Can you bring pepper spray into Ecuador?

You can  buy pepper sprays in Ecuador, they're allowed to use and you don't need any special permit.

I think is Ok if you bring a few ones, maybe two or three but more than that you can have problems with customs.

Vinny

I am willing to bet it is harder to get Pepper Spray OUT of the USA or Canada than it is just to buy it here in Ecuador.

Mike
themiddleoftheworld.com

I was thinking I could just put it in my checked baggage.  I'm sure they wouldn't want me carrying it in the cabin.  So I guess it would just be a matter of weather they checked my bags.

It's good to know that it is available for purchase there.

If customs asks you what it's for, just tell em' you put it on your eggs !!

Some of us wouldn't be lying...

Can you pepper spray a burglar?  lol, seriously, what are you allowed to do to defend yourself, if you cannot beat up a burglar?

Bryon,
You can lightly salt. Pepper may be added, but you must avoid the eye's and nose regions. On occasion, I'll add a dash of paprika. It's so colorful!!! Makes em' run like hell. < GRIN >

I've brought pepper spray from the US twice in my checked luggage.

get that wasp spray that shoots far, like the emails you get tell you about - that's supposed to be worse than pepper spray and doesn't appear to be a weapon.  that is of course if you can bring aerosol cans with you!

pepper spray???? what for?
This is South America, if you get rob will be with a gun on your head. What you will do with you peper spray?

Take my advice: don't put this in your luggage you risk to get trouble with the customs and even worst with a robber.
If they want your hand bag, your wallet or your Ipod give them, don't play the hero. In some place value of life is very cheap.

@amyf Yeah definitely if someone has a gun or they already closed the distance and have a knife give them your stuff. Pepper spray it's more of a defensive tool to stop someone approaching you or multiple people.As a tourist you stand out and might have people try to mess with you,rape you, sexually assault or intimidate you. You can easily use the pepper spray to blind them and run away to get to safety.

@amyf I actually stopped myself getting robbed with a machete  last week with pepper spray dont discount it dont be a victim. The police are reactive you are responsible for your safety.

@M VS4  Where did it happen? What time of the day? Please give more details.

As a rule, Expats confronted with the sharp and lethal blade of a machete should give up the valuables and live another day.

Member M V54 should be giving up full details about his incident and his attacker after providing the unconventional advice to use pepper spray versus a machete attack.

cccmedia

@cccmedia It all depends on the situation and the distance, the person who is holding the knife how they look, how they are holding it.  Just give up your stuff because someone shows you a knife or large blade to me is a bit cowardly. A lot of these thieves are scared themselves. Also that's very easy to say to give your stuff but when adrenaline, fear, and anger all combine in that situation you it's hard to know how one will react.  I

I was walking down the Virgen de Panecillo on a Thursday afternoon with an elderly Canadian lady I met during one of those free walking tours which no one showed up for. Me and her are talking and I see a young guy cutting through the grass and another sitting by the stairs. I find it really weird that he is cutting through the grass almost as of he is trying to cut our path. I get my pepper spray ready in my hands just because I got a bad feeling. As we pass them he gets something from a shrub and gets behinds us about 5-10 feet I already have my pepper spray out. He says give all your stuff and motions at a machete long knife behind his back. I put the pepper spray at my head level like a gun and tell him that he is a maricon and to bring it, that I'm not giving him shit.( I speak Spanish I'm from Venezuela and grew up in Miamk)He looks scared looks at the pepper spray and backs down and walks away. I'm not scared at this moment, I'm extremely angry, I'm sure I must have looked crazy. I go down to the university and tell the guards and they say they will  call the police,ask me for a description,and sound an alarm. I also tell the police in the center past the arches. He says yeah that's a dangerous area, we don't patrol there recommended that you take a taxi. No case is opened ,no description is asked. I would describe  the perpetrator was about 17-18 indigenous look, looked a bit strung out on  drugs.  The other person never moved from sitting down,not sure if he was totally involved looked drunk.

You are responsible for your own safety and for defending those around you and your property. I recommend daily pepper spray carry especially for women, how you choose to use it and in which situation is up to you. I would recommend practice using it as well, they sell practice ones. I have military training and have also worked at a psych ward inpatient hospital and at a juvenile delinquent prison. During my twenties when I was in the military I  often had to defend and stop fights.  I have also experienced a home invasion, where me and my family were held hostage for four hours. Im sure those experiences played in to how I reacted. Just sharing how a pepper spray is a good defensive weapon.

Healthy, military-trained individuals may be able

to fend off a machete would-be attacker using

pepper spray as the counter-attack.  Not that

I would recommend this.

Less able individuals without such

training would be gambling if they call the

attacker a slur such as M VS4 did, which could

be considered provocation of an armed and

dangerous individual.

cccmedia

The other reckless part of the story involves

the danger factor in the streets of that hill.

