Robbed in Costa Rica...AGAIN!

I bet some of you are thinking, "What do they mean, 'AGAIN!".

Well, for those of you who didn't know, Brandon and I were robbed while on vacation in Costa Rica about 2 years ago. It was a major pain in the ass. Our car was broken into while we were on a beach...novice move on our part. They got all of our cash, credit cards, and passports. Luckily, we were able to have money wired to us in order to get to San Jose and the American Consulate. Believe me, it's not how they portray it in the movies...you know, where you come running in screaming, "I'm an American!" We showed up on a Saturday morning to find out that American Embassies and Consulates evolved on a regular Latin American business schedule...9-5 Monday-Friday with a two hour lunch break. Needless to say, we spent the rest of our vacation in the capital waiting for our new passports.

As for the most recent robbery, we were much better prepared. Given our previous experience, we had taken precautions as far as kill switches and lock boxes to secure our credit cards and important documents before we left for the trip.

Well, it always starts with, "I'm just gunna run in for a minute." Here's how it went this time...we were on our way to Dominical from the Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica. We stopped off in a city called San Isidro del General, about 30 km from Domincal to stock up on food. We parked the van in front of the main entrance of the Super Mercado and secured the vehicle. Keep in mind, this is on a busy street at 5:30 in the afternoon.

When we came out with our groceries we notices that the surfboards had been moved from where we had left them. We both felt that sinking feeling in our stomachs associated with just realizing you have been robbed.

The culprits popped open one of the back sliding windows and punched out the metal screen to unlock the driver's door. We could tell they had rummaged through the glove box, refrigerator, cooler, and backgammon set only to get away with my camera (luckily, we had just uploaded our pictures in Panama City), Brandon's sunglasses, our medicine bag, and a handful of change from different countries. It was to our benefit that we had the surfboards inside the car making it incredibly difficult to get to anything.

Overall, I think the robbers were pretty disappointed with their plunder. For us, the robbery was an annoyance, but at least we still have all of the important things to keep traveling without another visit to the Consulate.