A good day for a mugging ....

I had found a hostel and checked in. I took a little nap and woke a little stir crazy from the bus ride, so I decided to go for a little walk. I walked all the way to old town which was about 3 miles away. It was getting very hot, so I grabbed some lunch and decided to head back. Full of lunch I came to the conclusion that I'd just walk it off instead of taking a taxi. I had walked around 30 minutes when I realized I was in the area of my hostel but did not know exactly where it was. I rounded a corner and saw a run down apartment complex with younger men yelling at me. I ignored them and continued walking. I made it another 30 feet when a young man stood in front of me. He grabbed me by my lower shirt with his left had, and reached into my pockets with his right. Being a warrior I had a natural reaction; I grabbed his left hand with my right, twisted his arm, and gave him a good left hook to his face. Instantly I was knocked to the ground by an unknown force. I got up as fast as I could to continue the fight when I was slammed to the wall. There were four of them and one was holding a knife to my upper pelvis area. Once the first guy who I punched started pulling money out of my pockets one of the guys holding me let go, and the guy with the knife removed it. A guy removed my passport, I grabbed it, and kicked him in the stomach. Ready to run, I noticed they had to began to run. I felt it was fear of the new fight in me, but this was not the case. Two Panamanian National Police had seen me getting mugged and were chasing them. I stood there in shock for a good 20 seconds when a gun fight broke out. I started running away from the sound of firing, when a third police man told me to run with him. "ARE YOU CRAZY!?!" I yelled, and decided to follow anyway. Before I knew it there were police everywhere. They had caught one of them and put him in the back of a police pickup truck that had a cover over it. They then started to ask him questions with answers that the police apparently didn't like because then they began to taze him. They must of tazed him 10 times for about 5 seconds each time. I don't know if you've ever been tazed before, but I give props to the kid for not passing out after the third. They had caught another and they asked me to identify him in the back of a police car, I identified positivly. They told me to get in one of the police trucks and they brought me to the station. They told me that they don't file reports for tourist and that I had to wait for the tourist police. The tourist police took me another place that didn't seem like a police station at all, and sat me down. After about 20 minutes a man walked up and told me he was my translator. He spoke english really well, buuuuuutttttt reeeeeaaaalllllyyyy slllloooooowwwww. He asked me where I was staying, I had told him that I didn't remember because I wasn't there for very long, and I had a piece of paper in my pocket, which was taken, if he could get me the internet I could find it in no time. "OUR GOVERMENT CAN'T AFFORD THE INTERNET!" He said very angerly, with his raised slow english talking voice. He soon informed me that I couldn't file the police report there, and we had to go somewhere else that had juresdiction. Yet again another police station, they brought me down stairs and sat me there. I sat for a good hour or so when they told me that one of my assalants was shot, and they were ready for my report. The report took forever because the translator talked just as slow in spanish as he did english. Once we finished he told me they had sent a tourist police to pick me up and bring me back to my hostle. "I'll just walk" I replied jokingly, which he did not find funny whatsoever. I was mugged at about 3:30pm and finished the report around 10:30pm. I was taken back to my hostel, and fell asleep instantly. I woke when a man shook me and said "Alvin, your friends are here.""Not another mugging!" I cried. It was not, in fact, it was the sweet sweet faces of Dean and Bob. Ok, maybe their faces aren't so sweet, but after all that had happen I was ready to no longer be alone. My hostel was full so we took a cab to another hostel that they had found which was much better. We are now trying to figure out how to get to Columbia. There are boats that take five days and stop at islands, or there are plane flights. The planes are a little cheaper, and to the point. The boats have meals that come with them, and seem like a really awesome experience. I guess it's down to the democracy of the group.