Mexico And Guatemala

Hi Guys,

I`m not going to be able to stick up any photos of this adventure as I have been graciously relieved of the burden that is (or was) my digital camera. Yesterday we were hijaked at gunpoint about an hour after crossing the Mexico-Guatemala border at La Marsella. It was a very interesting experience, although also very unpleasant. But on the plus side, I still have my health, a nice piece of rope, an excellent story to tell and a weight burden that`s only about half what it was at the beginning of yesterday.

Below is Cousin Chris` account of the incident... (we decided not to work Bosco Perez into this one).

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OK!

Until now I've kept myself pretty quiet with the emails because frankly the most interesting experience before yesterday was a weeklong bout of Moctezumas revenge which left me dehydrated and my ring a little sore.

Anyway, to start yesterdays adventure: We left San Cristobal at 6.45am on a bus bound for the Guatemalan border. It was your typical boring 4 hour bus ride; most of which was spent sleeping. At the border we filled in the necessary papers and then set about finding transport to Panajachel. The options were to either take a chicken bus (which would take 7 or so hours to complete the journey), or jump on a shuttle van which although costing a few more $'s would get us there in half the time.

After an hour or two we stopped for lunch at a servo on the side of the highway. As we ate Nick commented that he had seen one of the locals taking an exceptional interest in our shuttle van and the contents therin, but that was that and we thought no more of it and continued our journey to Panajachel. We had only travelled about 10 - 15 minutes when out of nowhere we were cut off by a white Honda Prelude with tinted windows. Our driver hit the brakes and next thing we knew a Toyota Hilux full of 6 or 7 gun wielding thugs had pulled up along side. What happened next is a bit of a blur, but essentially they hijacked our vehicle at gun point and drove us off into the bush where they relieved us of our goodies.

My initial reaction was one of disbelief, it happened so fast and professionally that there was no time for reaction. Upon taking our shuttle van they ordered us to close our eyes and not look at their faces. They drove off the highway, down the side of a hill and into the bush. When we came to a stop they pulled us from the van one by one and searched us, taking our passports, wallets and any possessions of value. Then they forced us face down to the ground and bound our hands behind our backs.  Whilst I was being searched I noticed that our bus driver was lying in a position that suggested that he had either been killed or knocked out, this was a bit alarming as we had no idea what their final intentions for us were (as it turned out he was OK). When they had completed their body searches they got stuck into our backpacks. They simply emptied each of them and took anything electronic or remotely valuable. Cuzzie Nick had decided to lock his bag shut when we left San Cristobal and now I could hear the sound of tearing canvas as they ripped it open with their knives.

For a brief period I thought that perhaps they would kill us, but I reassured myself that this was probably routine buisiness for them and it would be best to give them what they wanted and get it all over and done with. After that the biggest fear was that they would rape the women who were travelling on the shutle van with us, but aside from some lewd comments and a bit of groping, that scenario, thankfully did not occur. I wonder what we could have done if they had decided to do so: beside remonstration, probably nothing.

Nick said later that it was an interesting to see how one would react in such a situation. Whether you would think clearly and stay calm or maybe end up losing it and freaking out. For myself I can only say that I did what I had to. I think that in this circumstance doing as you are told is the wisest and safest option. I did resolve however that if the shooting started I would make a run for it. This plan was encouraged when I managed to free my hands. However, the fact that I had not been securely bound suggested to me that the binding was more for show and thay they had no serious intentions to harm us.

I think the whole ordeal lasted about an hour. After they had cleared out our backpacks they left. We untied ourselves and went about assessing the damage and repacking our packs. Personaly, I lost my digital camera, memory cards (with 2 months of photos), CD Walkman, about 35 CD's, Swiss army knife, torch, watch (brand new as my other one was stolen in Perth), alarm clock (belonging to Helen), iPod, harmonica, leather jacket (absolutely spewing about losing this), $300 US, $500 Mex, batteries and medicine. Nick fared even worse. He lost his digital camera and SLR (with $1100 lens) as well as similar items to me. However, luckily for him he had burnt all of his digital photos to CD two days earlier and this was not taken. Remarkably our hijackers left us with our passports and wallets intact. They didn't take my Visa card which was some surprise to me, however they did relieve Nick of one of his credit cards. Special thanks here should go to our driver who pleaded with the hijackers to leave such documents with us, no small feat considering he was manhandled and was threatened with a gun to the head on several occasions.

We eventually arrived at Panajachel at around 5.30 pm. Our first stop was the local police station where we made statements concerning stolen items. Then the owners of the shuttle van organised free accomadation for us; thanks again because most of us had no money and the ATM's in town all seemed to be down. A couple of the girls with us were really upset and it will probably take them some time to get over it. I think that Nick and I recovered from the initial shock pretty quickly: we both nearly fell asleep whilst on the ground, and once the hijackers were gone we exchanged the usual jokes about eating Macca's and crime scene photo's etc.

Anyway, there you have it. Quite an exciting welcome from the kindly people of Guatemala! Hopefully the rest of our stay is boring in comparison.

Ciao

Chrissa