robbed...

So I have been staying on a small island (Bastimento) in Bocas del Toro, Panama and meeting some super awesome people and having a great time going to the beaches and swimming in the Caribbean. I have done an awesome cave expedition, snorkeled (a bit), and have been going to wonderful beaches with wild coconuts that was just crack open and eat.

I got here from Boquete, Panama with a great american couple Jason and Ann who had rented a car and Matthias, the best Belgian I have ever met (since Virginia Petranto of course) who had stayed here just a couple weeks prior.

Last night Jason and Ann had to move hostels closer to the mainland so they can drive to Panama city, and Matthias and I were out of cash so we needed to hit the mainland up for the ATM's. So off we went with two other Peace Corps volunteers to have some good food and then go to Jason and Ann's hostel for some swimming and drinks at the bar area. I had my wallet plus $500 i just withdrew (this is the most i have ever taken out but I planned on just staying here for another week on the small island with Mathias so i was wanted to make sure I had enough for chilling and maybe getting some food to cook an American Thanksgiving.

By the time with got to their hostel it was much more of a club than a bar, and for those of you who don't know me, I am not a club kind of guy. I am a "enjoy beers at the local dive bar or anywhere where they have a pool table, or better yet, let's just have some beer on someone's couch while playing Rock Band/Halo/Borderlands etc." But we are here and there is some cool swimming around there - I started hunting sea urchins for Thanksgiving feast and leaving them in our water taxi. But before I went swimming what was I to do with my camera and wallet, especially with all this cash? Never fear, you can pay $1 for the man to "lock it up" for the night.... well it was just a cupboard but he said he would sit there all night and only I could retrieve it. Good plan. So 2 Germans that we had meet in Boquete were also there, plus Jason and Ann, plus the American Peace Corps girls. We threw all of our stuff (just wallets and cameras) into one bag and checked it in. about 2-3 hours later after we were all ready to go and the bar area was closing we got the bag. We were all saying our goodbyes and thought 'Let's get one last picture' so Jason got his camera out but his memory card was full so I fished mine out and we started posing for a few shots, then some guy jumped in and started photo-bombing us and then the flash wasnt set so about 45 seconds later we were good to go. I asked the German girl for the bag but my wallet wasn't there..... Panic time. How did this happen? The bag was never unattended? and also Jason's camera was stolen! I think he had set his on the counter for the brief 45 seconds, but I hadn't seen my wallet since check in. In an instant both things missing.

I came back to the hostel and Matthias paid for my share of the water taxi (he had also owed me some because I paid for our deepboarding earlier in the day, and the deepboarding story is a whole other adventure, but let's stay focused), I came back to the hostel and tried looking up Bank of America's numbers to cancel my cards, but the internet is so slow here and cuts our every five minutes that I didnt think it would work.  The hostel owner heard me thanking the American girls for all their help in searching for the thief and leaving a description of the photobomber because we think he was the one and just generally being so kind in my weak moment. Anyway, Enrigues (the hostel owner, said I could use his phone no problem and when i was finished just put it in the kitchen area of the hostel inside the dart board dart box. I called BoA and cancelled one card (but then got disconnected so I had to call back and verify) then she transferred me to the credit card side which is a completely different entity altogether and they have NO communication between the two of them, and yes got disconnected again but cancelled both of my cards.

So now I lay in my bunk, a little sad but glad I have Matthias here to cheer me up and I still want to show him a good American style Thanksgiving today although he will have to pay for the both of us :-(    We were supposed to go spearfishing today but I knew from last night I would be feeling this way and not up for an adventure just yet.

Then I wake up and talked to Enrigues and he asked me if I have the phone, I told him I put it in the bin and he said it wasn't there.... Great now I lost a super nice guys phone, and I don't have the money to pay him for the weeks stay I have already been here (Lucky it is just $6 a night). I hope we find it soon somewhere. I said goodbye to the American girls, then goodbye to an awesome Austrian couple that have been staying here, but then the Austrians come back 2 minutes later and gave me a $20 bill- Which honestly if you can't tell by this post already- There are still many many MANY more good people in this world than the bad ones. It hasn't put me off to traveling the world and I believe that meeting all these wonderful people that I have met is world having a bad day like today.... and maybe tomorrow. I learned my lesson about not keeping your eye on your things (4 years ago in Barcelona when my attention was lost in Las Ramblas and I lost the DSLR, iPod, glasses, and the list goes on) and I swore I wouldn't be that careless again. And I don't believe I was careless. I didn't drink too much, and my stuff was in the 'locker' The German girl didn't set the bag down for even a minute I don't think. C'est la vie.

So now my task is to try to find a way to get money from my accounts without having the cards so I can get to San Jose by Dec 3rd to get to Mexico City for a week, then home for a few days then Hawaii.... Although now I may have to change these plans and just head home shortly, and maybe from Panama..... I will see how I feel in a day or two.

