Not so Happy Gringos

If you choose to read this blog past this opening sentance, please understand that this will not be filled with good news and tales of adventure. On the onset, I want you to know that Sandra and I are ok but we have had our collective worst 24 hours that you can imagine.

After getting off the phone with my family, Sandra and I headed home to our Cabin for a little more christmas cheer and fun. We were looking forward to tomorrow as it would be the first day of our great adventure.

Then two men came out of nowhere and held a gun to my head.

Again Sandra and I are ok.

Anyway all they wanted was money and Sandra´s bag, so we gave them 20 in cash and they took Sandra´s bag which had our new replacement camera. We are now cameraless for the second time in 2 weeks. All I could see when it happened was the gun and hearing the young piece of shit say ¨gimme your fuckin money¨

We went back to the hotel and got the police on the phone. The hotel proprietor called for us and helped translate some of the details when the police arrived. We went with the hoteliers friend to the station and made a statement to the police. While this was happening there was a call on the radio that they had picked up one of the men who robbed us and they took him to Cahuita police station. We were asked if we wanted to id him tomorrow in front of lawyers etc and we said yes. We were told that this would happen in a town near PV called Bribri at 8 in the morning. This was ok for us as we would be able to go to the CR and Panama border and catch our flight to Panama city. We got to bed late that night because we also needed to pack for the next few days. I got to sleep at 4 in the morning to get back up again at 7 to go to Bribri.

We woke up and Sandra went to pay at the hotel where they slugged us a massive 15% credit card fee. Because the ATM was not working we could not save ourselves 70 in fees so we just had to pay. When we were leaving to catch a taxi to Bribri, Sandra fell of a small bridge that covered a drain where all the muddy run off goes. Nothing was hurt except for her ego (which at the moment was pretty fragile) and her clothes.

We got to the prosecutors office in Bribri only to find out that they need to do all the proceedings in Limon, a town about an hour away. This took them about 2 hours to tell us as there are general language barriers as well as we had to wait for some information to get from PV to Bribri. I insisted that if they were going to get us to go to Limon they would need to take us to Sixiola (the border town) upon our return so that we can get the flight we needed to take.

We got to Limon in a cop car with guns and everything and waited in the police station for a while as they got a translator and other information ready. For this to happen though we had to cross town with a police escort three or four times so that everyone could be in the same place so we could id this cadapicha. We sat down with prosecutors and defence lawyers and police and we even had a line up where i got to id this guy. It was now 2 in the arvo - our flight is at 4:40.

We then had to go to the judges office to do a sworn testemony which took another hour. We had got the guy and he will go to jail but our patience was a little frayed at this stage. We we driven back to the police station whese we got some drivers to take to to sixiola - the time is 3:15.

We were driving pretty fast and it was kind of cool to have a police escort when our escorts have guns attached to their hips but another problem arose when a bridge had partially washed away because of the rain that has plagued us all week. Oh and on a side note, it decided to stop raining today. Grrrr

We swapped cars after the river (why I am not to sure but who am I to question) and headed to sixioala. By this stage we know that we are an hour off the border and we are going to miss the flight we were going to catch. We were driving along when it was 5 in the arvo and we could not go any further to Sixiola. Why? Because of floods of course. The section of road we needed to pass was under 5 feet of water and there is no way in hell that we can cross the stupid flood.

So here I am, in Bribri still, staying the night and hopìng to get out tomorrow and get to Panama.

What have I learnt

1. There are some absolute pricks in this world
2. There are also some people with hearts as big as a basketball
3. Sandra is the toughest person I know, she has survived this day and can still smile.
4. I can work under pressure (pressure being a gun pointed at my head)
5. Sandra is wonderful and I am glad that we could survive this together
6. I love her evry much

So I will sign off now. I am tired and I want to eat. I will call my family when I can but I have no international phonecard at the ready.

I hope that tomorrow will be a better day.

Comments

[crrobs]

At least you didn't get shot though. What a terrible ordeal!

[Stuart King]

Have just got off the phone with Sis and things are a bit fucked up here to.Very pleased that you are both safe and do not take any more risks play it safe.
Janene has a job working on the mines and we spent xmas with out her.
Here is my email address
stuartking8@bogpond.com
hope to hear from you both soon.
Love Stuart

[braden]

wow just found out you guys are great very brave. would love to see you guys again. talk soon...