Leads? They got four more detectives working on the case, they got us working in shifts!

Puerto Viejo: a swashbuckling port city on the Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica, exclusively for the dirtiest of hippies, the smelliest of backpackers, and the stupid tourists who thought it would be a good idea to come to this god-forsaken place.

Yesterday Tanya and I woke up at 4am to catch the bus to Puerto Viejo for a weekend of sun and snorkeling and getting away from the city! ....I almost wish I had stayed back at the house.

We took a four hour bus ride from San Jose to Puerto Viejo, then a taxi to our "hotel" AKA a room in this German lady's house with her two bratty ninos. (We chose a hotel outside the town center, thinking it would be safer.) Tanya and I unpacked a little and then decided to head to the beach. I was all set with my towel, my water and my book. Tanya said "That's all you're bringing? You should always bring your valuables with you." Against my better judgement, I took her advice because she has been in Costa Rica for a month and half, and I have only been here for a week. Could I have been more stupid?

We had a really nice time on the beach. There were hundreds of cool crabs and some really tiny fish (one that got caught in my anklet and flipped its flipper once I got out of the water! That was the weirdest feeling in the world!) We spent a good amount of time tanning and reading... until someone sneakily came out of the forest behind us and seized Tanya's bag. I didn't know what had happened until I heard Tanya yell "HEY!" and sprint as hard as she could. I ran right after her, adrenaline pumping, faster than I had ever run- in my bikini, without shoes. While the boy tried to get on his bike we saw another man and yelled for him to help us. He tackled the boy off his bike and wrestled with him for the bag! Thank God! We were saved! What a good samaritan!

...But then he started running, too. I looked at his face as he ran towards me and realized that he wasn't helping at all! I planted and set up a pretty good block, sort of juked with him, then he just dove into the deeper forest and we were NOT going to follow him. My head was pounding, I couldn't see straight, I could hardly comprehend what had happened. Some of the workers digging nearby stopped to assess what had happened. One of them even called the police for us.

Tanya and I waited for the police... I was about to cry but realized that that would be a silly thing to do. They are just things; they can be replaced. We are lucky we weren't threatened or hurt. Tanya and I sat by the side of the road waiting for the police. We took it in stride and had a sense of humor about it. Tanya said, "I don't like Puerto Viejo." Understatement of the century.

The police came, looked around in the forest and then told us that we had to go to the police station to make a statement (un anuncio). All the while, the one officer was just laughing at our broken spanish. Ass. The police sent us in a car to the police station. Tanya and I each did our best to make the statement, in as clear of Spanish as we could. Then we waited... Another officer asked us to make another statement, so we did. We got robbed about 11 and it was about 3pm at this time. (The only thing we had eaten was some fruit at about 9am.) Finally, we made our statements, they were going to let us leave! We could have time to go on the internet, cancel our credit cards, eat some good food, and forget this ever happened.

Then the police officer told us to stick around so that we could take part in a reconocimiento, to look at a line-up and pick out which of them was the one who robbed us. WERE THEY SERIOUS? This was petty theft. We didn't get a good look at the guy and they weren't going to recover our things, so just let us leave!

We waited.... Meanwhile, one of the kind officers gave us each a mandarin orange. Tanya dead-panned, "Well, we may have been robbed, but at least we have mandarine!" Around 4:30 they took us in another police car, about 30 minutes away to take part in the reconocimiento. We were further questioned about the incident. It started feeling almost like an interrogation. The officer had no patience for my broken Spanish. But I was still keeping it together, until he asked me if I was nervous... Should I be? Why are you asking me that? You are making me nervous by asking me that. That was truly the last straw, I couldn't hold it together anymore. I was in a strange place after a stressful day, I hadn't eaten anything, I didn't have anything- except my towel, my book and my water from the beach. I was fine getting my stuff stolen, but at this point the police had stolen my sanity and my whole day! They let us leave at 6:00. But were not going to give us a ride home. WELL WHERE THE HECK ARE WE?! I was so shaken up, feeling so lost and vulnerable. Another witness, a lady who lives in Puerto Viejo, offered to help us but between Tanya and I neither of us could understand what she was saying. She walked us towards yet another police station. There were waited... and waited... and waited... A car FINALLY came at 7:00.

We could finally go back to the hotel, get some money, go back into town, get some food, and cancel our credit cards, and go on the internet.

But the key to our "hotel" was also stolen. And the owner of the house did not have a spare key! After about a half hour of trying to open the door and the windows, they called someone to help. Eventually he took a crowbar to the wooden windows and jammed the lock open.

Tanya and I collected our stuff, waited for a taxi, scared half to death because it was so dark and we were feeling so vulnerable. We got to an internet cafe, talked to some nice little Jamaican twin guys. They bought us each a Coke. Tanya and I got some food at the restaurant upstairs and then when the twins had closed up shop, they bought us a beer and took us to a reggae club. A good way to end a horrible day- we had a really nice time and apparently I know how to dance reggae! We had to leave, though, once the boy wanted to dance too close to me.

ADVENTURE!