An endless bus ride later and we reach Barrios, none too pleased to get out of the comfortable back seat I clamber out dazed and frazzled onto the street of the depot. The town is as dirty as Guatemala but with a caribbean feel. Teens in shorts riding bikes and young girls with mini skirts and tank tops can be seen flirting through the darkness. We pull our stuff out of the bus and look for something to eat, everywhere seems cheap and nasty, but I am excited purely from knowing we are at the coast, finally at the caribbean. We settle for an empty well lit restaurant. I order some tacos... and get a tortilla with meat.
"Can I have some lettuce and tomato?" I ask sheepishly,
"We dont have lettuce" Comes the gruff reply,
"But that man has a plate full!"
The waiter grabs my plate and walks off in disgust, returning with a few leaves of lettuce and two slices of tomato. I eat my food and put my head down. Emmanuel reminisces about Mexican food.
We go back to the depot to sleep, but the heat makes it impossible so Emmanuel and I go up the road to a small alcove and smoke some pipes. We have a good chat about mushrooms and Emmanuels many psychedellic trips. Three guys our age appear from the darkness, they seem friendly, we shout them drags. Something feels strange but I think better of it and kepep chatting, "You're our brothers' our new acquaintances insist then walk off.
We keep on talking, it's getting late but the night feels young, the three youths come back, we have a chat, two get rowdy but the taller one with the afro and yellow shirt tells them to keep quiet.
"These are our brothers, you gotta look after the brothers, be good to your brothers!" he scolds, Emmanuel and I nervously agree and keep the conversation going. He then turns to us.. "Look after your brothers! Thats what its all about! So I looked after you, you look after me, what's that necklace you got?"
I look at Emmanuel, "Leave" he says sternly. I stay.
The tall brother grabs my necklace and before I know what is happenning, an icepick is held to my throat. Realizing the gravity of the situation I quickly freeze up and try to calmly deal with the 'brother', drops of sweat form on my forehead while I entertain the consequences a wrong move could entail.
"You gotta look after your brother, brother!"
I am not prepared for this.. I snap.
"You're not my brother!! Man we shouted you some weed now you want my necklace? Its not worth shit! Why would you want that?! I stutter..
"What have you got then.. Brother.. whats in your pockets?!"..
"Nothing! We're poor like you!"
He reaches into my pocket and pulls out my money, 60 quetzales, not much but enough to eat for a few days. The other two are onto Emmanuel, they rip his necklace, he tries to get it back but they push him away, each one has an icepick, holding them to his chest they rip his brand new camera out of his pants and toss it at each other laughing.
"What have we got here! Thought you didnt have anything! Hahahaa allrite boys! These brothers are looking after their own! Lets go brother! Hahah!"
They take off into the dark allyway they had appeared from. Emmanuel is upset, I am in a state of disbelief.
"How could they do that! They were so nice at first, they took your only posession! Man that SUCKS!" I yell incredulously.
"Just crackheads, i'll live.. maybe I wasnt meant to have it, let's go" Emmanuel quickly replies.
We walk back defeated to the depot. Jenni had been worried. With nothing left to do we try to sleep and wait to get out in the morning.