now to put this in context i don't think i thought much about what to do. over my travels in south america i had been attacked seriously twice before (*2), and over time i had told myself that giving in to these people would only make it worse for other "travelers" to come. this i think for good or bad had become conditioned in me, an instinct i wasn't going to squash. but also given my passion for birds and wildlife and the whole reason for the trip loosing my gear was actually practically unthinkable (we had everything valuable with us rather that leave it in the hotel). so i immediately said "no" and shook my head. at this point adrenaline had started pumping, and i had little idea what rich and eric were doing behind me. anyway, he looked a little agitated and with a wave of the blade repeated his demands, to which i replied the same, and there was a momentary pause. then almost together though we both spotted eric's bag on a slightly isolated bench, and in an instant he lunged and grabbed it. then luckily for us, in retrospect, he made his mistake. instead of backing off slowly protected by his machete, he dashed off after his companions who were now running of down the slope. no way would i have tackled a guy backing away with a machete, but the instant i saw him turn and run i was running down the rocky slope after him. as i ran i was shouting at him, in a mixture of spanish and english, swearing in english, and saying "muerte" (death) in spanish, together with some other gruesome, but grammatically very poor spanish. i was as well rapidly gaining on him, and the instantaneous thought was to use my advantage of size and gravity to just land on top of him, squash him and give him no chance to use the blade. his friends were seemingly out of the equation, being faster runners. just before this could happen, as i was just a few feet away from him and about to leap he dropped the bag and his momentum carried him a dozen metres down the hill before he turned again with the machete raised. i grabbed erics bag, stood there and just shook my head. surprisingly i acted as if this was just a routine event in the life of an explorer. by this time rich and eric arrived behind me and he turned and continued down the hill. a little panicked at the thought of them returning with reinforcements, we wound our way down the rock on the alternative west side back into the bario, and with many sideways glances half an hour later were back in the busy centre of the town.