How I was mugged in Valparaiso

When I was visiting the Chilean seaside city of Valparaiso I went on a free walking tour of the city. The more I travel the more I prefer exploring nature to cities, but Valparaiso is a fascinating city. The centre is surrounded by many hills, each of which is a neighbourhood of the city. The city boasts colourful architecture, old school lifts slash funiculars taking you to the hilly neighbourhoods and a lot of graffiti and murals. There are zillions of them and they are really amazing. Sightseeing in this city is a great spectacle. And maybe that’s why I ended up being mugged. I got carried away and …

After the walking tour I went on to explore the city on my own. I went up to one of the hills. I will forever remember the name – the Cordillera hill. There were steep stairs and there was a couple talking at the top of the stairs. I didn’t pay attention to them, I just went by. I went along one of the streets, admiring what I saw and I bumped into an old man who told me, in Spanish, not to go further along the street, because it was dangerous and I’d lose the camera. So I turned around and went to the main street and continued there.

Now, this was a mistake, I should have left the hill and returned to the centre. I went along the main street and turned to go to a kind of terrace to enjoy the view. There was the same couple which I had seen 20 minutes ago. They must have followed me or something. I passed by thinking they were tourists doing the same like me or just locals in love. I reached the end of the terrace, a very narrow space and suddenly I heard glass breaking. I turned around and saw the guy holding a broken bottle in his hand. Until now, I cannot understand where he took the bottle from and where the woman was at that point. He started threatening me with the bottle asking for my camera which I was holding in a small bag and money. He grabbed the bag and I tried hard not to let go of my things but in vain. I am not sure if I let go because I thought he would hurt me or he was just stronger. If this were not enough, he got hold of my phone and then started running away.

I went after him, naively thinking I could save the situation. We ran down the hill and reached one of the streets where there were people who I thought would help me. But the person closest to me snatched my backpack with everything I had including my wallet, a book, glasses, keys, passport, etc. This guy had nothing to hurt me so I again tried not let go of the bag. We were both pulling violently and in this way many things fell out of the bag and ended up on the ground, only the passport, some money and other small things remaining in the bag and eventually in the thief’s hands. Luckily my wallet was on the ground.

To set the record straight the guy didn’t work with the couple, it was simply another bad guy who I ran into. There were more people in the street one of whom took me to the local police which was just on the opposite side of the street. 30 metres from where it happened. I talked to the police, they could just speak Spanish but I could get by with my Spanish. Two officers went looking after the thieves but didn’t find them. I was waiting there in shock refusing to believe it had happened. I think I was in shock all afternoon.

When they found out I had lost the passport they took me to the international police. I was interrogated by a detective who could speak some English. She made some calls after each of them repeating to me that I wouldn’t be leaving on Sunday which was in two days. I wanted to call someone in Slovakia, but the phones in their office wouldn’t dial Slovak numbers. So I went looking for a place, a call centre, where I could do it.

It was the fourth place, where they told me calling to Slovakia was possible. I dialed the emergency line of the Slovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I told them what had happened and was told what to do. First instructions were to call Spanish, German or UK’s embassy in Chile (as Slovakia doesn’t have one in Chile, so everything is handled in Argentina). The detective called the Spanish and German embassies but the answer was the same – they wouldn’t issue new documents till Sunday.

Then I received an email from the Slovak ministry, they got in touch with the Czech consul in Chile who was ready to issue temporary documents but approval from the embassy in Argentina was needed. I was going to fly back to Europe on Sunday after all. The waiting was endless. The police came to my parent’s house in Slovakia to check my identity, something that had to be done before the embassy in Argentina gave approval to issue new documents. I can’t imagine what my parents felt at that time.

In the meantime I was contacted by a girl on Facebook who claimed to have found my passport on the street. My host called her to arrange a meeting. At first they agreed, but the next day the girl wasn’t answering the phone and her Facebook account was blocked so I couldn’t write her a message. I had no idea what to make of it. Even though issuing new documents was under way I went to the police, told them about this, gave them the number and address of the girl and asked if they could do something about it. After 30 minutes of waiting some officers came with my passport in their hands. They didn’t find anything else indeed. I no longer needed temporary documents and I could travel back to Europe as planned.

I believe that things happen for a reason. Maybe I just dropped my guard that day, maybe I took a risk, maybe I was just being silly and I was simply punished. Anyway, what happened was supposed to happen. Maybe it happened because I was supposed to stay in South America, or maybe I am meant to come back again or maybe I should stop travelling on my own 🙂 What do you think?

(Note: I used photos from the internet because all the photos I took in Chile were stolen.)