Sam Gable -
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08:25 pm
[Link] | I got mugged! It ended up being fine though. I was walking through a neighborhood that got deserted when I turned for the main street, and these two guys saw me and changed direction a little. I tried to duck into a fruit store but there was only an 8 year old boy inside, so at the entrance they started pushing me and reaching into my pockets, but then the whole neighborhood saw it and freaked out at them. And then I got in someone´s car and we chased them for a few blocks. I was kind of confused and wanted to just walk away becuase it was only seven bucks, but they chased them and I followed, then the guys from the car got out and kind of hit one of the robbers a lot until he gave me my money. I got on the trolley to go grocery shopping and kept laughing from the nervous energy.
Then for the evening I did one of the three stupidest things I´ve done here, but somehow didn´t get robbed or beaten. I walked up to the Virgin in the evening, which means I went through parts of town that foreigners are never supposed to go, especially in the evening, but I´m cheap and didn´t want to pay for two cab rides. The neighborhoods on the hill where the virgin is are poor, which I guessed ahead of time because whenever you climb up the valley they get poor, so everyone stared at me and I just kind of speed walked up an endless series of stairs until I got to the top and collapsed. It was worth it though, becuase I got there exactly at night fall and I was surrounded by the lit up city. You can´t see either end becuase it wraps around the valley both ways, but most places I can´t really go anyway. The lights I thought were Dr. Seuss trees are really enormous stylized shepards and oxen. I´m not sure why they´re oxen and not sheep.
Adding to what I wrote about Ecuador and New Years in the last post, Quito celebrates New Years with men dressed like hookers stopping cars with rope until the drivers give them change. Nobody seems to mind getting extorted though. I got a ride to the bottom of the virgin hill and took a cab from there, and the cab driver was ok with giving money to all the kids and crossdressers.
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