George Kourounis
EF2
Okay, this was scary.
We made it back to Montego Bay and had one last night here in Jamaica before our scheduled flight this afternoon. We headed out to find a restaurant and only got a few feet from the hotel when some local guy appeared and started getting friendly, then a second guy showed up. It seemed pretty clear that these guys were street hustlers, they show you where to go, then ask for money. Fine, I've dealt with this kind of thing before but I had a bad feeling, it was the day after the hurricane, the street lights were out because of the power outages and and we were getting too far away from the hotel.
They took us to a few places but none had any food so decided to turn back and return to the hotel. That's when the inevitable request for payment came. We asked him what would be reasonable and he said $20 U.S. for each of us (myself, Jim Leonard and Peter Rowe). I laughed at the guy and told him his price was outrageous, Most of the time, this is the start of the typical negotiation process. Unfortunately, Peter had taken out his wallet and was trying to figure out the local exchange rate, that's when he grabbed Peter's wallet and ran...
Here's where things get really interesting.
I instictively ran after the guy. I've chased down thieves before so I didn't give it a thought. The problem was that he ran across the street and when I followed him, I forgot that they drive on the left side of the road here. he ran in front of an oncoming car and that's when I came to the sudden realization that I didn't have enough time to stop. Collision was inevitable.
I hit the front right fender and went up onto the windshield then up onto the roof and rolled back off the right side and down onto the ground. It was like a stuntman in an action film. The instant I hit the ground, I popped back and kept running, to get the thief and to get out of the way of the next car coming down the road. I kept running until the guy dashed into a pitch black park. A woman standing outside the park entrance said that I didn't want to go in there and I wisely took her advise. The guy got away and my adrenaline was still pumping so hard that I wasn't even sure if I had any serious injuries.
The car never stopped and the second guy eventually took off.
This is one of the closes brushes with death I've ever had and I'm amazed that I didn't get any serious injury at all, I'm just a little sore this morning and I have a bit of road rash but all things considered, I can't believe I'm not in a Jamaican hospital...or worse.
Something to think about when chasing hurricanes, especially in certain areas.
George.Kourounis
www.stormchaser.ca
We made it back to Montego Bay and had one last night here in Jamaica before our scheduled flight this afternoon. We headed out to find a restaurant and only got a few feet from the hotel when some local guy appeared and started getting friendly, then a second guy showed up. It seemed pretty clear that these guys were street hustlers, they show you where to go, then ask for money. Fine, I've dealt with this kind of thing before but I had a bad feeling, it was the day after the hurricane, the street lights were out because of the power outages and and we were getting too far away from the hotel.
They took us to a few places but none had any food so decided to turn back and return to the hotel. That's when the inevitable request for payment came. We asked him what would be reasonable and he said $20 U.S. for each of us (myself, Jim Leonard and Peter Rowe). I laughed at the guy and told him his price was outrageous, Most of the time, this is the start of the typical negotiation process. Unfortunately, Peter had taken out his wallet and was trying to figure out the local exchange rate, that's when he grabbed Peter's wallet and ran...
Here's where things get really interesting.
I instictively ran after the guy. I've chased down thieves before so I didn't give it a thought. The problem was that he ran across the street and when I followed him, I forgot that they drive on the left side of the road here. he ran in front of an oncoming car and that's when I came to the sudden realization that I didn't have enough time to stop. Collision was inevitable.
I hit the front right fender and went up onto the windshield then up onto the roof and rolled back off the right side and down onto the ground. It was like a stuntman in an action film. The instant I hit the ground, I popped back and kept running, to get the thief and to get out of the way of the next car coming down the road. I kept running until the guy dashed into a pitch black park. A woman standing outside the park entrance said that I didn't want to go in there and I wisely took her advise. The guy got away and my adrenaline was still pumping so hard that I wasn't even sure if I had any serious injuries.
The car never stopped and the second guy eventually took off.
This is one of the closes brushes with death I've ever had and I'm amazed that I didn't get any serious injury at all, I'm just a little sore this morning and I have a bit of road rash but all things considered, I can't believe I'm not in a Jamaican hospital...or worse.
Something to think about when chasing hurricanes, especially in certain areas.
George.Kourounis
www.stormchaser.ca
