Santa Teresa, Costa Rica Day 19 - Camera Stolen

Today began like any other...Ben and I woke up at sunrise to go surfing...the waves were epic, the O'neill team was out and there were photographers taking pictures of them getting barreled.  I caught one of my best waves on my new board...an Italian with dreads gave me the the thumbs up and said "buena" after my ride and I was lovin' it!  The crazy thing was, there was a swarm of jelly fish but luckily I only got a little sting on my leg and Ben, who had no choice to do a duck dive right through them came out unscathed...Now I will let Ben continue the story, because our day had a sudden turn of events...

Getting barreled is a lot harder than I thought.  I now have supreme appreciation for all those surfers in videos at Pipeline pulling into monster tubes.  We were surfing off to the side at the main peak, and as Tracey said, was super fun, but not very hollow...so towards the end of the session we moved over closer to the main peak where the tubes were...not so much to get barreled but to escape the swarm of jellyfish and this red plankton-like stuff floating in the water that was obviously attracting them.  I already have a big welt on my bicep from getting stung the other day.   I took of on a good set wave, and a O'neil team guy let me have it.  I thought "this is it, just make the drop, turn, grab the rail and tuck in."  These guys make it look so easy. So I turned to go, caught the wave, it suddenly jacked up to over head high, and before I could even think about standing up I was been chucked over the ledge, doing a back flop and narrowly missing my board...then got swirled around in the washing machine for a bit before coming up in waist high water.  So I guess I won't be getting sponsored anytime soon.

Oh yeah, our sudden turn of events...We went in shortly after that, ate breakfast and went back to the beach. I took the camera, thinking that I got snap some picks of the waves because they were so good. We got there and settled under our favorite spot under the trees. Well, after reading a bit of Harry Potter, Tracey and I decided to jump in the water before playing smash ball.  The tide was low, and we left our stuff as we have being doing,  and we walked way out to the water about 50 yards away.  We had no sooner jumped in when I turned to look at our stuff, and so somebody come out of the trees and start rifling through our stuff!

It quickly sunk in and I shouted to Tracey "Someone's stealing our stuff!"  "What!" she replied as if I were joking!" "Someone's stealing our STUFF!"  I started running towards them, galloping in thigh high water...I watched helplessly as some Tico in black shorts and no shirt took our Chico bag containing our camera and Harry Potter Book 5 dissapear through the trees. "No fuckin' way!" I thought.  I took off at a sprint after them, not hearing at all Tracey shouting at me not to follow (as she later told me.) My adrenaline was up, and I was thorougly determined to get our stuff back. When I reached the trees, I had to scramble through a thicket of spiny Aloe plants in barefeet, scratching myself a bit and getting a thorn stuck in my foot (but I didn't notice until much later).  By the time I got throught the bushes I could see no one, but I kept running until I reached this collection of rusty corrugated metal shacks where it looked like somebody was living.  I thought I heard something in one of them so I opened the door and yelled "Give me my shit back!"  But itwas  just and empty bathroom.  Nobody was around.  30 yards away there was super nice mansion which housekeepers were inside cleaning, I ran over there and asked them if they saw anyone because somebody stole my stuff.  They just replied "No habla Ingles!."  I racked my brain searching for some Spanish in there.  "Como se dice - THIEF?! Running?"  They seemed to imply that they saw somebody run out into the  road.  Looking down I saw my leg bleeding from the cactus.  Seeing that they were no help it started to sink in that the thief was long gone.

I doubled back and went back to the metal shacks.  I couldn't tell if it was all one property or two adjacent ones.  Then, where nobody was before, I saw this Tico standing there (wearing black shorts and no shirt), hanging is clothes out to dry.  I tried to speak to him but of course "No habla Ingles."  He looked suspiciously placid to me and fit the description of the thief I saw.  I thought "I bet it was him, I bet he was watching us through the bushes waiting until we went to the water."  I wanted to burst in his door and search for my stuff, but that seemed way to drastic a move.  There was nothing really I could do at that point, so I started walking back to the beach, feeling defeated and realizing that Tracey was surely worried about me by now.

