Still hanging in there and enjoying life

I know it´s been a while but we still haven´t gotten our laptop back from the repair shop and now our desktop has ¨died¨. Otherwise, things are going well.

We met Azure´s teacher for a conference today and she had high praise for Azure´s adjustment to our new life.

Nothing else new to report. Same old same old. Rain, learning Spanish slowly, and as always Patrick has been dodging cars, motorcycles, dogs, and walkers on the roads!

I hope to have more time to email everyone soon!

Happy Independence Day, Costa Rica!

Saturday September 15th Costa Rica celebrated it’s Independence from Spain. Azure’s school invited parents to enjoy a kid’s parade followed by a program of singing, dancing, and refreshments Friday morning. Each elementary class performed something different. Azure’s class performed a traditional Costa Rican song on the ocarina and then sang a song. Patrick and I had been listening to Azure practice her song on the ocarina for weeks but when the class started to sing, I was shocked. Azure loves to sing and this was the first time I knew about the song. She told me later she had been trying very hard to keep it a secret. Nice job, Azure (she can never keep secrets)! I enjoyed the entire program!

Saturday the three of us walked downtown because we heard every town in the entire country would be having a parade at 10am. We arrived in town shortly before 10am and were lucky to catch the beginning of the parade. After 90 minutes into the parade with no end in sight, we decided to head to the church. We all loved the parade but it seemed almost every school in the entire area attended which wouldn’t be so bad but they all played the same song on the drums and wore almost the same costumes. The strangest part - which I feel inclined to share because I need to know from the readers if this is something that happens everywhere or just in Costa Rica - the kids were roped off with parents holding the ropes and walking alongside the kids. They literally blocked the kids making it impossible to get good photos! Why? Only a handful of schools didn’t do this…

Sunsets

After all the storms these past few weeks, we finally had two days in a row without any rain. It seemed very strange indeed. The best part as far as I was concerned were the gorgeous sunsets. I love sunsets which you can probably tell by the header photo. Anyway, since nothing much else is happening here, I thought I would share my most recent photo.

Azure would like me to let everyone know that the next blog post will be regarding Independence Day so stay tuned!

It’s always something…

I feel bad that once again I have dropped the ball and not kept up with my blog. Hopefully you’ll understand when I explain that we haven’t even been to an internet café since last week Tuesday. I will however recap for you our past week.

I’m sure everyone heard about Hurricane Felix? Well, we did feel the affects of that storm. We were hit here the hardest on Monday afternoon. The drive to get Azure after school was interesting considering we drove through one street and I was positive the water would start to flood into the car, We made it safely to the school but the on drive back home we noticed a van full of students stuck in the ditch on the same stretch of road we had just passed. Needless to say, we turned around and took a different road home.

Wednesday we planned to pick Azure up at school at her normal 12:15 early release time and head to the US Embassy to get our passports renewed. After enjoying a quick lunch at Campio Pollo, a local fast food chicken place, in San Jose, the heavy rains turned to hail! I don’t think they get much hail here in Costa Rica because half the cars on the road pulled over and stopped. The guy in front of us actually got out of his car and grabbed a handful of hail! We weren’t sure if he thought he was going to show his buddies once he got home or just wanted to touch it (since no one was in the car with him)… Azure didn’t get it since she knows it just melts immediately. Anyway, we found out the Embassy only processes passports from 8am-11:30am!

Okay, so it’s always something. If it’s not one thing it’s another. Our hot water heater was leaking at it got to the point where we had to replace it. Thursday we went to the local hardware store to try to explain what we needed. After some time, everyone understood one another and we purchased the “new” hot water heater and the pieces of pipe we needed. A plumber recommended by the hardware store told us he would be by later that day to help with the install. He didn’t show and so Patrick installed it by himself. Good thing is that we now have a larger tank and therefore more hot water! Yeah! Thanks, Patrick!

A funny thing happened on the way to the ….

Thursday after leaving the internet café, we were all in a good mood. Laughing and joking until all of a sudden, our car alarm went off and wouldn’t stop. With the horn honking loudly and all the car lights flashing, we panicked. People passing stared but no one said or did anything out of the ordinary. Finally, Patrick turned off the car but it was too late. There was no turning off the alarm.

