Welcome to Nicaragua!
We'll Take Those Wallets For You
Managua

Robbery number three made me think of Chapter 9 of the Tao Te Ching:

Stretch a bow to the very full,
And you will wish you had stopped in time;
Temper a sword-edge to its very sharpest,
And you will find it soon grows dull.
When bronze and jade fill you hall
It can no longer be guarded.
Wealth and place breed insolence
That brings ruin in its train.
When your work is done, then withdraw!
Such is Heaven's* way.

*as opposed to the Way of man.

We were walking only three blocks from the Tica-Bus station on our way to the ATM. Three banditos, in broad daylight got:

--30 (Honduran) Lempiras (US$1.5)
--my 5 megapixel Panasonic Lumix FX8 ($350)
--All our bank cards (paid for with the high interest rates of credit card balance carriers)
--harmonica ($5)
--banjo slide (gift)

When we got back to the Tica-Bus station, we asked the attendant why he didn't warn us about the necessity of taking a taxi. "Yeah, maybe we should put up a sign about how dangerous this place is."

Funny that the robbery happened just as I was telling Susan, "Let's walk a little faster. I don't mind walking through this neighborhood during the day, but I want to get back to the station before dark."

We got help from a retired army dude who "would have helped [us], but there were three of them. You really shouldn't have been walking on this road. It's one of the worst in Managua."

We filed a report with the police, but it's unlikely they're going to do anything. They did not ask for a way to contact us. Because our friends of friends were not home when we arrived in the city, we almost gave up on them and planned on sleeping in the Tica-bus station with they very amiable guards. Juan, an off-duty attendants even bought us dinner. It's funny, as we were coming into town, Susan said, "I want to go to a nice Chinese restaurant and get tofu tonight." We hadn't had any since California. Without our requesting it, Juan brought us take-out. Nothing other than our palate's desire: tofu.

Anyone going to the Ticabus station in Managua should use a taxi. Or carry a machete.