The virgin statue sits atop a hill widely

known as El Panecillo or 'little loaf of bread'.

It is well-known that Gringos should use

public transportation such as a taxi when

traversing up or down El Panecillo.

This is because of the history of ne'er-do-wells

who have ambushed and robbed many tourists

in the poorly-patrolled streets between

the statue and the less elevated parts of

El Centro.

My condo in El Centro has windows that

look out on the historical area, with clear

views of the virgin statue.  I would never

consider going up there on foot and I advise

our members to take extra care in choosing

their method of transportation to visit the

iconic site.

cccmedia, Ecuador expert and

   member of the Expat.com experts team

Too much cash on your person?

If one is so bothered by the possibility of

robbery that he or she would take on a

machete-wielding maniac, maybe the potential

target is carrying too much cash or valuables.

1. Limit the number of cards you carry to the minimum you might need except on intercity travel days.
2. Don't carry so much cash that you might defend it with your life.
3. Keep the amount(s) you hold in card-related bank accounts to a relatively small sum except for your main account so an 'express' robbery is unlikely to drain you of many thousands of dollars.
4. If you have a lot of cash on you, most of it should be kept in a money belt or secret compartment.
5. Give some thought to the downside of physically defending yourself against an attacker.  You likely wouldn't bring a knife to a gunfight, so how is that different from bringing pepper spray to a machete fight?

cccmedia

@cccmedia Yeah I had no idea that route was dangerous makes sense though,lots of places to hide, difficult to run away somewhat secluded at points. It's weird that the police don't do it like they do in Colombia and patrol areas, that are know for thefts and ID suspicious people.

So the most useful thing in attacks like this is the surprise aspect. I was not surprised I was ready, so I did not have that disadvantage. He was far away enough, where I could deploy it and far away where I could avoid a strike or swing. If he would have taken me by surprised  and closed the distance then I wouldn't have had many options.

The insults and the screaming are part of the defense it's posturing, it's how  you make people back down ,it's an instinctual response. A lot of these thief's are seriously cowards they only rob and target weak looking people. They do it the first time, get away with it and get bolder and bolder, until someone eventually put them in their place or they get killed.  I'm thinking they saw me with the older lady and thought we were an easy target.

Your pontificating a lot and  have a weird preachy daddy tone to the way your speaking as if  your some sort of expert in crisis situations or attacks. The whole adage of don't bring a knife to a gun fight is kind simplistic and obvious, but guns run out of bullets, most people in gun fights can't hit their targets most of the time, that's why you see police empty their clips, and not hit anyone but hit by standers. Guns are directional energy and malfunction. A knife is limited by distance, most people don't know how to do knife attacks.

A pepper spray is a useful tool in many personal attacks, definitely in a knife, stick, sexual assault,dogs attacks super useful,  someone is following you, someone gets touchy, someone postures against you, drunk aggressive people. You just got to know how to use it and analyze the situation. I think I wrote it before but I'll write it again because you seem to be misinterpreting what I'm saying based on your response.  I'm not telling people what to do just explaining how a pepper spray helped me from getting robbed and the benefits of using a pepper spray.

In the past 20 years, I've been robbed

or had some party attempt to rob me

11 times in Quito (only once violently)

and had two more such incidents --

both involving attacker violence -- in NYC

and San Jose, Costa Rica.  Two men on

motos  once chased me and my car

for ten miles near Papayan, Colombia,

throwing rocks at the rear windshield.

So there's little point in implying that I don't

have experience or first-hand knowledge

in such matters.

---

There's a piece of potentially poor advice in

the earlier post(s) about staring down or

confronting suspected delincuentes.  I know

from experience that can be

a counter-productive strategy

in South America.

In the one violent incident in Quito, on the

infamous Loja Street, I knew that two

ladrones  were watching me closely .. and

I returned their stare.

That move backfired, as it only gave their

two socios  more time to arrive at the scene.

In short order, the four thieves put me on

the ground in the small park there .. and

proceeded to extract 55 USD from my

pockets.  Then they fled the scene in four

different directions.

What they never knew was that I was

carrying over $500 more in the secret

compartment of a money belt.

This amount I was able to keep.

As I referenced above, there were no weapons

used in the Loja Street attack.  Weapons may

not be necessary when four men are trying to

tackle one target.

cccmedia in Quito

Submitted for Home Office moderation....

A recent post on this thread appeared to give

credence to the idea of direct confrontation

against a fire-armed attacker .. by citing the

concepts that guns can run out of ammunition

or miss their target.

I consider this misguided, an implication

that could put our members in danger if followed.

I have forwarded the post to our Home Office

for further scrutiny and possible moderation.

cccmedia, member of Expat.com experts team

Hello to all,

I hope you are well and thank you for your messages.

I would like to intervene to remind you not to go too far off-topic regarding the initial request.

As the first posts answered Mela1's request I'm closing this discussion.

Have a nice day,

Mickael

Team Expat.com