I kept praying a policeman wouldn’t pull up next to us asking (in Spanish of course) for proof of registration. Since we just received an email from our lawyer stating she had the document at her office and when would we like to pick it up, it was not in our possession. I was sure I would be making a call to our lawyer from the nearest police station!

I was busy standing on the corner trying to push all the buttons on the key chain when Patrick screamed, “hand me my tools”. Azure dug them out of the back and passed them out to Patrick. He screamed, “Pop the hood” and then next thing I know Patrick was removing the battery cable. Sure enough, the alarm stopped. Convinced that the alarm would start again the second he made the connection, I tried to cover my shock when he started the car and we drove home, nervous but all laughing again. Until…

Friday morning, sure enough, the alarm started again as soon as we pulled out of the driveway. After some hassle (of removing and reconnecting the battery cable) and screaming at each other, we all made it to Azure’s school with time to spare.

BUT, Patrick had to turn off the car so he could speak to Jeremy in accounting since he was helping us get a bank account started here (long story). I definitely was much more embarrassed when the car alarm went off in the school parking lot. Plus, Patrick removed and re-connected the battery cable SEVERAL times but the alarm just wouldn’t stop! I tried to stay out of his way and keep my mouth shut but I have to admit I wasn’t very hopeful about getting home. While pretending to read my book, mentally I went through all our options - call a tow truck, walk to the mechanics? What exactly were our options when neither of us could explain in Spanish what the problem was?

Finally, I noticed that there was a wire to the alarm cut-off that was not connected. I pointed out the potential problem to Patrick and immediately he went to work trying to connect the wire again. At this point, the school guard figured he better check with us to make sure everything was ok. Again, we can’t speak Spanish so Patrick tried showing him the loose wire and just said “esta bueno”. The guard appeared to understand and he walked away.

After about 15 minutes and lots of cursing, Patrick started the car. No alarm sounded this time (which was good because it probably went off 5 times before). We left the parking lot with a wave to the guard and my fingers crossed. Even though Patrick pronounced the situation permanently resolved, I asked if we needed to stop at a mechanics on the way home. He firmly said “NO!”
He was right. It’s resolved and the car doesn’t even beep anymore which was not the case when we purchased it 2 weeks ago. At that time, we used to have to wait until the car alarm started beeping then push a little button to signify it should stop. Now when starting the car, Patrick can push that button before the beeping even begins. Therefore, in the end, this experience actually resolved a slight problem….

Wow!

Finally an Update!

I know it’s been a long time since I have written. I’ve meant to write a few times and have had some stories all mapped out in my head but between unpacking, reading some good books, and competing for time on the computer, I just haven’t gotten around to it. Remember that we don’t have internet at home so it’s not so easy… Rest assured that no news generally means good news from me.

First, I thought I would like to let everyone know that we signed a purchase agreement for our house in Big Lake. We faxed off ten pages of documents Thursday (costing $23) agreeing that the family could rent our place starting that weekend and up to the closing date of November 30th. Friday we heard back from our realtor that all terms of the rental were agreed upon and he was meeting the family over the weekend to sign final documents and give them the keys. Fingers crossed that this transaction goes smoother than the duplex. All seems okay, though.

Next, I did add several posts today so just scroll down to see more regarding the rain, Santo Domingo, and the symphony.

Santo Domingo Saturday and Symphony Sunday

I had been looking forward to this weekend for a while. Why you may ask. Well, I purchased tickets to the symphony back when we were in San Jose the day we dropped off the laptop for repair. Ever since I read an article about the amazing process of building the National Theater and how acclaimed acts perform often, I’ve been dying to take the family to a real cultural event. Azure thought I was joking and figured it would be boring but I continued to pump up the experience. Patrick expressed slight interest but I knew he would enjoy it also he just likes to make me work for things sometimes.

We were not disappointed. The place was beautiful and our seats were perfect. I purchased first row balcony seats (only $15 for all three tickets!) since Azure and I have hard times seeing around people. We heard the orchestra play Rachmaninoff, Dvorak, and Castro and it was wonderful. I am psyched to go back again sometime.

