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SAN PEDRO PRISON TOURS

act to gain respect in prison, but I didn't want to find out either. I was certain that he would eventually end up going too far and be transferred him to Chonchocoro, the harsh, maximum-security prison Ricardo had mentioned in my first week. But in the meantime, I wanted to stay on his good side.

After that second incident, Fantasma continued to establish himself as someone who was prepared to go to any length to win a fight. The other inmates already steered well clear of him because of the crime he had originally been charged with. Gradually, as I learned more about what that crime was, I began to cool down our friendship.

Fantasma was in San Pedro for killing his best friend. When he had come back from America, bringing with him the latest rap music and dress code from the New York gangs, he became a local hero and formed his own gang known as 'The Latin Kings'. He fell out with his best friend and one night, when a group of them were drunk and high at a party, they started to fight. Fantasma pulled out a sawn-off shotgun. The friend took a step back, but Fantasma fired a round into his chest. The friend fell to his knees and begged forgiveness, but Fantasma reloaded, lifted the barrel, pointed it directly at his friend's face and pulled the trigger.

When I found out what he had done, I didn't say anything because I didn't want Fantasma to think that I was turning my back on him or that I was scared of him. To be honest, he had never shown me his violent tendencies. In fact, one day he had started crying after he'd had a few drinks in my room. He told me a bit about his tough childhood. When he was younger, he had been sent to live with an uncle who had punched him in the head and chained him under a cold shower or locked him in a closet if he misbehaved. I didn't know whether to believe Fantasma or not, but something had to explain how a boy of nineteen could calmly blow his best friend away in front of several witnesses.

During the first year and a half that the prison tours ran, all of my visitors were backpackers aged in their twenties who were looking for adventure. Although the jail wasn't as dangerous as people might have expected, these were the only foreigners who were brave enough to risk it. With the bodyguards protecting them, there was really no need to