Bogota, Colombia: Crossing Borders, Riding Buses, Blending In, and How to Mitigate Risks While Traveling… (Part 2)

If you’ve been reading my blog at all, you know I’ve made it through some pretty rough neighborhoods during this trip and there is one thing I know for certain… if someone runs up to you in the street and starts talking to you for no reason, they want something.

Granted, there are many countries such as Guatemala, where the people are very courteous, and will talk to you randomly when you’re out and about, and this is not what I’m referring to. What I’m referring to are the "other" people on the streets, and if you’ve ever been traveling you know what I mean; the people who want your money, or who are just plain and simple, up to no good.

Now there’s all sorts of people that have pestered me on the streets, from people trying to sell me little bracelets, to people trying to sell me heroin, and there are different ways to deal with both. Some situations may be dangerous and others completely harmless.

First, let me start off by stating that I may have a distinct advantage in both situations mentioned above, over other foreign travelers in Central America given my ethnic background. I’m half Latino, and I’ve had the luxury on this trip of people in all the different countries I’ve visited thinking that I’m from that particular country. I’ve had people say, “Oh, at first glance I thought you were Guatimalteco” (insert here: Tico, Colombiano, or any other country for that matter) and I’ve heard that over, and over again, in every country I’ve been to so far.

So, I guess you can say that I may be a little bit like a Chameleon. If I’m not walking around the streets loaded down with my backpack and reading my guide books, I can pretty much blend into the background of whichever country I’m in, unless that is, I open my mouth and my accent comes out, in which case my cover is completely blown. So I believe that when I’m walking around on the streets with my mouth closed, I don’t really appear as a extranjero or foreigner to most people, and for the most part that’s an advantage in avoiding trouble that a lot of foreigners run into many times, just because they are foreigners, or appear to look like foreigners.

(Just take a look at the picture above and try and focus in on the guy in the background. Yes, thats me dancing there! My roomate here in Bogota found this picture online while she was looking at some photos taken from some of the salsa clubs over the past weekend, and Id say that I blend into the crowd pretty well!)

So, back to the people on the street…Lets start with the people trying to sell you things because this is really an easy one. Usually these people are totally harmless, and are not a threat to your safety, but sometimes they can be just down right persistent, and after you’ve been solicited to buy things over, and over, and over again, day after day, you start to think of ways to either avoid them or just get out of the situation all together from the get go.

Surprisingly in my experience, the best way that I’ve found for dealing with people who just won’t leave you alone when trying to sell you something is to believe it or not, talk to them in English. When you’re sitting in the park for example, and a person who randomly walks up to you trying to sell you something, 9 times out of 10, they are only going to know how to speak Spanish, or their native language, what ever it may be, and all this person cares about is trying to sell you this particular item, be it a bracelet or scarf or whatever. I’ve found that when you reply back to them in their own language (being Spanish in this case), they are just like normal sales people who don’t take no for an answer.

For example, I had one girl try and sell me a bracelet while I was sitting in the park in Antigua, Guatemala and I remember the conversation went something like this in Spanish:

Girl: “Bracelets” (showing them to me)
Me: “No thank you”
Girl: “It’s a beautiful bracelet”
Me: “No thank you”
Girl: “Why not, 2 for $1” ( again showing them to me)
Me: “No thank you, I don’t need it”
Girl: “Why don’t you need it?”
Me: “Uh, no thanks because I don’t need it”
Girl: “Why?”
Me: “Because I said so”

And this happens all the time, people just don’t take “no”, or “no thank you” for an answer the first, second, or third time. BUT, I have found out that when you talk to someone really fast in a language they don’t understand, they tend to get “the wide eyed panicked look” like, “what the hell is this person saying?” I know I did when people talked to me when I was first learning Spanish, and they either turn tail and run, because its not worth their time to try and communicate with you, or they just let you go on your way after a few seconds.

Trust me I’ve tried it and it works in every country. If someone is trying to sell me something, and they just keep pushing after I have given them the initial silent universal “head shake” that means “no”, I just say in really fast English, “What did you say, sorry I don’t speak Spanish man”, and I pause and look that them in a serious manner. They usually stop talking at this point and you can basically walk away and if not, just start asking them a bunch questions in English really fast back to back, and at some point they will give up.

