Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica, Sept 2002

On Sept 11, 2002 Greg and I set out on a Costa Rica trip that turned out to be a 2 week period of my life that I will never forget. This was Greg's first trip to Costa Rica and it was my second time there.  While reading back through my journal entry from this trip I have realized that I have let a lot of the details slip my mind. It turned out to be chuck full of many good times, bad times, hilarious stories, very interesting people and some unbelievable bad luck!  I have to disclose that these are not my photos, I borrowed them off of other websites.  You will learn why as you read, I do not have one photo from this trip.  That makes me sad, but I have it all in my head and at least I have the story in my journal.  It is quite long so I am going to break it up into several posts so I don't bore you too bad.  Here goes....

Journal Entry: 

Sunday, October 27, 2002

... It's funny because I thought I would spend my whole time worrying about what was happening at the store (The Hawk Store, I was the manager at the time).  But the store was the LAST thing on my mind.  I had much bigger problems to deal with... Greg and I had a rough time due to a mixture of poor decision making and very bad luck.  It all started when Annalisa dropped us off at the airport on Sept. 11, 2002.  We said our goodbyes and we were just so happy to be on our way.  But that good feeling ended as soon as we went to check in, where we hit our first obstacle.  Costa Rica had changed their passport requirements just a few weeks earlier.  You now had to have one.  Greg didn't have one!  Everything we read said he wouldn't need a passport.  So my mom had to come and pick us up at 1:00 in the morning.  You can't imagine how bummed out we were, I couldn't believe what was happening.   We spent the entire next day on the phone between Delta and the Embassy of Costa Rica.  It turned out that they also issued a 6 month grace period... so we finally got it worked out and we were on the plane 24 hours later.

It felt so good to breath tropical air...

We got our rental car and headed out to Jaco...  We camped that night in a dive of a campground...  The next morning we woke up and went out and bought surfboards.  We were planning on camping at Playa Hermosa for the first couple days.  So that is where we headed.  Playa Hermosa is beautiful.  The sand is dark grey, almost black and it is lined with palm trees.  We were so happy to get there.  We set up camp and headed out to surf.  Surfing there was really fun too.  The waves were perfect for beginners, like me, and the water was super warm.  We got out of the water and walked up the beach a little way. 

We were totally enjoying ourselves, doing exactly what we had dreamt of doing.  It felt perfect... If we only knew what was happening back at camp.  When we got back I went to get something out of the rental car... I was surprised to find that it was unlocked!  I asked Greg if he left it unlocked and he said "No"  We then realized his backpack was gone, and mine, his camera, my little backpack containing my journal, basically EVERYTHING.  I will never forget the terrible feeling, my stomach knotted up, I felt like I was going to pass out, I suddenly found myself standing on the beach in Costa Rica with no money, no passport, no plane ticket home, all I had was the swimsuit I was wearing, the surfboard I just bought, and my tent.  Greg hopped in the car and raced down the road hoping the thieves had thrown out what they did not need, but he didn't get very far because they had slashed our tire. 

 

We told ourselves we were only allowed to be bummed out for that night and then we would enjoy ourselves the rest of the trip.  I felt so confused, so bummed.  The thing that hit home the hardest for me was that the words I had written in my journal were gone forever.  To the person who stole them, they meant nothing, they probably didn't even speak English.  I am sure my journal is in a dumpster somewhere in Costa Rica.  In that journal, I wrote my feelings about Sept 11th.  Those feelings will never be the same.  I was so scared and so sad along with the rest of the country.  But as time goes on and the world keeps on changing.  I can't find those same words again.  I wish I still had them.  It's a hard thing to explain.  But what hurts me the worst and what I miss the most are the words I wrote about Grandma Jane, in the weeks before she died as well as after...  My mom was like an angel sent from heaven to make everything as easy and as comfortable as possible for Grandma during that time...  I hope I will be as wonderful as my mother is someday...

Everything else was just material possessions that although I don't want to, I can live without... 

We decided we were OVER Playa Hermosa.  It was time to get out of there and try to enjoy our vacation, luckily, Greg still had his money clip and his bag with his travelers checks...  I had no credit cards, no ATM cards, no cash, no ID, I was hurtin'...  

To be continued...

That's all for this post.  This was only the beginning of many life changing experiences from this trip.  I am sure you are thinking we are a couple of idiots going out to surf and leaving all of our things at camp, but to this day, we still can't believe how quickly it all happened.  We could see our camp the whole time, there was only one road in and the same road went out, we only saw one vehicle on it, obviously that one car was our culprit.  There were a few other surfers around, and a few beach houses in the area, we thought we were being safe, I guess we just got caught up in a wonderful moment and let our guard down and as it turned out that weekend happened to be a Costa Rican holiday weekend and this particular beach is a hot spot for the local thieves.  Wish we would have known THAT before hand! Anyways, lesson learned... don't go to Costa Rica to camp and surf with only 2 people, unless you don't want to surf together and someone is always going to stay at camp.  

In my next post we make our way through the jungle to The Nicoya Peninsula...  on empty, without a dime...