We discovered the bonde station closed upon our arrival. Bewildering! Later we would learn that the conductors of the trolley to Santa Teresa were on strike. But today, just outside the locked gate, sat we and a small handful of equally bewildered tourists. One woman was crying. She was German, which I could tell both from my innate sense of heritage and from the accent in her weeps. I thought, It is only a trolley, lady. As it turns out, she and her husband had been robbed at knifepoint, in broad daylight, mere moments earlier and mere meters nearby. That the station was closed, bewildering as I have already discussed it was, only added insult to their injuries. A couple of overweight American empty-nesters were trying to console the Germans, but it didn't seem to be
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