I remember working on a project in El Salvador. They all told me "You do not walk outside, you take a taxi!"
In three weeks, at most, I walked 100 meters down the street "Gringo, gringo!" was the shouted message... and I was only going to the supermarket up the road. And then there was the situation when the security guard behind me decided he had to prime his gun, very loudly, just because two guys sat in front of me, decided they needed an argument... and they had only raised their voices!
The most existential of all was when we were being driven back to the hotel through Soyapango - the homeland of the Mara Salvatrucha or was it the M-18 - I tell you, it was all very atmospheric with the evening thunder storms...