I threw 1.1kg of Mondongo at a scammer

I wanted to buy an adapter in Mendoza yesterday, it was quite the task. After following google maps with no luck a business owner pointed me to “Ferrateria Perfect Raggio”. I went over and with my prepared phrase in Spanish and asked for the product, he came back with a rusty one and at this point I had my money out. He then went and replaced it with another adapter and told me it was 1700 pesos, cheap I thought. I gave him my 10mil peso and he returned with 300 pesos.

I have heard about this scam before in Argentina, that some genius made the 2 mil and 10 mil peso notes very similar in appearance. I told him I gave him 10, he denied it and told his colleague to show me a 2. This proves nothing, but with 3 rough men and my basic Spanish I couldn’t do much. The look in his face and his tone suggested me to leave, so I left slowly, turned around a looked at him and the sign of the shop and left.

To keep the story short, I won’t go into my motivations if it isn’t simply enough to be an angry victim. I went to my hotel and talked to the gentleman and he confirmed this is a bad area and there’s nothing that could be done. Well, I don’t believe that.

I wanted to hurt him, I was so angry. I left my phone, sunglasses and took only 3 mil pesos. I put a camelback on and some dirty clothes. I was prepared to end up in the hospital or police station, but if I could avoid it I would naturally.

I went in the direction of shop, I wanted to throw something hard. I was on the street sooner than I thought I would be and that’s when I could smell it, fish. In the market I paced around, if you were at Mercado central at 12:30 yesterday and saw a gringo wearing a camel back moving with a sense of purpose, hi that’s me.

I couldn’t afford a fish and the queues were so big for the meat. I did several laps of the market, it started to feel ridiculous to stand in a queue for so long for my revenge. That’s what I did anyway. I saw the worst thing I could imagine and my mood lightened, dispensing this justice wouldn’t just be a way to draw a line under this bad affair but now it would be funny. I stood and waited, 10-12 minutes. Uno mondongo por favor.

In the process of buying my anger had lessened, but my conviction had not. Now it would just be harder.

I went outside with my bag of mondongo and worried the scammers would have the last laugh by eating it, I opened it and rubbed it on the ground and sat in the sun with it next to me. I watched.

Security was there in his car conducting a patrol and an employee from the ferrateria was outside on the phone. This was looking like a challenge. With 1.1kg of Mondongo in hand, half opened, it was too late to back out.

I went closer and like an NPC on patrol from a simple video game the employee was walking back and forth, it wasn’t the right man. He was inside, good.

I saw my chance but the man outside turned around too soon, I turned around and hid again. By now I must have been attracting attention with my erratic behaviour. It was now or never. The man turned around again and I took my chance.

I ran to the doorway and threw the mondongo directly at him. I can throw well and I had a good grip. Alas, I didn’t shout an insult or see the result. I fled. Across the road and for 5 minutes until I turned around and saw nobody was behind. I felt so alive.

I think it’s enough but the temptation is to go again so that these scammers will never know in future if they will be hit with a piece of raw mondongo again. I hope the lowlife has ptsd and dreams of raw mondongo.

Gracias por leer, Argentina es un país hermoso, hasta ahora estoy impresionado.

Edited: spelling/facts