A man came walking down the long winding sidewalk. He had on a sportcoat and dress shoes. He approached us and asked "Habla Espanol?" (Do you speak Spanish?). I responded in my one year of high school Spanish "Si!" (yes little dude, I do). He proceeded to tell me that he was a very bad man, that he had a gun, and he wanted our money. My wife didn't understand any of this. I am thinking to myself, "You 'gotta SHOW me the gun before you get my money, pal - that's how it works". When he finished telling me I just smiled at him and told him "No comprende"(I don't understand you). So he told me all over again that he was a "bandito" and very "mal" and had a "pistola" and wanted our "dinero". My wife looked at me and asked, "What does he want?". I told her, "He says he has a gun". She said "Oh ...".

All the while, an Ice Cream Vendor pushing a hand cart had been making his way down the long winding sidewalk. He was on a journey to the populated area of the beach. As he came abreast of us, he asked (in English) if we wanted any ice cream. Now the ice cream in those parts won't melt if you leave it out in the sun all day. But for some reason, right then we DID want ice cream! My wife and I stood up and walked around the ice cream cart, putting it between us and the Bandito. We paid for the ice cream and we turned and tried to hail a cab. The second one stopped for us, and I remembered to drop the ice cream in the gutter as we got in the taxi. The driver asked us, "Where to?". We said, "The Police Station". He pulled a u-turn and we sped back past the Bandito, now seated and talking to the Ice Cream Man, also seated. We surmised that if the Bandito was trying to rob him he wouldn't be able to pull the 'ol "We don't speak Spanish" gag. We told the Taxi Driver about the attempted robbery. He took a long look over his shoulder at the Bandito. He thought the Bandito probably didn't have a gun. He was probably just trying to scare us into giving up our money. We traveled in the taxi for about a mile when we spotted a policeman. We got out and told him about the Bandito. He used his radio to call for someone to check on the Ice Cream Vendor.