Police & Thieves

It was bound to happen eventually, but we didn´t expect it quite so early in the trip. We´re in Panama City now after a 16 hour bus trip from San Jose (which actually wasn´t as bad as it sounds - we had a Die Hard marathon in Spanish to keep us entertained). It´s a great city, really vibrant and cosmopolitan. There are some bad neighbourhoods though, some of which happen to be the most interesting to visit. Yesterday, we took a bus (a so-called diablo rojo - red devil - like the one in the photo) down to the old town (where we knew to be very careful while walking around the streets) and I had my pocket picked while getting off the bus! As we were about to pay the driver and disembark, a couple of guys got up, pushing in front of Rach and separating us. Then a guy in front of me dropped some coins and started scrabbling around ´trying´ to pick them up. There was much jostling and pushing, seemingly so that the guy in front could pick up his change - obviously I was being deliberately distracted, but I didn´t realise. Someone must have reached into my pocket and swiped my wallet as, by the time I got off, it was gone! I protested and looked around, and of course all the aforementioned guys were just looking around innocently, presumably saying things along the lines of "what´s happened? Your wallet? I think maybe that guy over there walking off took it, or maybe that guy..." etc. Fortunately, there was only about $25 and some credit cards in my wallet, which have all been cancelled, so no real loss or, more importantly, injury. Just the headache now of dealing with the Policia Turismo, trying to get it reported. They said they were coming yesterday at 3, then later, then today at 8am... now it´s after 2pm! I think we might have to go to them.

Rob