There I was, all alone, sitting in the back of an old rusty pickup truck. Not knowing where I was going, but I only knew it was the wrong way. I also knew that the two big guys who picked me up alongside a dusty road, didn’t respond to my shouts. Was I going to be robbed? What would I do? Give my stuff or run?
It all started when I was on a hitchhiking adventure in Mexico’s state Oaxaca and going to Chiapas. After seeing the beautiful city, the mescal plantations and the Zapoteca city Monte Alban, I started hitchhiking to San Cristobal. My first ride was with an old Mexican who had no reverse, mirrors or rear window and I could see the road through the bottom of the car. He said that he could also drop me off at Yagul, another old Zapoteca site. Because it was on a Sunday I agreed, it was the Sunday-rule and the admittance was free. So I thought… the rules had been changed and no matter what I said, I had to pay to the rather big ticketsalesman. Angry as I was I walked away… I was on a tight 6 dollars a day budget! What was he thinking?
I climbed a rock and had a free entrance to the beautiful site high up in the mountains! After my walking around –which wasn’t that nice because the tense of being caught was bigger than the beauty of this site- I decided that it was time to move on to Chiapas, got a ride from a female guide and continued on to Salina cruz.
It was hard to get a ride on that road, but all of a sudden two big Mexican guys stopped to give me a lift, I saw them and thought: the balance of power is at their side, just tell them how you live and they will know that there is no pot of gold getting into their old pickup truck.
There was no change of talking, there was only place for me in the back of the pickup and thus no change of communicating.
My map told me it was a hard, big and fast road ahead, so I relaxed and enjoyed the sun and my 360 degrees view. Then all of a sudden, we got off the road and entered a small, dusty road to nowhere. Many attempts of asking, knocking on the window and even shouting didn’t help, they didn’t respond! Different types of scenes crossed my mind, one of them was that they were out to get my stuff. I knew I didn’t stand a change against them, so I summarized my options: jump out of the car and start running, fight or just give them my stuff…
My surprise was big when they got out of the car and showed me the beautiful lake “el Paraiso” and said: surprise! You look hungry, want something to eat?
Fear is your worst enemy!
