As a criminal in a heavily Catholic country, when choosing a location, there are few more ironic than a huge statue of Jesus. I mean, especially on Easter.
And so, irony in tow, the criminals of Cochabamba who don't live at the bus station frequent the single staircase leading 8 billion steps up a mountain to see the big Jesus statue.
When night falls, they jump out of the bushes and rob the hell out of you. Liz and I, though we where of course warned not to walk there at all, took a lovely stroll down the steps tonight. So great to get a little fresh air!
Actually, we knew better than to walk down at night. Unfortunately, we learned that they stop selling cablecar tickets after 6, and we didn't get any on the way up because we walked. So, we had to treck down the mountain.
About halfway down, we came across a group of about 8 Bolivian ladies, of all ages, huddled together on some of the steps. Frightened, they told us they saw the robbers, and they were coming down the mountain to get us.
At this point, while nobody but Liz was watching, I picked up a large rock to hold as sort of a South-American defense system as we quickly ran down the stairs together. Ironically, a minute later, the entire Bolivian crew in front of us all did the same.
Anyway, an army/police officer was also on the steps, and the scared ladies convinced him to walk us down. Still, we really made pace, and I could swear that man in fatigues was easily as scared as the ladies of whoever was in the bushes.
Earlier, there was a couple above us on the steps also walking down, but at a slower pace. When we reached the bottom, I couldn't see or hear them, and I hope they made it out ok. For us, all was good, and we even found a new awesome steakhouse where we gorged ourselves for $1.50 a piece.
Just another Bolivian big Jesus adventure!
Wow! Well, that's certainly one way of protecting yourselves from would-be robbers. I can imagine how tense it must have felt, not knowing if you could get robbed as you go down... It must have been a great relief to have that officer with you, and that you came down safely.
Posted by: Fernando Severns | January 18, 2012 at 07:34 AM
We don't need no stinking badges...rocks work just fine. Glad all was fine.
Posted by: Frank | March 28, 2005 at 05:23 PM
You should've taken them all on ala 1998, Austin Kaplan versus 70 yr old neighbor...bring it on OLD MAN...
Posted by: Jeff Shain | March 28, 2005 at 09:08 AM
the big guy was watching over yous
Posted by: dragonballyee | March 27, 2005 at 12:19 AM