Robbed in Paraguay

© Alisa Clickenger / RumBum.com

It took several moments for my eyes to translate the scene in front of me into coherent thought. It was morning, and I was going to the motorbike to pack up and travel for the day, yet my panniers were already open, the contents spread out all over the garage and neighboring benches. Why were my tools out, souvenirs strewn about, and my jacket already hanging on the windshield? Yikes, it finally hit me; I'd been robbed.

Looking back, I'd broken several of my personal rules regarding safe travel. For almost seven months now these rules had served me well. Why did I break them now and why, in the last week of my trip, had I overridden my intuition that had served me so well all along my journey? I suppose I can partially blame it on the weather – I'd ridden in over 10 hours of rain, and was tired of being soaking wet and miserable. I can also partially blame it on the fact that my thoughts were more focused on “home” rather than my present surroundings.

The rules I'd ignored I thought were good ones. I never spent a night in a border town; because I was cold, wet, tired, and not wanting to cross the border into Argentina in the late afternoon, I made excuses to myself. I never left my bike in a car park far away from where I was sleeping; it was the first hotel I came to and so I made excuses to myself. And I never, ever had one thousand dollars in travel money; yet I needed fifteen hundred dollars, in cash, in four days, to ship the motorbike home, and so I was collecting money because of my bank's daily ATM limit. So I made excuses to myself about having that much cash.

In my own defense, I am a squirrel when it comes to money. I had some money on my person, some money in my luggage that came into the hotel with me, and unfortunately the bulk of the money on the motorbike. My theory had always been that I look like a gringo, so if someone wanted to rob my person, I'd be an easy target. I always carried a “fake” wallet with me with only about the equivalent of twenty dollars in it, with some expired credit cards and a fake driver's license – just enough to satisfy robbers but not lose anything meaningful.

I'd spoken to several travelers that shared tales of their items being stolen from hostel dorm rooms and private hotel rooms while traveling, so I always left the important stuff locked in the panniers locked to the bike. I suppose, in hindsight, that I should have taken better precautions and perhaps hidden the large stash of cash in a better place than in my passport holder, which was not at all well hidden amongst my souvenirs in the top box.

© Alisa Clickenger / RumBum.comMy intuition had tickled me when I checked into the hotel...something about the large number of people milling about, and the sketchy living quarters out back of the hotel bothered me but I  overrode the concern. My intuition was tickled again when I came back from dinner at 9:30 p.m. and noticed that the car park was still not locked up, but again I squelched my concerns. A pro-active me should have gone to the front desk and insisted that they lock it since it was after dark.

Warning bells aside, I now had to deal with the consequences of the robbery. I dutifully called the police, filled out a denuncio (statement) and took an inventory of what was missing. I suppose I should consider myself lucky in that while they stole my money, USB sticks, and all my cold weather clothing, they did leave my passport, spare motorbike parts and credit cards behind.

It cost me a whopping six dollars to have the locks on my panniers fixed, and most of the afternoon. Could I have done anything differently? Could I have prevented the robbery? Absolutely. Hindsight is 20/20. There are hundreds of things I wish I could go back and change. At the end of the day, however, I am safe, my motorbike still runs, and I now have yet another moto-adventure-story to share. I still consider myself an extremely lucky traveler.

Most of all I wish I could stop beating myself up over the huge amount of money lost. The amount lost equaled almost a tenth of my entire travel budget, and left me pretty much broke. (I was already stretching my budget by flying my motorbike back to the United States.) So, when all was said and done I had some decisions to make – fast.