Mugged at knifepoint in Belem, north east Brazil - 18 Feb

Our one and only night we stayed in the city of Belem we got mugged at knifepoint. Belem is the big, ugly city at the end of the Amazon River on the far north east coast of Brazil. I would like to gloss it up and say Belem isnt actually that bad, but I cant.. I really hate the place. I wouldnt recommend it to anyone as a ´must see´ but it is a place you often go through to get from the Amazon River to the rest of the North East.

We were there one night and this is what happened. This is taken from a part of an email I sent to Kim Staub shortly after. We werent going to tell everyone about it because we didnt want to give anyone cause to worry. But now we figure that we are fine and unhurt and (a few weeks later) it all seems like a bad dream....

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18 February

We arrived in Belem last night and found a hotel. It was all quite difficult as our Portugese isnt the best and NO ONE speaks any English. However, we managed. Dumped our bags, got some directions for where we could get something to eat and started walking there.

It felt pretty dodgy but we had put on our whities disguise clothes and covered up as much as possible, and looked as poor as possible. We didnt have much money on us in case someone tried to rob us. All the streets (which was the main street in the centre of Belem) looked so dodge to me. Really creepy. We couldnt find anything, asked another hotel for directions / suggestions and followed them towards the train station using a map they gave us. Soooo creepy. I hated it. We couldnt find the bloody place they told us to go to anyway.

So we decided to head back and maybe get something from this little supermarket thing we´d seen instead. We turned around and then it happened.

There were these two Brazilian guys standing there behind us, facing us, looking really, really creepy. As soon as we´d seen them we realised that they were there to mug us. It all happened so quickly. One of them pulled out a massive knife and was swinging it around in his hand buy his side. James started yelling out, picked me up and swung me out of the way and onto the road away from them telling me to run, yelling at them to f*ck off etc, god it all happened so quickly. I am having a bit of a panic attack just remembering it.

I ran into the middle of the 6 lane main road we were on (there was no traffic or people, which was creepy enough) and started running to the other side. Then the two guys split up and the one with the knife started running after me. James was in real Rambo defense mode (thank god) and was yelling at them calling their bluff.

The guys then hesitated (they obviously didnt have a clear plan of attack or else they would have coordinated the attack more efficiently) and we made a run for it. James was the whole time trying to protect me and was worrying they were going to knife me. I was worried that he wasnt running after me and they were going to be 2 on 1 attacking and knifing him. God it was awful. Just thinking back and remembering it, I get a horrible feeling of evil.. evil lurking behind us as we´d been walking along.. like a black, evil smoky mist seeping and seething all around us. A bit dramatic in description, but that´s what it felt like.. the Devil or something really evil.

However, they must have realised that James meant business and it wasnt going to be such an easy taking. There is something to be said for calling someones bluff, I guess. James was acting on instict and I guess it was just natural for him to go into ´protective man mode´.. They, for want of having a proper plan, and being not much more than 18 or 20 years old, got spooked and slinked off.

I was running off across the main roads and towards where some people were. Others saw it all happen but didnt really do anything. (Thanks!) I guess they didn´t want to risk getting knifed themselves. Once we were together and couldnt immediately see them coming after us anymore, we ran for our lives up the main street (as I said, a massive 6 lane road which was really busy the next day) which was deserted basically, all the way back to our hotel.

We had both had a massive and horrible adrenalin rush. When we got in the hotel door I broke down crying. I think it was the shock. We were both fine and unhurt, but it really shook us up. The hotel staff were really nice and the lady bought me a glass of water and we relayed in our best frightened, upset, pissed off Portugues what had just happened.

We got the hotel concierge to order us a home delivery pizza instead.

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NB. We have discussed the whole incident at length between ourselves and with other people.. hashing out the ´what if we had have done this´and the ´what if they had have done that´..´s and everything possible inbetween. These are some of the things we got out of it...

* if something feels dodgy or unsafe to either person, change your plans and go where you feel safe

* depending on the situation, it is usually better to give them something.. being a hero might not see you the hero at the end of it

* always have a ´fake wallet´on you with some small change in it. You can throw this at the attackers and while they are distracted you can run for your life

* if you can, carry a ´screamer´can or mace or pepper spray or whatever you can find

* a knife is one thing, but a gun is a completely different story

* anyone can be a thief or an attacker - (sorry, but) treat everyone with a degree of scepticism

* dont go anywhere in Brazil (or other dodgy places) away from main roads at night

* take off all your jewellery, bling, even wooden bead necklaces etc so you dont look as rich

* being a Westerner you will always stand out and always be a target - they have no idea about and dont care less about our personal money situations.. we are all rich whities to them and fruit ripe for the picking

* making lots of noise and running saved our lives in this case, but next time maybe not...

* always be on high alert

* people nearby dont always come to your rescue!

* try not to tar everyone with the same ´dodgy theiving ars*hole barstards scum licking thick-as-brick-thick toads´ brush afterwards.. This will be difficult!

* you may have recurring nightmares for a long time after an experience like this. :-(

* Its not the end of the world, get over it.

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This is what James wrote about Belem....

Took a cheap flight for the rest of the Amazon journey to Belem, a great big city on the coast where the Amazon ends its journey and fills up the Atlantic. Our plan was just to hop on a bus in Belem and not hang around as we´re not that interested in seeing all the big industrial cities and some are far more dodgy than others (as we later found out!). We had to stay one night in Belem and that was enough.

We ventured out of the hostel for some food at about 9pm and although it said not to go out at night unless you had to and to stick to the main roads etc we were pretty hungry and thought it would be ok. The street we walked down was a massive main road but towards the bottom end there weren´t many people about. I thought everything was tickety boo and wasn´t really worried although Erin said that it felt dodgy and perhaps we should go back. I said Naaaa, its alright but Erin was right.

Out of a little side street came two horrible little scrotums, one of whom pulled out a massive dagger. The other started to come round the back of us and I instinctively moved back and yanked Erin off her feet so that she was behind me. The whole fight/flight thing and my worry for Erin resulted in a lot of aggression and shouting obscenities, before telling Erin to leg it and growling some more at the scrotes so they didn´t follow her. They lost nerve and legged it themselves (luckily for me) and I did the same to catch Erin up.

In hindsight and if i´d have had time to think about my actions I would´ve just thrown money at them as the book suggests and then legged it, but you hear so many stories of low-lives like that stabbing tourists first then robbing them that maybe the rabid-monkey response was the best thing!

It really shook us up and we will not be getting ourselves in that situation again thats for sure. Guess you take the rough with the smooth with travelling, its not all beaches and cocktails. That was pretty rough so our next stop was Canoa Quebrada for beaches and cocktails :o) !

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