Now since we went to the symphony Sunday, I made Patrick take us to the farmers market in Santo Domingo on Saturday. The market was much larger than San Rafael and again we scored some delicious fruits and vegetables for cheap. Can’t wait until this next weekend!

Bridge washout!

Something we hadn’t considered before we moved sort of shocked us when we arrived. There appears to be a large complex being built on the hill to our West. Due to the construction, the ditches were dug deeper and some cement culverts were placed at the bottom. BUT no one finished the project and now with the awful downpours we’ve experienced lately (due to Hurricane Dean as I understand it) the runoff has been running right into the road and flooding the bridge. It is the rainy season here now but some of the downpours have been incredible. We are too far south for hurricanes but we can get their rainy effect. A couple weeks ago, the water built up so deep the cars could hardly cross the bridge and the spray was heading right into our neighbor’s house. Patrick and I watched from the balcony as Don Isidro went out in the storm to dig the ditch deeper. Being the “nice neighbors“, Patrick decided to go out to help (even though our things hadn’t arrived yet so he didn’t even have a shovel). Even though Don Isidro appeared to be surprised to see Patrick, he still wouldn’t give up his shovel so Patrick could only pick up large rocks and move them. I’m not quite sure their efforts paid off or not. The bridge did begin to clear of water but then again the rain slow downed at about the same time also. Anyway, ever since then, there have been many crews trying to correct the runoff into the river. It’s better but not perfect. I’m just glad our house is up hill and not down -although the lower house seems to be avoiding the runoff just fine!

I hope you enjoy the photos I so happily took while staying dry (mostly) on our balcony!

Oh, happy Day!

We had a great Thursday! We purchased a GEO Tracker and had our lawyer submit all the necessary paperwork so we´re legal. We paid our broker and received our first delievery of four!

Because of our low carport and steep incline to the main house, the guys had to load their trailer instead of a huge truck. They brought a load Thursday, Friday, and two on Saturday. They were trying to be kind and bring our bed on Thursday but since they didn´t realize our bed was actually in boxes, we received the final bed box Saturday morning. Even though we didn´t have our bed Thursday or Friday, we still slept much better with a sleeping bag and thick blankets!

Saturday afternoon Patrick hooked up all the appliances and we now have clean clothes. We even had mac & cheese and popcorn this weekend. MMM! But now we are back to salads and fruits since we want to stay healthy and continue to lose weight.

Last bit of good news: we have received an offer on our Big Lake house. I think we may accept but it is sticky since the person wants to rent until November. I´ll keep ya posted.

Happy Mother´s Day!

Where do I start? First, we still haven´t received our things. The customs inspectors supposedly want to look through everything again? Also, we are struggling to ensure our broker receives payment. We sent the wire back on July 23rd but it still hasn´t credited to his account yet. I hate banks!

Next, our laptop definitely is dead. I did some research and luckily we found a place here in Costa Rica that does warranty work. We took it into their ¨office¨ in San Jose yesterday. We weren´t sure we wanted to leave our laptop somewhere unknown but on the other hand, we do want to get it fixed. We received a receipt so we´ll see what happens. They quoted us two weeks for repair since they need to get the part from the States. Probably more like one month, right?

Azure attended her first soccer practice yesterday after school. She came out to the car soaking wet and muddy but said she had a great time. Now we need to find her some cleats and shin guards. We probably should have bought them before we left home since we have no idea where to buy them here. Yes, it should be easy in a soccer country but remember we won´t pay top price...

To close, today is Mother´s Day here in Costa Rica. I´m so lucky to get two this year! Anyway, most of the country is celebrating on Monday even though it is officially today. It is so confusing but Azure has Monday off which is nice (I think). haha

Oh, one more odd thing I need to mention before I forget. We have been struggling to figure out what to eat every day since we don´t have a stove or fridge. Mostly we have been enjoying fruits and salads. Yesterday, Patrick noticed some toast in a package. What? Truly, toasted bread packaged in 7 or 14 slices for your pleasure. Why?