(I was really worried :(  I didn't know what would happen to Ben if he did catch the thief...all sorts of scary thoughts went through my head)

When I got back to the beach, she had gone, but "Deerk" the German guy who is staying in the Casita next to us was on the beach about to go surfing.  He was waiting to tell me that Tracey had gone back to the Casita.  I was so pissed, insulted really...I've never had shit stolen, and had that terrible feeling inside my stomach.  When I got back to the place, Ugo the owner was just coming out of the gate on his motorcycle to come look for me.  And Tracey was standing there too...she had told him what happened of course.  I said that I think I knew who it was, described the place which is seconds from our place, and he took off to scope it out.

Tracey and I sat there for a minute, as we took inventory of what was stolen.  They got our $150 Canon Elph, the key to our Casita, and my Harry Potter Book (which I was right in the middle of...ARGGH!!)  Then she told me how crazy and stupid I was for running after the theif, because they could have had a knife or something and she was really worried....and it was just stuff after all...nothing that could not be replaced.  But, in the moment., when it's happening...full of adrenaline, I said, I was not thinking about anything except "Fuck this...I'm getting my shit back!" I honestly did not even hear here shouting at me not to go or be careful.  I was like a rabid dog chasing a squirell.  Then we talked about how stupid we were to leave stuff there, when we were so far away....I guess we had done it so many times that we were lulled into a false sense of security.

Then I decided to go check on Ugo.  I met him on the road....he said to hop on his bike..that he knows the owner of that property really well and we'd go talk to her because it could have been one of her workers living in the shack. So I hopped on, and we went down the driveway...he pointed at the the couple of guys sitting there, one in black shorts and no shirt that I had encountered before, who I was pretty sure was the guy, and I said "that's him" and we took off to the other side of the property where the owner lived.  He speaks good Spanish, of course, and talked to cleaning people who I had encountered previously to call her down.  We went upstairs to meet her...an older white lady from America who was thoroughly appalled at the idea that her workers would steal something.  Then she said we would go search their room.

So all three of us walked over, and she asked them if they stole anything, and if we could search the room.  "How awkward" I thought...He consented to a search, she looked, then Ugo looked, then I looked, and he turned up has mattess and I searched his room, and he really didn't have shit.  I mean, he could have hidden it anywhere before we got there because he knew we were there....but he could have also been totally innocent.  How demeaning for him to be accused and have me search his room if her were innocent....but you never know, maybe it was him....it only makes sense that the culprit was someone working or living on the property. But after finding nothing, I said "Lo siento".  And we gave up. The property owner said it could have been a couple of guys who were landscaping for her and always walking around...who to her looked shifty, but who knows. Ugo and I went back to the Casitas.  So it was quite the ordeal and nobody was enjoying themselves.

So that is the long-winded version of telling you, our camera got stolen.  I guess we won't be posting any more pictures for a while, unless it is on our GoPro.  Luckily, it wasn't really that bad...no money or passports or anything like that.  And now we learned our lesson...NEVER to leave our valuables unattended no matter how safe it seems.  Oh well, pura vida.

Me again,  I just wanted to add that Ugo is changing our lock because we don't know if the person who stole our stuff had been following us or not and knows where we live.  So, I just wanted to let the worriers out there know that that is being taken care of.  Also, I wanted to say, I know what you are thinking right now Michelle, how could we be so stupid to leave our things unattended like that and so close to the trees when we were so careful never to leave our things.  I don't really have a good answer for you.  It was a momentary lapse in judgment.  But let me tell everyone, that this has not got by without us really learning from it.  It has had a big impact on us and we will never leave valuables unattended like that...like my Harry Potter #6, luckily the thief didn't steal that!  I will be finishing that one in the comfort of our casita.  Poor Ben is now left with 2.5 months left to wonder what happens to "hem hem" if you know what I mean.

Well, what can we do...going back to the beach now that Ben has had a chance to sort through that drama through his writing...going to play a little smash ball before our sunset surf session!

Pura Vida!


UPDATE!!  We went back to the scene of the crime tonight, and found our bag (containing our key, Harry Potter, and Sunscreen) had been thrown into the bushes...it seems that the thief just took the camera and chucked the bag.  So at least we do not have to go through the hassle of changing the locks and can finish the book.  We may end up buying a new camera...we'll see.  But good thing we went back there!