Tegucigalpa Warnings and Dangers

It was late afternoon, bright daylight still when I decided to look for the typical restaurant my guidebook recommended. It was not too far from my hotel, in a side street, so I thought I'd walk there. When I was walking that street a man came towards to me and said "Buenos Dias" and gave his hand. At the time I didn't think anything strange about it because shaking hands is a typical way of greeting people in Central America. Only later I realised that he reached for my LEFT hand. He pressed my hand very hard and kept pressing harder until his nails broke my skin. I got very angry and could feel adrenalin rush through my veins! I wasn't thinking rationally and forgot all the advice I had ever read. I just knew that the man was hurting me and I had to protect myself. So I hit him with my right fist as hard as I could (not very hard I would imagine) and he let go off me. I think that my reaction surprised him so much that he just walked away. Only then I saw that the band of my watch was open so he was trying to steal it from me. It isn't a valuable watch at all so losing it wouldn't have been a big loss. I have always known that if somebody attacked me I would fight back even though I know that in some cases it is not the wisest thing to do. Anyway that incident managed to spoil my mood and I was quite nervous after that and kept to the main streets with lots of people around.