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| Photo courtesy of QueHayEnLoja |
Misconception: Loja is safe at all hours of the day or night.
Clarification: This statement, and variations of it, is written in articles, internet posts, books, etc., about the city of Loja. Common sense would dictate that it is not true, but all of us sometimes give in to what we WANT to believe rather than what makes sense. Loja is a CITY, of course there is crime, of course you have to be careful. It therefore strikes me as quite irresponsible on the part of the authors that repeat this untruth time and time again. (It is clear that the vast majority who write about Loja in English-speaking books and websites have spent very little time in Loja and for some, none at all.)
Loja, as the 9th biggest city (by population) in the country and the 4th biggest city in the high mountains of Ecuador (after Quito, Cuenca and Ambato), has the expected issues with safety for a Latin American city of it's size.
The pick pockets in Loja are very, very good at what they do. When I was teaching a night class to local Ecuadorian professionals, I asked them about crime in Loja. All of them had either had their cell phone stolen or knew someone personally who had. This is particularly problematic on the public buses. These Ecuadorian adults said they never felt a thing when their phones were taken. My son has had three phones stolen, two on the bus when they were in his FRONT pocket. The other one was stolen by a group working as a threesome. He was walking near downtown at night with his girlfriend (a bad decision for them to be out there at that hour without a larger group -- it was around 7 PM). The three robbers approached them from 3 different angles. They beat up my son and took his phone while his girlfriend watched in fear. It could have been much worse but it surely was not pleasant.
Another friend, a woman in her early 40s, got cash at a bank and went directly to the bus (also a bad decision but she was in a hurry and didn't think about it). $300 was robbed from her purse on the bus and she never felt a thing.
Three young women who were working at the university where I worked took a hike together. As they crossed a mountain ridge, two men ran up to them with knives and demanded their possessions. They lost cameras, cash and cell phones.
My college-student son and I left a restaurant just after 8 PM on a week night and were headed for a store to get more "saldo" (balance on a cell phone so you can keep making calls). We turned left on a street that was two city blocks from the central park. The street was deserted except for one man on the opposite side of the street but the block was well-lit by the street lights. The man was peeing against a wall (VERY common all over Ecuador) and it seemed like he was having some trouble as it was taking awhile. I thought to myself that as long as he did not come toward us, we would just keep walking. But, he turned toward us and made a diagonal across the street straight at us. I grabbed my son's arm signaling him to stop. We backed away slowly while the man pleaded with us to come closer, saying things like "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you." I whispered to my son that when I said "run" to turn and go as fast as he could. When the man became more aggressive, I said "run!" We turned and ran the way we had come, half a block up then headed south toward a busier street, ran one block, turned left and found an open store. Upon entering, my heart was pounding so hard, but we were safe, we were okay. My sidekick later told me that the man's speech was slurred, something I had not noticed, but my son can hear Spanish better than I can because his mama had the foresight to put him in a bilingual school starting with kindergarten!
A European co-worker went to a bar with his Ecuadorian wife one night. Someone put something in their drinks, took them home and robbed them. They didn't remember anything from the point of the taxi arriving back at their house with the robbers. They woke up the next day with awful headaches and all their valuables missing from the house. There have been other reports of this drug being used on people in Loja (and many more reports of this in Cuenca, also in Vilcabamba and of course in Guayaquil and Quito).
These stories could go on and on, but you get the idea. Also, home robberies happen with some frequency. Many of my adult students had experienced a home robbery or had a close friend or relative who had. You absolutely have to be aware of your surroundings and take precautions.
My university students told me to never go out at night without a group of people. This is very easy for most Ecuadorians because it is not culturally common for people to do things alone. North Americans and many Europeans, on the other hand, are much more accustomed to going places alone without thinking much about it. But being alone or even with only one other person at night in the city can make you an easy target, so it's best to avoid this situation.
During the day, I walk all over the city by myself. I am very aware of my surroundings, I wear tennis shoes most of the time, I'm athletic and can run if I need to. When I come across someone who might be trouble, I cross the street or go the other way. I haven't had a problem personally with crime here other than the pick pockets. However, other foreign teachers at the university were robbed multiple times. And my son says it happens with frequency to him as well, though he's gotten better at getting away. One time he was walking with an Ecuadorian in the middle of the day near downtown and someone came up and pulled a knife on them. His Ecuadorian friend responded to the robber in a very firm (and angry) voice and the assailant ran away. This taught my son a lot about the way young Ecuadorian men may handle these situations.
As far as violent crime, Loja seems to have very little other than drug deals gone bad. Now and then there's a murder at the bus terminal in the wee hours of the night. Recently I was walking near my house as it was getting dark and a local woman I had met a week earlier on a different walk told me it was not safe for me to be out there that late. Her grandmotherly advice was to not venture in that area after 4 PM. Then she went out of her way to tell me that on that very street a woman had been raped and murdered and her body left in the street to be found by those that lived nearby. (Note: Since apparently no one in the neighborhood knew the victim -- if this incident actually occurred -- this could also have been drug-related violence. As we are close to the Peruvian border, there is drug traffic that moves through Loja although my understanding is that the majority takes the coastal route instead.) As I continued my walk home I said hello and smiled to all the people who would make eye contact with me and most seemed quite friendly. I don't know what to make of what my new acquaintance told me, but truthfully I have not taken that walk again later in the afternoon since that conversation.
Okay, so this has NOT been a fun blog to write but it had to be done. I will say that I feel MUCH safer here than I would in the U.S. in the same size city. But, I don't take my safety for granted. I do pay attention to who and what is going on around me and take appropriate action. There are also important cultural lessons I am learning which relate to safety. For instance, many Ecuadorian men consider it an invitation for sex if a woman allows him into her home when no one else is there. People tell me the U.S. was like this in the 1950's, but most coming from North America north of the Mexican border will not be familiar with this way of thinking so many decades later. Foreign women who are going to live among Ecuadorians (rather than among other expats) need to become aware of the very different norms here in regard to male-female interactions and relationships as a matter of safety as well as being part of learning about your new surroundings/culture. (This does not affect the vast majority of expats in Ecuador because almost all end up living in places with other expats and having very limited time with Ecuadorians.)
Ecuadorians do not walk around Loja in fear and neither do I. Being aware of what is going on around you does not mean being afraid. The people who are from here are much calmer and kinder than what many of us from the U.S. or Canada are used to in cities. And it isn't like individuals experience crime everyday here. Most of us go for years or even decades without incidents. Also, tourists are rarely the victims of crime in Loja, though tourists must use common sense as well. For instance, don't pull out expensive laptops and cell phones in crowded public spaces and don't go to a bar and leave your drink unattended.
The main take away here is that Loja is a city and has the crime that comes with being a city. So, just remind yourself of this every time you read an article on Loja that tells you there is no crime here and that it is completely safe, etc. Be aware of your surroundings and most likely you will be fine.
