Panama

Of course it had to happen one day!!! We were so stupid, at the wrong place and at the wrong time. We got mugged!!!!

The day started really nicely, we took a taxi out to la Isla Flamenco which is connected to Panama City by a causeway. We walked the causeway, watching inline skaters, cyclists, joggers, walkers etc. and stopped for lunch at one of the nice restaurants that they have along the causeway. From there we wanted to visit a place called Mi Pueblitos to see life-size replicas of typical Panamanian rural villages. On the map it looked quite close from the restaurant so we decided to walk there. We strolled all the way down the causeway which is a really nice area. Then we reached a nodal point where lots of streets crossed with each other. We thought, “we better take a taxi before we get lost”. We tried to get one but there was no taxi passing by and then we got back to the idea to walk since it was so close anyway. So we kept walking, up a curved bridge like street which only had a small strip beside the road, so we were able to walk on it. We went down the bridge like street and came to a six-lane street which was divided in half by a grass covered strip of about a 10 meter-width.

We crossed the first part of the street from right to left to get to the green strip in between the roads. We kept walking heading further left in order to cross the next part of the street. We saw already to our right a quite worn down neighborhood which was separated from the big street by a wire-mashed fence and we were walking away from it, in fact we never entered the neighborhood. Well, that didn’t help much, after a short while walking on the green strip, we saw out of the corner of our eyes that there were two guys approaching us. By the way, I forgot to mention, you might have figured already, on the three-lane street in each direction, there were cars passing by with quite high speed. Well, two guys were approaching us kind of diagonally from behind. When they went faster we figured they were after us. We tried to run off but they were already too close. One big guy, colored, tall and quite athletic approached Fredrik trying to take his camera bag. Then in the same instant another guy, mid-size and slim tried to snatch away my bag. Everything went really quick and we hardly remember the following seconds. We both had the bags around our necks so in the beginning it wasn’t too easy for the bad guys to snatch them away. Somehow we both, Fredrik and myself, moved together with the attackers in a fight over the bags about 10 m from our original location, though in opposite directions. Fredrik moved to the left and I to the right having the attackers in front of us while trying very hard to pull away our bags. After seconds of struggling, I ended up on my knees on the road. I looked up to my right and saw a car coming at me. I got dead scared and let go off the bag. Seconds later I got off the road looked around and could see Fredrik fighting with the big athletic guy at the edge of the road about 15 m away from me. Fredrik told me later that moments before, while the attacker tried to snatch away the camera bag, both were on the road and a car came to stop right in front of them. Fredrik could pull himself off the attacker but the mugger, while almost climbing over the hood of the stopped car came after Fredrik right away. They were fighting at the edge of the road and nobody of the people in the cars made an attempt to help us. By that time there were about 8 cars that stopped to watch the spectacle. Fredrik at the end, worried about me, let go the camera bag so that the muggers would run off and let us alone. In the same moment while I saw the guy running off with our camera bag I shout at him: “Bastard!!! You go to hell!!!” I don’t think that he cared, but it felt good to shout out.

The driver of one of the cars that had stopped took us right away to the closest police station. There we explained what had happened. The police men made notes on a scrap piece of paper and alarmed their patrolling colleagues to check out the scene. In a police car, we were driven back to where the attack happened and moments later they drove with us through the bad neighborhood to see if we would recognize the muggers somewhere. Of course, since it all went so fast we couldn’t remember the faces of the attackers and it was impossible for us to recognize them. The police men drove us to the bad neighborhood’s police station where we again had to tell them our story, first to a younger police guy and then to an older one. Both made their notes on scrap pieces of paper. How professional and trustworthy, don’t you think!!!

Each and every police man, who we had told our story, asked almost surprised if the attackers hadn’t used any weapons such as guns or knifes. They explained that the neighborhood is a declared “red zone” where the possession and use of arms is a common thing. So we were lucky to some extent!!!

The police station itself was quite interesting to experience. Right away when we entered, we were hit by a penetrating acid urine smell, we saw a small door opening to our right shut with some heavy metal bars and behind the bars we could see in the background some dark creatures, prisoners, hanging around and in the front right behind the bars another captive starring at us while we made our report about the attack.

From the bad neighborhood police station they drove us to another place where we finally could make an official report of the mugging. For the fourth time we had to tell our story and at the end we got a copy of the official report. We figured that with that work done the police considered their work for the case done as well, leaving us without any hope to recover what was stolen from us. The most valuable things that were taken are a set of CD´s with our photos from Nicaragua and Costa Rica, which we had with us because we wanted to send them home to Europe, and our digital SLR camera with both lenses and three memory cards. Well, at the end these are only material things and we know that we were lucky to get out of this with just some bruises, abrasions and the mere shock.

Unfortunately, the attack has been shadowing everything we did in Panama and it has not really become a favorite place for us. Pretty understandable, I guess. Panama is a shithole. (Fredriks comment).

Take care, amigos, and stay safe!!!

Lots of love,

Sabrina and Fredrik

PS: By the way, on our way from Panama City to Quito in Ecuador, they stole my glasses and contact lenses case from my backpack while it was transported on the plane. Luckily, I still have my contact lenses and another pair of glasses. We’ll see what will be missing next.

The photos remaining from our small camera can be seen here.