The Day We Almost Were Robbed

Ross is notoriously paranoid (or at least i think he is, he’d disagree). Sometimes his overprotective and extremely cautious methods can be annoying, but he’s known too many people who have been robbed. One of his best birding friends was robbed at gunpoint on a birding trip to Peru. They lost everything. It happens.
We were sitting at El Taco Feliz enjoying a few al pastor tacos when Ross spotted a scrawny little punk attempting to get into the trunk of our rental. He was crouched low at first, trying to hide out of sight, but then stood up to put some force into opening the trunk.
Rule #1 ALWAYS have the car in sight. ALWAYS have it locked.

Ross and Matt jumped into action and chased the kid down, but instead of backing away, the guy called a few friends and before we knew it, we had been surrounded on all sides. There was a motorbike to our north, another one to our south, and a few suspicious players directly across the street at the gas station watching our every move. We didn’t dare leave the taco place for fear they might try to jump us on our way out of town. It was dark and we still had 25 minutes until we reached out destination.
I like to think people are inherently good. And I really do believe that they are, but guys like these exist. You’d be silly not to recognize the power gangs can have in their local community. I don’t know how gang rankings work, and certainly wouldn’t dare speculate the intricacies that I’m sure are involved, but four gringos are probably worth a pretty penny.

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We watched the perpetrator who was hanging out at the gas station across the street, as his arms were waving erratically above his head. I couldn’t help but wonder if he was on drugs.
Leaving quickly, and racing these guys out of town was an option, but we preferred to call for backup. The police arrived shortly after and gave us an escort out of town.
Rule #2, always make yourself a hard target.

Maybe it was nothing. Maybe it was. But in the end, the scronny little punk and his friends ran off and a catastrophic ending was prevented. I hate to think about alternative scenarios, but certainly those men could have hijacked our car on our way out of town. If they had guns it wouldn’t matter that they were on a motorbike and we were in a car. Thankfully it didn’t come to that. Instead Ross noticed the man trying to break into our car and all was not lost. Paranoia, at least a little and for the sake of safety, can be acceptable, if not necessary, for travel. Perhaps there’s a reason we’ve never had a single item stolen on a birding trip. (Ross has a whole bunch of other safety rules but I’ll save those for another day.)

And with a slew of birds, a potentially close call, and an amazing time with friends, Mexico was a success! Please don’t let this story deter you from visiting our southern neighbor, I still highly recommend a visit!

Oh, and here’s a picture of a Sumichrast’s Wren. There’s always one more endemic to get, even on the way to the airport.