Nothing exciting

I don´t have anything exciting to post. Our container should arrive Tuesday (fingers crossed). Until then we will continue to enjoy the hard floors and cold nights without beds and blankets.

Our duplex should be finally closing as I type this. We are hoping it goes off without a hitch.

Azure still loves school. She has been putting in many hours of homework already. She enjoyed her first week with a tutor. We´ll see how that works out. Tonight she has a sleepover at the school. She has been excited all week so hopefully it lives up to her expectations.

Tomorrow we are meeting a couple to potentially buy their GEO Tracker. Hopefully it´s as nice as they describe. First thing Patrick asked while talking to the guy ¨what´s wrong with it¨. Not very subtle but I think he got his point across!

I´ll try to get more photos up but it appears our laptop has died already. It´s still under warranty since we just bought it in June but who knows what will be honored down here...

Have a good weekend everyone!

Squirrel Saturday and Farmers Market Sunday

Saturday started as any other day this week except I planned to sleep in and ended up sitting outside with my cup of coffee at 5:30AM. One thing was different, though. Squirrels. A little after 6, a saw something out of the corner of my eye. I turned left and there prancing down the side of the house was a tiny orange, black, and grey squirrel no bigger than my hand. He didn't seem to be in any hurry as he made his way through the front garden and across the driveway to the palm trees on the other side of the yard. Then I watched him jump from branch to branch. As I watched him, I noticed several other squirrels in the trees- mostly grey ones. I know this doesn't strike anyone as strange but today is Monday and I hadn't seen these guys before or since Squirrel Saturday. As a matter of fact, they were gone by the time Azure woke up at 7:15. Strange! I hope that every Saturday will be Squirrel Saturday!

Later Saturday, we went for a walk through the coffee plantations and tomato fields surrounding our property. When the rain started, we jumped in the car to pick up a Tico Times and happened to find our way to San Pablo and Azure's school by taking the back roads. We actually drove directly to the school without getting lost which is amazing here in Costa Rica! Now we can make it to school in only 11 minutes!

We all anticipated Sunday since we heard San Rafael has a good farmer's market. We decided to walk to town and clocked the mileage in the car at 1.5 kilometers. Simple enough, right? Well, the farmers market was everything we hoped. Fruit and veggies galore. We made out like bandits! This is what we took home with us after spending only $3.65 (approximately):
1/2 kilo green beans
big pint of strawberries
1.3 kilos watermelon
3 large cucumbers
small (whole) pineapple
6 small pineapple empanadas

Okay, now the walk home. We (meaning me) were huffing and puffing on the last hill before the decline to our place. I really need to get into better shape so we will be making the hike into town at least once a week from now on! There are lots of hills in our neighborhood!

not the same

I thought I had finally found an internet cafe that had a USB port on the computer so I typed up a long post on the laptop and copied it to my memory card. Now I´m at the cafe and I can´t get the card reader in the slot so everyone will have to wait until next week for an update...

First Report From Down South

This is the last place I thought I would be today but it turned out McDonald's was the best place to get Wi-Fi (until we figure things out).

I know everyone has a million questions for us so I will try to cover most of them but my battery is dying so I have to make this quick. I'll do this in order:

1. We had one piece of luggage (a hockey bag) which weighed in 16 pounds over the limit. We sweet-talked the guy into not charging us the mandatory $50.

2. Our airline wasn't supposed to let us out of the country with only a one-way ticket. Again I managed to sweet-talk the woman checking our passports. She actually booked us a fake return flight so if anyone at Costa Rica customs asked we could show them the flight number.

3. The airport/customs in San Jose went smoothly other than we had SO much luggage and didn't know if Colin, our realtor, was meeting us or not.

4. Colin did show up but we couldn't find the shuttle to our car rental company which may or not have been a sham- we reserved a car with Excellent car rental but Payless said they were affiliated and rented us a car for $85/week. Unfortunately yesterday I looked at the signed agreement and it says $175 (I don't know how they switched the price when I made a point to go over the costs before Patrick signed the document!)

5. Since our container hasn't arrived yet, we followed Colin to Hipermas on the way to our house so we could buy pillows and some food to get us through until morning. Warning- don't go to Hipermas on a Sunday afternoon because I think the entire Tico population was shopping there with their families- blocking aisles and all...

