The Challenges of Travelling Alone

Initially, I intended to include my travels in Galapagos in this posting. Because it is pretty negative and I had such a good time there I am going to post this story separately. Here goes.
Once I had my fill of lechona in Bogota, I decided that it was time to head on. I Thought about catching the bus south to Cali, but I only had a few more days left on my visa so I decided to head on to Ecuador. My flight from Bogota did not leave until 4 and I did not arrive in Quito until almost 8. I chose a hostel in the area of Quito called La Mariscal. It was also dubbed Gringoland by the locals because of the heavy concentration of foreign tourists who made this their base in the city. Gringoland is home to the most modern and diverse collection of restaurants, bars, and nightclubs in Quito. I emailed several hostels for a reservation and went with the only one who answered. The hostel was technically in Gringoland, but it was on a quiet street a few blocks away from all of the hustle and bustle of the main concentration of restaurants, ect. It seemed like a good choice. I checked in at about 9 with a nice man who had no grasp whatsoever of the English language although the hostel was advertised as English speaking. I was starving at this point, so once I was checked into my room I headed to find something to eat. It was around 9:30 at this point and my limited experience of Quito didn't give me any signs that it would be any different than any of the other cities that I had visited to that point.
I headed in the direction of the main area if La Mariscal. As I did so the streets became more and more crowded with locals. When I rounded a corner I spotted two guys in their mid twenties headed my way. I had a feeling that there was going to be a problem as soon as I saw them, when they altered their direction to match mine after I maneuvered to avoid them, I knew there was going to be a problem. They walked up to me in a very aggressive manor and kept repeating “gringo, you got money, no problem.” To this point I have found that ignorance is often very beneficial in altercations with foreigners. So as they surrounded me I played dumb and acted as if I did not comprehend what they were saying. All the while I continued toward the crowd of people and restaurants about 100 yards away. When they persisted I told them that I did not have any money for them. They pointed at my wallet in my pocket and repeated their demands. I had about a head length above each of them and weighed more than both of them put together so at the point when they really became aggressive and started trying to stop my progress, I pushed them away. I did not want to start a fist fight in the middle of the street in a foreign city where I knew no one and had no backup. At the same time I was not going to be intimidated by these two assholes without some sort of evidence that the fight would have been in their advantage. So I kept pushing them away, not in an aggressive manner, just in a way so that I could at least have some restaurant to duck into if necessary. Once we reached the more populated area of the street and they were gone. Not in a shameful or guilty way, they just turned around, giggled a little and walked away. I continued behind them for the rest of the block contemplating my next action. It seriously considered clocking the two of them over the head and curbing them like Ed Norton in American History X. That was how angry I was. These guys didn't really want to rob me, they wanted to see what it took to get money off some gringo walking down the street. After the incident I continued on to dinner and stewed over the fact that I had been this far without incident and within 2 hours of arriving in Quito this happened. After dinner i headed back to the hostel very cautiously and was constantly on guard for the next couple of days.
Once this happened I knew that I wanted to get out of the city and head somewhere a little more laid back, so I headed to the travel agency and booked my trip to Galapagos. That is another post.


Vagabond