ambush in guatemala filmed
 

I saw this earlier on youtube. It made me wonder what I would do, but also what is the best thing to do in this situation?

Anyone encountered a similar situation?

Interested to hear some of your experiences.

Jaime

Yes it would be interesting the discuss what to do in a similar situation, and what preventive action should be taken to avoid a complete rip-off!

A few thoughts come to mind:

- don't ever resist or put up a fight.
If you don't walk away with your life it's going to be difficult to carry on travelling - if your dead!!! :taz:

Preventively:

- use a "fake wallet" in the place were most people normally carry their wallet...inside jacket pocket.
- don't stow all your cash and docs in the same place.
- don't carry original docs in the tank bag - if practical or possible carry photocopies in your tank bag and the originals somewhere else not so readily acessible.
- keep in your tank bag or a easily available bag some "valuables" to "throw" at the guys! They should normally be nervous and in a hurry (see the guy cut the tank bag so that he could get going!)

Cheers,
Rui Nuno

Having watched the video I think it's clear that they did exactly the right thing. They gave them what they wanted and lived through it. They also say that they had fake wallets and weren't carrying important documents in the tank bag. Excellent advice to anyone travelling I think.

That stretch of road has been known for robberies for over a decade, that I know of. The first time I went to Guatemala, in 2003, I was warned about it. Probably the same guys at work. There are only a few km's that are not paved on this road between San Pedro and Santiago. They pick a spot where you are going slow, and you saw the rest.

I have been down this road twice, in the San Pedro to Santiago direction, and the San Pedro police will escort you through the danger area if you ask. Don't know about the other way. You'd think it would be easier to catch the crooks, than babysit tourists through there, but I'm sure there is a lot of drama behind the scenes that I don't see.

I haven't let it stop me from going back. It does make me wonder how many other risky roads I've taken and didn't know it. Haven't been robbed yet, knock wood.

Saw this today.

Pretty scary for the riders I'm sure, but the robbers seemed professional enough not to hurt anyone.

The only thing I would do differently in that situation is (other than follow security advice to begin with) is to try and keep my tank bag. I'd offer the contents, but I'd want to keep the bag.

I wonder why they didn't raid his panniers?

I'd have lost my phone, laptop and camera, which makes me wonder about how to secure my photos when travelling. No doubt my spare memory cards would have been in the tank bag.

When I travel, I make a point of uploading photos whenever I have access to internet in case my camera is lost or stolen.

I'd like to do that but I shoot RAW so each image is over 20mb.

Over the Easter weekend I shot 200 frames while climbing Mount Snowdon and Tryfan.

That's a lot of data. :-(

Mmmm, yes - point taken. Not quite the same as me snapping pics with my iPhone.

I usually keep my DSLR in my tank bag for easy access to capture that opportune shot.

I was thinking that I wouldn't want to loose my camera and photos but suppose I'd rather keep my life!

I'd definitely be keeping my memory cards in my alu panniers.

Jaime

With respects to their choice to take that road as they did, my first reaction was that they didn't do their research, and that it was a silly, high risk move. If I am not mistaken, even the Lonely Planet warns of this specific stretch of road.

I had a poke around the blog of one of the people involved at it turns out they they had attempted to research whether their security concerns were still valid and felt that it had been a couple of years since since the last robbery report. The rider in question, without the pillion, travelled the road a couple of weeks prior without incident.

2014 Travels <-blog

Having spent New Years on Lake Atitlán, we were told later that the road we took back to the main highway, which wasn't the direct route, was also "dangerous", which is to say, we travellers probably end up on more high risk roads than we realize. To me, this road seemed to have too much car traffic to be of serious concern, but surely something must have happened at some point.

With respects to not loosing your valuables, I try to think about the spectrum of security versus convenience, and that you don't really get to have both at the same time.

In Salento, Colombia we "narrowly missed" be victims of robbery via knife point. Several hours having already returned to where we were staying, four other guests were accosted by four young men in balaclavas wielding kitchen knives. The "victims" (no one was hurt) received full pat downs, and how they explained it, it would have been pretty hard to conceal any item, including money belts, etc.

From our understanding, this robbery was very rare for the area, being a quaint rural town, and local people were genuinely embarrassed by the act. Police presence increased immediately. As it turns out, even in "safe", moderate traffic areas there are opportunists.

Too close encounters
 

Had this trouble a few years ago in Turkey, had a false wallet, crap bag with a cheap camera and false phone in it, 2 guys had a big screw driver and a bar.
I have a particular skill set different to others of which I used to get well paid for. Easier to give them rubbish and walk away but they started to man handle my companion and things turned for the worst of which I got arrested for excessive force and they required hospital attention.

Best to be prepared to be the grey man and get away with giving them as little as possible, I hide things of high value on the bike which would take time to find and in extreme circumstances where my life would be threatened with no other alternative including running away I have items built into the bike which shall we say would be useful ?

But these things do happen and are extremely rare and should not put anyone off travelling.

Look on the bright side of all the nice things that happen and remember stuff is just stuff.

Thefastone.

ambush in guatemala filmed
 

I've always kept a spare credit card duct taped to my airbox under my tank.
Having something in a position like that is better than nothing.
Id hate to have no money.

I am not fussed by material objects like a camera or gps or tools. That stuff comes and goes. Give it to them and just buy some new ones.

Ok so you lost your pictures? Big woop, you didn't lose your life. You could spend your life thinking 'i wish i put my sd card somewhere safe'
Instead of spending time dwelling on it, plan on doing it again, but better. 1/3 the fun is in planning a trip!! 1/3 is prepping the bike, and 1/3 is actually going!!

Pics
 

Some good points, loose your pics and that is a good excuse to do it all again

Just remember all fake credit cards could get you into trouble if you are a victim of the old 'stuff them into a van and take them to the ATM trick' (happens in taxis ad well) which is a common type of robbery in parts of Latin America. My point being you might have a hard time convincing them its a fake and you might lose some toes in the process :o