along. It was an area I hadn't seen yet and clearly where all the action happens. Then I had lunch with her family. Great food, great company, and great Spanish practice. Estella cooks lunch for us here from Monday to Friday and then always invites us over for lunch at her house on the weekends. That woman is a saint!
After lunch, I caught up with the others in Huanchaco and checked in to a much nicer hostel than last week for only 3$ more. We had a room for the six of us with comfortable beds, clean towels, a nice private bathroom and, my personal favourite, a HOT shower. The shower at home is only warm. ish. kind of. sometimes. I finally met up with Abraham, a couchsurfer from Trujillo with whom I've been in contact for a few weeks, and his present surfer Roany from Brazil. Very nice guys and I look forward to hanging out with them again soon. We were all tired so we just ate at the hostel (a surprisingly cheap and delicious meal) and called it a night.
This morning I woke up early, ordered some banana pancakes and went out for my second surf lesson. The sea was calm but I caught some bigger and longer waves than last week and used a lighter and shorter board...progress! We all hung out on the beach for a bit, chocolate banana milkshake in hand, before heading back to La Esperanza for our hiking adventure. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from the weekend, partly because I no longer have my camera, but also because I was lazy and only took a few pictures of the hostel's huge pet turtle that freely roams around. But we'll be back there soon! We can't stay away from Huanchaco and that hostel gives us a lovely weekend break from our bunk beds, noisy neighborhood (post on the neighborhood's noise pollution coming soon!), and warm-ish shower.
And week three of teaching begins...
-S xo
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