6. We arrived at the house at sunset Sunday. The neighbors who we hired as caretakers were there and greeted us like long lost relatives. BUT we were tired and the houses were full of dead bugs. YUCK!

7. We cleared a small space in the loft of the lower house and slept (not really) on the floor. All three of us huddled together trying to share one blanket. We found out the evenings are extremely cold in the hills of San Rafael!

8. We met Colin at the church in San Rafael so he could help us find our way to Azure's school the first morning. Plus, he had broken the faucet of the shower and needed to help us find the hardware store so we could replace the part.

9. We met the Director at the European school and her and the staff helped us get Azure settled in. Azure loves school except for Spanish class since she is so far behind and the teacher doesn't speak English. We will be finding a tutor soon!

10. Our neighbors, Donya Vicky and Don Isidro, both sweet Ticos, gave us a tour of their home so she could show us how she makes fresh tortillas. I thought she would invite us for lunch but instead Donya Vicky stopped by with her daughter and "kidnapped" us to go blackberry picking! We had no idea where we were going or why since we don't speak much Spanish and they don't speak any English. It was fun but we couldn't make Vicky understand that we had LOTS of cleaning to do!

I need to finish this later so please check back tomorrow. I would like to thank everyone at this time for their wishes of good luck to us on our new adventure. We feel lucky indeed!

see ya Minnesota, hello Costa Rica

WOW! We did it!

We left our house in the dust this morning for the long seven hour drive to Chicago. I'm trying to wind down after repacking all our bags (twelve of them including carry-ons) so that none of them are over the 50 lbs. limit. I think I may have found the correct balance finally.

I would love to fill everyone in on more details but we need to catch the airport shuttle at 3:30 AM. Therfore, I am signing off and hope to have internet access soon. Maybe from the airport if I'm bored?

Trash or Treasure?

The past few days have been spent emptying the garage of all the items that never sold at our garage sales. I always intended to have a couple more sales but it rained one weekend and two others we were out of town or had showings of the property. Needless to say, we had a lot of "crap" still hanging around.

Tuesday evening I happened to see my neighbor and hollered over thinking that I would offer her whatever she wanted to take for free. Well, one thing led to another and soon our doorbell wouldn't stop ringing because all the neighbor kids wanted something, anything! In a way it saved us a lot of hassle because we only needed to take one van load full of stuff to Salvation Army. But at the same time, they were destroying all the order in the garage. They would actually open boxes, pull out all the contents, then decide they didn't want it, so it would be left on the ground for someone else to walk on. I couldn't watch the chaos so I left that role to Azure. She would dole out the good stuff and holler if the kids got out of control. Some kid even took my record player (which should have been worth at least $30) even though he had no idea what it was for...

Now the garage is empty (Patrick put a lot of effort into this project-Thanks, sweetie!) and we know it's time to leave. How many people actually have an empty 3 car garage?

This is Costa Rica!

We received an email from Charles Zeller yesterday to let us know our container would be delayed 2 more weeks. My first reaction wasn't normal because I wasn't surprised or upset. I figure I just need to expect these types of things now. Charles even concluded the email by stating "This is Costa Rica!" I wasn't looking forward to sharing the good news with Patrick, though. When I did finally tell him, he just laughed.

I guess our attempt to avoid sleeping on tile floors didn't quite work. I told Patrick this just means he'll have to put up our hammocks sooner instead of later. He said he planned to purchase an air mattress. We'll see who wins...

making our list and checking it twice

I spent the majority of last weekend doing last minute things before our departure to San Jose. We found out that CarMax in Chicago will be open until 9pm on Saturday and they will inspect our vehicle and make us an offer on the spot. We have decided to do this route since the flights out of Chicago are much cheaper than Minneapolis and being able to sell our car the same day makes more sense than a rental. Since Azure starts school on Monday, we couldn't delay any longer. I purchased tickets for Sunday on US Airways to arrive in San Jose at approximately 1:30pm. YEAH!

