Such Fine Company I am (a.k.a. Visitors Beware)

I have always thought that I have been a pretty lucky traveler. In the past dozen years, after travels throughout Latin America and Europe, and a handful of countries in Africa and Asia, I have come across very few truly dangerous situations (except for riding in kamikaze taxis with no seatbelts, but these are stories for another time). I’ve been hospitalized a couple of times, but always managed to get out the next day, not much worse for wear. Then, for some reason, I started to add up the number of times that I have been involved in robberies or muggings, and incredibly enough, the figure was far higher than I ever imagined. Unfortunately, the more frequent scenario is that the people I am with end up getting robbed, while I (knock on wood) have escaped mostly unscathed. Quick math shows that ten different friends, including my poor mom who had her skirt pocket slit in Guatemala last year, have been robbed or attempted robbed while hanging out with me in Latin America.

That being said, two weekends ago, a colleague of mine was on his way back to Canada from Brasilia through Sao Paulo. We arranged to meet in the city's historical centre for a stroll and beer. Seeing that I have very few pictures of Sao Paulo, as I am usually afraid to carry around my camera, I decided to take advantage of my male company to bring a small camera with me on the excursion. No doubt, my company would protect me.... Upon arrival at the meeting point, we walked around the artisan’s fair in Praça da República for a few minutes before heading to Bar Brahma (which, as an aside, is well worth the visit). My colleague hadn’t been in Sao Paulo for more than ten or fifteen minutes before there was a sudden commotion and he was pick pocketed. Now, I do need to say that all the appropriate precautions were taken, and because of this the loses added up to the local equivalent of C$1 and one health insurance card. It was almost laughable. Especially since I had told him to bring at least one piece of ID, " 'cause you just never know". Still, I was perturbed and felt badly that my colleague’s first trip to Sao Paulo resulted in an almost immediate robbery. My bag and the camera were fine (which means that the blog will still have the occassion photos).

Needless to say, we continued on our way to the bar and sat down for what was now a well-deserved drink. A few minutes later, my cell phone rang and the caller said that he had found an ID card with my colleague’s name on it. Amazingly enough, my colleague had put a post-it note with my phone number on the back of the card so that he could call me when he arrived in town. The caller then walked around the corner and returned the card. So by now we had regained the card and lost (well, given) another C$5 in reward money. A well deserved drink indeed. Hopefully the last for a while.

post-scriptum: Please don't think of avoiding Latin America because of my security-related stories. Latin America is a wonderful place full of amazing countries, terrific people, and inspiring histories. Just keep you eye on your belongings! Soon to be posted is my top-ten list of things I love about Brazil, inspired by ms.mac.