No kidding! I’m sure a lot of people who worry about traveling would be safer if they did. Although we do have an article coming up about Corsica and it’s bandits.
I have heard the pick-pocketers are rampant; & I am concerned about kidnapping. The next day after the tour of Quito we are headed to the Galapagos Is..
As I said, we don't know the specifics of Quito, but when it comes to these kinds of crimes, do our best to minimize our personal footprint. Leaving jewelry, etc., at home or in the hotel safe, dressing down as far as possible. Glinda wears an over-the-shoulder bag we call her walkabout safe. Nothing in outside pockets. No drugs and no boozing to excess. Awareness of surroundings without looking especially paranoid. Pickpockets and kidnappers are in the business to make a profit, and that means a constant risk-reward calculation of their own--the expert sleight-of-hand specialists you see in movies are a fiction. So check out the other targets in the square or on the bus, and if you are clearly the best target--the easiest or juiciest mark or both--either leave or make changes. I was picked last month in Paris, BTW, but it was entirely my own fault (too much alcohol for dinner and half-asleep with a phone sticking out of an outside pocket). Such things rarely happen out of purely random circumstances.
Thanks for your comments
A pleasure! Hope you’re enjoying your trip, especially the islands.
Not there yet. about 3 weeks away.
Awesome insight. Made me laugh at the sheer adventure of traveling and the honesty of the writers.
Thank you, Margie! We aim to goof up so you don't have to.
Disease, Crime, Anger, Your own fear...Hell, I go through all these just getting from my house to Wal-Mart!
No kidding! I’m sure a lot of people who worry about traveling would be safer if they did. Although we do have an article coming up about Corsica and it’s bandits.
This process did not work well. I need to ask you guys about safety in Quito Ecuador
Al avenoso
Ask away, Al, although we don’t know much about Ecuador. That one has escaped our radar.
I have heard the pick-pocketers are rampant; & I am concerned about kidnapping. The next day after the tour of Quito we are headed to the Galapagos Is..
As I said, we don't know the specifics of Quito, but when it comes to these kinds of crimes, do our best to minimize our personal footprint. Leaving jewelry, etc., at home or in the hotel safe, dressing down as far as possible. Glinda wears an over-the-shoulder bag we call her walkabout safe. Nothing in outside pockets. No drugs and no boozing to excess. Awareness of surroundings without looking especially paranoid. Pickpockets and kidnappers are in the business to make a profit, and that means a constant risk-reward calculation of their own--the expert sleight-of-hand specialists you see in movies are a fiction. So check out the other targets in the square or on the bus, and if you are clearly the best target--the easiest or juiciest mark or both--either leave or make changes. I was picked last month in Paris, BTW, but it was entirely my own fault (too much alcohol for dinner and half-asleep with a phone sticking out of an outside pocket). Such things rarely happen out of purely random circumstances.