In Peru and in Desperate Need of Help!

My feelings as well.

Its interesting how sensitive we are to that bad vibe when riding solo. Whether it was only in my head or not, I never stopped when I was getting vibes like that.

Situational awareness...

And how you're perceived.

In most heavy tourist places, you are seen as a wallet - as prey. Tis the plain truth.

Others, you're welcome, interesting entertainment among friendly people.

The enclaves....of different types, should have your radar abuzz.

Good SA. Its the most important aspect of avoiding trouble, and the first line of defense. Avoiding confrontation is always preferable to dealing with confrontation, well, for me anyway. Me against 50 villagers that have some axe to grind? I'm not going to make out so well. Its important to pay attention. Not saying that these folks didnt pay attention, I wasnt there. But its just something to think about when we travel, or any other time for that matter.

Well, I can try to figure out the story as those peruvians did, I was just around cusco when I heard the story when getting some info on a police station about a brazilian guy who disapeared around Machu Picchu in December. I just couldn't believe on the story and didn't give the right attention, just thought it could a "urban legend".
During my trip, wich is not the first in SA, I noticed the bolivians and peruvians specially those who live in very remote and small villages are not very smart on situations that they're not used to, it happens because they've no parameters and see on foreigners the same kind of mentality that they have, wich may be dificult for us to understand, but they always think you're trying to cheat them or take some advantage.
just to ilustrate the situation, in bolivia there was a lady selling orange juice for 3 bolivian, my friend offered her 3 bolivians for 1 orange, she didn't sell it, went there and explained her it takes 4 orange for 1 glass of juice, she rapidly sold the orange. Gasoline in Bolivia, costs 3$ for bolivians and 9$ for foreigners, never paid 9$, always offered some extra they $$ on top of the price and thats'it, but of course it a takes a good conversation toget to this point. The thing is, they always think that's it's too good to be true and as they live in a place where laws are just a dream, they believe you're messing with them and make their decisions about the situation.
I don't believe this group of americans did something very wrong but for sure they crossed a thin line and those indigenous solved the situation as they solve among them, wich may be wrong for us but very right for them.

Of course i don't know exactly what happened and I'm not judging anybody, but a few lessons must be learned to deal on situations like that:
- Please, learn some good spanish to try to explain you were wrong and that won't happen again
- You're on a foreign country on third world, you'll be always wrong, no matter you're right, for them you're wrong and that's it.

Cheers

Rod
www.bikershelpdesk.blogspot.com