Where 25 and a Half ! --OR-- Running for MY Life!!

HI Peeps,

I guess that it had to happen sometime. But when I think back to a total of 2 years worth of dark alleys that I have trod, streets wandered during the early hours, dodgy cities stayed in and dubious situations faced, I still cannot believe that it happened like this.

It had just passed 3 o´clock in the afternoon, a bright sunny afternoon at one of Guatemalas top beauty spots, Lake Atilan. I taken a boat across the lake at 9am and had been walking back round the lake ever since. It is a volcanic crater filled with beautiful blue water up to a depth of 350 metres, surrounded by steep cliffs and dominated by several volcanoes. There were plenty of people about, mainly villagers from the clusters of houses around the lake. I had finished the most interesting part of the walk along the steep sides and through the small vegetable patches the locals farm when I made it to the main road, the only one that leads way from the lake, and which skirts one end of it. The road, which led all the way back to San Pedro,the town where I was staying, was a proper road i.e. tarmaced and with pickups and lorries along it every few minutes. I had decided to get a ride on a pickup back to San Pedro but after walking along it for 15 mins all the traffic seemed to be going the other way.

I reached a straight part of the road. It was quiet. I passed two guys up a tree, cutting branches for cooking on (and occasionally heating if the weather demanded it). Piles of logs outside the wooded houses are a feature here, reminiscent of European alpine homes, although the level of neatness is significantly different. I walked on about 50 metres before I heard something behind me, I glanced round and saw the two guys from the tree running after me.

Here comes trouble! I thought, no doubt they want to try and sell me something or ask me for money. When I turned properly one of them was only a few metres away and approaching rapidly. He was screaming something. I couldn´t make it out entirly, but caught the work dinero (money) and saw that he held his machette (everyone here carries them) in a very aggressive position high above his head. The other guy was a further 5 metres behind but held his machette with similar intensity. I looked at the nearest guys face and was shocked at the wrath and anger dispayed on it. From this I gathered fairly quickly what they wanted.

But I thought ´You´ve got to be kidding, there is no way that you can be trying to rob me here, in broad daylight, on a nice sunny afternoon, on a main road, with so many people nearby. What do you really want?´

I stopped and they both ran around in front of me blocking my way forward. One stood about 4 metres away - I guessed he was only about 14-15 years old. The other was just two metres away and was a couple of years older, both with machettes poised in attack mode. He screamed out again, and I froze momentarily. I knew I only had about Q70 (Pounds 5) with me which I was (reluctantly) willing to hand over although I wasn´t really keen to give them the things in my daysack.

But that momentary pause for thought was too long for them. Too late I registered he had a metal chain in his left hand. I didn´t see much of a swing as my attention was focused on his machette, but I saw something coming and twisted sufficiently for it to crack diagonally across my back. It hurt like hell, but now I had turned and was facing the open road back the way I had come. I wasn´t gonna stand there and be hit, and I didn´t need many microseconds to be in full flight. For some reason I thought I would be faster than them - I had no doubt about that even in sandals and with a daysac - although what I based that on I´m not entirely sure. I'm no slouch over a few metres, but they were a lot younger and could have been real fast. But there was no way they were gonna catch me. I was gone.

Fifty metres down the road I glanced back, pleased to see that they were not swishing at my back, but were rapidly leaving the scene in another direction. I kept running for another minute in case they tried to cut through the trees and head me off. Then I met a pickup coming the other way and scrambled on board. If only it had come a couple of minutes earlier. If only! That pickup was the best Q1.5 (10p)I have ever spent.

I´ve always said that it is more important to be luckily than to be careful. I´m normally pretty careful. Now I know that it also helps to be fairly fast!

More soon.
Pete