This past Sunday I started stressing out again. Patrick and I figured it would be best to sit down together and make a list of all the items we need to finish by the end of the week and assign tasks to each day. That way we should be able to have everything done before we leave and not too much left at the end. Of course, there will still be things we forget...

The important items were making sure all statements (credit card, bank, mutual funds, etc) are paperless PLUS giving our new address to these places. We spent time making sure we will be able to access our money while in Costa Rica. Our credit union set us with a credit card that only charges $1.75 for cash advances! This should help since wires can take up to a week and the fees are steep.

I also checked in with Azure's school so they would know we aren't getting in until the day before school starts - she won't have the school polo shirt and we never turned in all the documents required. The principal emailed back almost immediately ensuring me it would be okay to just show up 20 minutes early on Monday. Great! One less thing to worry about!

I must be signing off. My list for Tuesday is quite large and I must cross items off so I know I am making progress. Later!

the rest of the story

Ok, so some kids stole my backpack because I was relaxed and stupid. Actually, that's pretty significant because I am generally not very relaxed. I tend to be stressed out a lot and not always for great reason. Even on vacations I make the family run around and see as much possible before leaving for home. We've taken a couple of beach vacations and the one to Cozumel Azure absolutely hated because all we did was snorkel which she found too boring (I'm rubbing off on her). The point is that I need to relax more and I'm hoping our move to Costa Rica will resolve my problem since I have found it possible to relax there.

On to the rest of the story. After the guys stole my backpack, I found some policemen and reported the crime. They interviewed some of the people in the vicinity to no avail. One of the policemen spoke English which helped tremendously when it came to taking our statements but they never once asked me to describe my backpack which made it clear they had no intention of trying to find it. Patrick even drove down to the station to fill out an official report but not until after he personally made a sweep of the area checking to see if possibly my backpack and a pile of the stuff inside were dumped somewhere (we were the only ones looking around the perimeter).

The entire time he was gone, I sat at the bus station worried we would miss our bus to San Jose. Since we had an ARCR seminar to attend at 8am the next day and the 3pm bus out of Jaco was our only opportunity to be in San Jose on time it was important we catch the bus.

Upon arriving back from the police station, the English speaking cop told me they had the roads leading out of town blocked and they would definitely catch the culprits. HA! I knew already that I would never see my backpack or its contents again and since no one could give a good description of the two guys that stole it, they would never catch them either.

We did catch the bus to San Jose and then I immediately called the credit card company to report my card stolen. By the way, this is harder to do from Costa Rica than I imagined especially since the hotel room was paid for with the card that was stolen so I had to make the calls from the front desk.

Here's where the problem lies. It seems that I gave the thieves too much time before reporting my card stolen. They used my card to make a purchase at Penny Lane- $149.56 worth plus international transaction fees. Personally, I'm not sure why the card was ever accepted since it clearly was a gringo card AND I never signed it on purpose! I'm guessing a friend of theirs ran it through? Anyway, I have been fighting with Bank Of America ever since. I finally thought I had it resolved in March and then on June 13th they debited my account for $449.19 saying it is for duplicate adjustments previously made to my account. I have been furiously trying to get this resolved ever since I noticed it on my online statement but with all the time spent visiting lately this is proving more difficult than I imagined. Yesterday I expected a call from a manager and when no one called by 4:30pm I called them AGAIN. This time the call reps wouldn't even listen to me and basically hung up on me even though I was being very civil. I have worked in call centers before and I know it doesn't pay to be irate. They claim they have sent me a new statement and won't discuss this matter with me until I receive it and call back then. WHAT? I explained I am moving and need to get this handled now and they didn't care. I plan to call back every day until I get some consideration since several call reps have already agreed with me that this charge should be reversed but no one will do it...

enough ranting for today- I must relax ;-)

Great disappearing act

I know I promised this story yesterday but we went to see Harry Potter. Patrick and I enjoyed the movie but Azure complained that they left out pertinent info that will screw up the next movie. I guess we'll have to wait and see...

