Just had to let you know what happened today. My first DIY hammock was chosen over my HH to be stolen!
Allow me to explain with a sloppy narration of what happened:
I can walk one block in any direction from my house and find a big park with a lot of trees. So every time i get the chance I go outside and hang my hammock setup for as long as I can. From time to time I like to take some of my camping gear with me to play around with it as well, but always include at least one more hammock besides mine in case i encounter any friends who would join me. Since monday, where are having public transportation strikes here in Bogota, so i've actually had the pleasure of having these past days off (from school and work) as well as my buddies so we have been hanging outside a lot.
Today (wednesday), i planned the hanging just for me alone (take some naps, read a bit, fiddle with the darn OCF pad) but as always, appart from my beloved HH, I did take an extra hammock: my first DIY.
Around 6pm, already getting dark, I got out of my hammock (HH expedition asym) to readjust the tieouts of my HEX to higher level. When I step out from under the tarp, there is this guy who is walking around the tarp. This is not strange, it does happen every time I hang the hammock, but this guy did have a suspicious appearance.
I immediately began talking to him (rough translation from spanish, but as accurate as possible):
ME: Sup?
GUY: ...
ME: You like the hammock?
GUY: You know I do, how about you take it down so i can take it now.
ME: aw, c'mon dude.
GUY: F#@^! @!%&@#$ Don't make me hurt you!
So, yeah, he wanted to rob me. At this point he took out a little knife.
1st Funny thing is at first I got worried about the tarp getting punctured by the knife, not me!
2nd Funny thing: He only wanted the hammock. I began complaining and telling him about how uncomfortable it would be for him to leave with all those things I had. But he told me he just wanted the hammock.
This relieved me so much! I was still more concerned about the tarp.
Seeing he only wanted the/a hammock, I offered him the other one, the DIY. This one wasnt hung, it was in a DIY stuff bag. He insisted that no, he wanted the one hanging.
Now, 3rd funny thing: I just went ahead and took out the DIY, hung it and began showing it to him, explaining pros and cons over the HH, as if i was selling it, and he did like it more! Or well, he just went liek "ok ok ok, it does look better, just put it again in the bag so i can leave". I did so and he left pretty fast.
That was it. I did call the police, and they arrived to the park in less than 5 minutes, but they just began telling me how this was actually my fault.
My neighborhood is very safe, but according to these cops, due to the strikes, apparently the whole Bogota becomes unsafe. That is rubbish, they were just LAZY!
Any how, my first DIY (which didnt cost more than $10) saved my HH, and I got away safely. This incident wont stop me from this "ritual" i have, but i sure will keep taking a spare hammock to these outings. Also, i cant help but feel proud of my DIY skills... he might have just been in a hurry, but he did chose my DIY over a HH.
EDIT NOTE: not sure if this was better to be placed in the trip report section of the forums. i apologize for the mistake
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