I've been lucky, amazingly lucky on this trip. 8 months of driving and travelling and not one bad experience, nothing, nada, sweet f&%$ all. Before leaving I knew that I would get robbed. The kids at school would ask me if I was scared and my answer would always be the same. I will get robbed, it's just a question of where and when. I mean driving the truck, in all the not so safe zones I will pass, it is bound to happen... And it did, my second day in Trujillo, ironically in the city where I brought funds to built a school for street kids... Someone up there as a great sense of humor!!!

They took my tent, my sleeping bag, a bag with paperwork, and a bag with my Spanish books... Spanish robbers robbing Spanish lessons... funny!! I was pissed, my own fault really, left the trruck in center town for 2 hours in daytime, came back and they screwed open thye door...

And then the fun began...

So I went to the police, made a report, more to witness the amazing turtle pace of South American bureaucracy. Conclusion: IT IS SLOW!!!!! and they told me to come back 3 days later.

3 days later, in a flash of genius, I decided to find the black market (can we still say that) and see if I could find my things. Went with G, a volunteer at Bruce, and up we went... and found in a very dodgy part of the market, my sleeping bag and my gloves...

All excited, I went to the police station to pick up the copy of the report, and explain my amazing discovery, naively hoping that justice would be done... but had the misfortune of arriving during a football match. So I had to wait and sit with the cops, and watch the match till halftime . Then we talked about my report that didn't exist anymore, they passed the ball left and right, no one knew where it was. With a grin, I explained where I found my stolen goods... the cop looked at me with a concerned look, then a pitiful look, than a serious look, and explained to me that he would need at least 10 officers to go in with riot gear, (and I'm sure a small feee from my pcoket for their travels and misfortune), because no police enters that area of the market and the people ususally throw stones at them. A small price for my goods in my opinion!! Then the second half started... we sat and watched.

At the end of the match (Holland won) they finally found the report... and the Captain, who after hearing my story (in very bad spanish) agreed to get the 10 men crew and raid the black market... but oh, wait... suddenly one of the cops realized that the van was borken.... and the market was probably closed, and that by now my stuff was probably moved elsewhere. SO the strategy was now for me to go back the next day to the market with a Peruvian and see if my stuiff was still there, then back to the police station for the raid... for a fee I'm certatin!

In the meantime, after talking with Pedro, the handyman at Bruce Org, he told me that he played soccer (or was it a guy he knew from school... se the dodgyness here) who could probably get my stuff back... for a fee!! He made a call, a price was said to get some of my gear back, I paid, and that was it, the end of it, finito!!!

NOT!!!! Like all good books there´s a twist at the end. I went back to the black market a few days later, and went to the shop where my things were, and had a chat with the shopowner who stole my goods and sold them back to me, a 2-3 minute chat, very animated... about the Holland football match!!!!!!

Cheers and hope all is good!