Onto the incident in Jaco:

During our November visit to Costa Rica, we decided to encompass not just the moving aspect but also get in some relaxing beach time. I planned a few days in Jaco at the beginning of the trip (but after our tour at Lincoln School) because we had been to the Caribbean coast but not the Pacific. The big draw in my mind was Manuel Antonio Park so we could see squirrel monkeys -one of only a few places in the world to see them in their natural habitat. Anyway, our car rental deal fell through and we decided to take the bus for the duration of the stay. The ride to Jaco seemed dangerous with all the steep mountain roads and the bus driver handled it well so we're glad we decided to take the bus. Our accommodations for the four nights suited us well. Clarita's turned out to be a tiny motel on the north end of the beach which served good food in their sports bar. We found a terrific bakery in Jaco called Pachi Pans that makes the most amazing chicken and potato empanadas. The bus to Quepos picks up right outside their doors so that worked out well. We didn't happen to see any squirrel monkeys but the sloths made up for that!

Back to the point of the story, the day we were to leave Jaco, we had to be out of the motel by noon but the bus didn't come until 3pm. The bus terminal was close by which was good because we had what seemed like a lot of luggage (12 days worth of clothes for 3 people). We didn't want to walk to town with all our luggage so we decided to just pick up food and eat at the bus terminal. Since we needed to purchase tickets for the bus before they sold out, this made the most sense. The bus terminal in Jaco basically is just a window in a building shared with a bank and a Pizza Hut next door all sharing a dirt parking lot. Patrick purchased tickets for us and we "camped out" on the retaining wall next to Pizza Hut. We piled all the luggage between us and started to dig into our lunch. I wasn't extremely hungry so I decided to write in my journal. A young kid (twenty-something) asked us what time it was so I looked at my watch and told him. He seemed nervous like he thought he was late and told me he didn't understand (in Spanish of course). I knew my Spanish wasn't great so instead of trying to tell him the time in Spanish, I leaned over and showed him my watch. (DUMB!) He said thanks and left. The three of us discussed what time it was in Spanish and laughed about it. I started to say the whole thing seemed weird like he wanted something from us. "It's not like we have anything to steal" came out of my mouth as I reached for my backpack - and found it missing!!! I looked at the old lady sitting next to me and she just shrugged. I hollered to Patrick "they stole my backpack" and he took off running. Of course, it was too late.

After all of our traveling, I made the dumbest mistake ever. I know not to tell people what time it is and I know that I always need to keep my hand on my backpack. I blame the whole thing on my trust of people and that Costa Rica makes me feel so at ease - unlike some other countries we have visited. Even so, we were sitting in a space that only had one access point because Pizza Hut was behind us AND a security guard was standing within 15 feet of us PLUS an elderly woman sitting right next to me. Those guys were pros! After questioning the woman, she admitted seeing the whole thing but said it happened so quickly she couldn't say what they looked like. Obviously though, she could have yelled at them or me or something. We've been told since this happened that Ticos believe it is okay to steal from gringos. I'm over being mad at them and just want to let others know how easy it is to have your personal stuff stolen.

You may be saying to yourself, "ok they took the backpack, so what? At least they still had their luggage for the rest of the stay." True. But the two guys that took my backpack knew what they were doing. We figure they must have seen Patrick go into the bank and come back out and hand me his passport (you need a passport for all bank transactions in Costa Rica). We think they were really only interested in the passport because we've been told they can be worth 10k on the black market. Plus, maybe you've guessed by now that I'm not the type to carry a purse. Everything I needed for the vacation besides clothes was in that backpack. I was even carrying some of Azure's things. All in all, they got all my money, credit cards, all 3 passports, drivers license, 2 digital cameras, 2 MP3 players, medicine, several books and maps and my car key which turned out to be one of the most important items to us. We easily received new passports the next day at the Embassy. Patrick had some money and credit cards in his pocket. Because we took the time to file a police report, our home owners insurance covered most of our monetary losses. But because we didn't have a car key, Patrick had to convince the car dealership we purchased the car from to make a duplicate key. Then we had a courier service take the key to the Park N Fly at the airport. Luckily we had just barely enough time to do this before arriving in Minneapolis because we live 90 minutes from the airport and we didn't get off the plane until after midnight.

Whew! Enough of this story for one day. Maybe I will fill in the blanks later.

Now you see her...now you don't.