Today being Thanksgiving, I will say I am very thankful for all the wonderful people I have met in my life, the kindness of strangers, my wonderful family who has always made me feel like I have a home to come back to and always supported me in my travels.... even when I scare them by being so far from home... and English speaking doctors. I am thankful for my health as I know it could always be much much worse (and again mom, I am still healthy). And I am thankful for all of you that read this INCREDIBLY long post, my blog site was not allowing me to publish it today. So it goes, stayed tuned for more updates.


Update: Feeling a lot better today. Yesterday was just a day being up and down and laying in bed watching movies on my laptop. Today,Matthias and I went into the main island to file a police report, talked with the owner of the lounge where the money was stolen SUPER nice lady who felt really bad and helped me get arrangements to go with them tomorrow morning to Western Union to get money sent by my pare

nts. She also offered me some free breakfast and free drinks and free use of their safe for some of the days i will remain here. Talked with my insurance company and bank again today and there is no chance of getting any of the money returned or anything, but again - this is life. Bad things happened but my faith in humanity is unshaken. Still sad about losing $500 and all of my cards but I do have sometimes where I can look back and laugh at it.

 — at Isla Colón, Bocas Del Toro.

Should I stay or should I go now.

So I lost Anne the Quebec but found two other really cool Americans on the way to the Tarzan Swing, I still didn't find my underwater camera there but c'est la vie. After the swing we took a long hike to a huge waterfall then the long hike back to eat some delicious food at a restaurant here called Just Good Foods. Rick the tour guide and the owner Mike were there and telling us about fun things to do today; $10 for a boat trip to an island for some good times, then later the two cool Americans I met will join us for a trip to the free natural hot springs 8 km away. When we came back to my hostel the Quebec girls were there (3 of them all traveling together and staying in the same room as me) and we talked and laughed until midnight. They have rented a car and invited me to go with them to a city called Monteverde (Green Mountain) but I already made the plans to enjoy one final day in La Fortuna and don't feel like need to travel 3+ hours to do more zip lining although a bungee jump there does entice me a bit.... We will see what the girls decide on doing and I will hopefully meet them in a beach city tomorrow!

But then again, I am from WA and am quite used to the green, I am wanting more of the white sand beaches.  And maybe some large turtles!

Costa Rica

And the journeys continue. I left Spokane for Costa Rica last Monday, November 28th and will travel around this country (and maybe Panama and Nicaragua) until December 3rd when I fly to Mexico City for a week to visit my friend Amber from college who is teaching English there. Then a few days back in Washington followed by a week in Hawaii with the whole family, then back to Korea for another year or two of teaching. Good, now we are up to speed:

I was supposed to be coming here with my friend John that I met while traveling in Europe four years ago. He has lived in Costa Rica as a SCUBA instructor but after some delays in the US before our trip he ended up getting his dream job working for the Dept of Defense. So now I keep calm and carry on alone. I booked four nights in San Jose and per usual didn't do a ton of research about what it is like but rather like finding it out for myself first-hand. And what I found out is that San Jose can be a dangerous place, it is as you would imagine most capital cities in the US: just a big big city where life carries on as usual, not too many amazing cultural tourist sites but the usual stuff (I went to a bank museum which talked about the history of Costa Rican currency). It was on the second day there I met two new backpackers from North Carolina and they convinced me in taking the city buses to La Fortuna. Since this was city buses it took a very long time on twisting and turning roads through a very very pretty countryside. We were the other foreigners on the bus full of schoolkids, farmers, and other various local Ticos (Costa Ricans).

By the time we got to the city we were all a little road-weary and happened across Rick, an American who has made Costa Rica his home for the past 7 years who showed us some good places to eat and signed us up for a river rafting trip/organic farm tour, as well as helping us plan our journeys around the country.

Rafting was awesome, class 4+ and 5. Definitely worth every penny. After rafting we headed to one of 11 hot springs/resorts in the city and had some AWESOME buffet and relaxed in the hot springs and rode some pretty insane speed slides. Then the day before yesterday I took a semi lazy day and went to a tarzan swing over a river with a kid in the hostel names Cam. I had my recently purchased underwater camera with me ($100 from Huppins on N. Division, Spokane) and had wanted some pics so i should "Hey Cam, toss me the camera but make sure you throw it ahead of me so it doesn't get lost in the fast moving current". And it was a great toss, just a few feet ahead of me........ and that was the last I ever saw of that camera..... Why I thought it would float is beyond me. I wasn't even mad when it happened, I just kinda laughed and said "Oh well, this is life, and I still have my better point and shoot with me, there just won't be any underwater pictures from the rest of my trip." It wasn't Cams fault and maybe a should have thought it through more but c'est la vie.

Yesterday I went ziplining which was a whole other experience with much fun to be had. Check out the video on my facebook as well as all the other pictures thus far.

I will head off now and do some laundry and get some food. Then maybe back to the tarzan swing with a friend i just met in the hostel (Anne from Quebec).

Hasta Luego,
Pura Vida.