The $1000 Bus Ride

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  Quito, Ecuador
Friday, December 14, 2007

Everyone said to be careful in South America, to watch your bags and lock up all your important documents.  Even if you listen, even if you take every precaution, even if you throw an absolute fit to the bus driver, you will still be subjected to the complete and udder assholes who steal your personal belongings.  Fucking Ecuadorians!  excuse the language.

So we're on the bus from Banos to Quito, ready to head back to the best Tex-Mex food we've had in months.  A man dressed in street clothes takes my tickets and points to our seats.  We sit down and he proceeds to put our bags in the overhead shelf above our heads.  Rory agreed willing, but I specifically said no, I wanted to keep my bag in my lap, but he put it up there anyway.  We figured he was retarded or something and didn't understand me.  The minute he walked away, I grabbed my bag and put in between my legs on the floor.  Unfortunately Rory did not. 

As the bus filled up and started to depart, we realized that there weren't enough seats for everyone and people were standing in the isles.  I thought this was weird, but hey, it's Ecuador.  The bus made a few more stops to pick up more people and the next thing we knew the entire isle was full of teenagers, mothers with children and couples.  Feeling a little cramped, we just waited it out thinking they would probably be getting off at Ambato, a small town 30 minutes from Banos.  We were right, most got off there and a few got back on, but the isles were no longer full.  This is when Rory reached for his bag to find that everything was gone.  His iPod, Sony Play Station Portable, North Face rain jacket, REI rain pants, headlamp, our entire bag of zip drives and memory cards with all our photos on them, the camera cord, etc.  We figured about $1000 of gadgets plus the priceless value of our music and saved photos.  Rory was in rage.  He slammed a water bottle on the floor so hard the older woman next to us jumped out of here seat.  Once she realized why he was so mad, she made a point to yell at the bus driver saying that she's very disappointed in the way they filled the bus to the brim.  She also mentioned that this is why Ecuador has such a bad reputation for theft.  I thought that was really nice of her to communicate our frustration, but it still didn't bring any of our items back.  I literally felt sick from the whole thing. 

Once back in Quito, we went to the Tourist Police Office and filled out a police report.  Something I noticed about this process was that it seemed so common to the officers in the office they almost knew why we were there before we even said anything.  Like they had the  blank police report just sitting there waiting for us.  No one said I'm sorry that you were treated this way in our country.  No one offered any condolences.  Just normal, everyday faces staring at us, watching as we scribbled down the numerous items that outlined our lives for the past 2 months.  Watched as the dollar amount scaled in the thousands.  I felt a strange sense of hate for these people and Ecuador in general.  And to me, that's really sad because I was really starting to like it here.  In the end, you realize the bad memories appear much stronger than the good. 

Buenos Aires, here we come - don't fuck with us, Rory's angry. 

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