But you really have to make sure that you give them no idea that you actually know what they are saying even if you do speak Spanish. The key is, to make it impossible for them to communicate and sales pitch you, and to talk really fast and look at them like their supposed to understand you, in order to activate their feeling of “Oh my god, I have no idea what this person is saying”. If any of you have ever traveled somewhere where there is another language used other than English as the primary language, I assume you know that feeling all to well.

For the most part, I am very courteous and do communicate in Spanish politely 99% of the time, and I am also by no means advocating walking around in a foreign country and advertising the fact that you are a foreigner by speaking English to everyone or even worse, being one of those foreigners that expects the whole world to speak English.

It’s just a simple tactic to be used quickly in a specific, harmless situation with the street vendors. Primarily, I use this “I only speak English” tactic in certain situations with the more aggressive people; for example when I’m walking down the street I see a person who is approaching me that “has me in their sights” and is trying to “head me off at the pass” so to speak, to try and sell me something or solicit me. Or just on some days when I just don’t want to deal with people trying to sell me things at all, and everyone has those.

Now on to the more troublesome situations….

So, your walking along minding your own business and someone one the street comes up to you and says: “Que pasa” (Whats up), “Disculpe” (Excuse me), “Una Pregunta” (I have a question), “Adonde vas” (where you going?)…you need a taxi, you need a place to stay, etc, etc…

Often times, they will ask you a simple question to get you to stop, or will walk along side you talking, as your walking down the street trying to get your attention. When you don’t know someone and this happens, or when you can tell someone is going completely out of their way to talk to you, like running across the street, or coming up to you as soon as you get off a bus or out of a cab, this signals one thing and one thing only…trouble.

I’ve had every kind of situation imaginable, start from these few examples; from asking me for money, to trying to get me to go god knows where with them. Here are couple different examples…

In Costa Rica, I got off of the bus in San Jose with two girls returning from Manuel Antonio and I hear, “Hey, you need a taxi?” and the second I turn around there’s two cab drivers literally screaming at each other arguing over who saw us first, and “who gets to take the gringos”. So I ask the guy who won the argument, “Hey, how much to the airport”, even though I didn’t even need to go to the airport and knowing that it was about $7 one way, and guess how much he quotes me? $25…what a surprise! The guy ended up following us around for 2 blocks badgering us about taking his taxi to the airport and I finally had to tell him, “Hey, if I need your services…I will find you.”

Another time in Belize I was with a fellow traveler after a hard night of drinking rum we happened to be walking down the street and low and behold we found a coconut on the ground. Now after a bottle of rum, when you randomly find a coconut on the ground, what are you going to do with it? You’re going to try and smash it open and drink the milk of course! So I’ve got this coconut and I’m slamming it against the ground at 3am trying to get it open, and this guy rides up to us on his bike and says, “What’s up”. Again, knowing full well, this guys up to something so I ignore him. Finally, he goes, “let me help you with the coconut” and I relented. So he snatches the coconut out of my hand and goes, here hold this. The next ting I know he’s handing me this giant sack of weed, and knowing full well that you can get into some serious shit with drugs in Belize (even though they sell weed right next to the police station on a daily basis), I didn’t want to even chance it, and just said “Hey, keep the coconut and have a nice night” and I left with my friend.

So, these were just two examples, and I’ve got story after story of people trying to stop me on the street that were either trying to scam me, or were just up to no good (see my Managua post on how I found the hostel as another example), and yes I’ve had plenty of things happen. But there’s no need to cry over spilt milk, so we’ll just leave it at these two examples for now.

And they are important examples to learn from, because as you can see, I responded in the most part to these guys initial “set up questions” or statements, which was a mistake. 99% of the time, when you are in situations like these, where you know someone wants something from you, or that they are up to no good, the best thing to do is just not to respond and keep walking, as I have done many, many times.

It seems that people try and prey on the ignorant travelers whom, when someone speaks to them that they don’t know, and when things just don’t feel right about the situation, they give the person the benefit of the doubt and stop to talk. Because most people that are traveling abroad are good people and when you ask them a question on the street they will respond, and even if they don’t know what you are saying they will stop and try and listen.

So my advice for when you’re on the streets of a foreign country is this; to always, always, trust your instincts because their usually right. Most people are really friendly and are a pleasure to talk to, however, if someone comes up to you on the street and wants to talk to you, and it doesn’t “feel right”, it probably isn’t… so keep walking.

A simple, “No Gracias” will always suffice. :)