As safety & security are a big concern for us ex-pats, I thought I'd relate an event that I experienced a couple days ago. I have been traveling frequently by bus (3 times/week, back-forth) from Salinas to Guayaquil. When I return in the evenings to Salinas, I am usually on a very late bus, typically 10 pm. This Thursday, the bus starts to exit the platform and a passenger asks to exit. We leave the terminal and head out to the intersection when another passenger asks to exit. (it is not normal for this to happen). Half hour later the bus stops at a gas station but does not enter (not normal). Half hour later the bus is pulled over by police. Two very large, very heavily armed police in full uniform enter the bus. We take off, with police on board. We travel 10 min. Police tell driver to pull over. It is now aprox 10:30pm. Police addresses the passengers: "for your safety and security we need all men to stand up, exit the bus, and form a single file line outside". They do so with aprox 5 other officers waiting outside. Then 2 other police enter the bus and proceed to tell us ladies that we need to open and empty the contents of our purses/bags/etc. We do so. A solid half hour passes and the police search the seats, overhead cabins, and luggage underneath. They thank us for our cooperation and they head on their way and the bus departs. I asked the driver what happened and he said that the second passenger who asked to exit the bus reported a "suspicious person" on the bus to police, that is why he had exited. The police tracked our bus down and followed us. Thankfully nothing was found and nothing happened. Although a little unnerving, I was thrilled to see that the good old "if you see something, say something" adage worked down here. I must say I was pleasantly surprised. Serious, professional and thorough. Kudos to those particular police officers.
