an unfortunate occurance...

I'm sitting on a hammock in Cahuita, a town on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. It's so wonderful to be traveling around & out of the craziness that is San Jose & San Pedro. The ocean & beach are beautiful, the caribbean food is nice for a change & the Imperials in a can are c700 :)

I mentioned in a previous post about being excited to get out of the city, but didnt elaborate... now that some time has passed & I've spoken to my family, I can share.

I love it here & am happy to be sharing my experiences with you all via this blog (thanks for reading!). So, I feel i should be honest about the safety of San Jose & san Pedro. While leaving the Maximo Nivel offices on Thursday, a friend & I were robbed at gun point. Luckily, I had nothing on me he wanted, but he made off with my friends' backpack containing some USD & his computer. It was 8:30 at night, right outside the offices & we barely could've done anything else to be "safer." We left the office to meet up with some friends & were approached by a man who jumped out of a car less than a block away from Maximo. I originally thought he was coming to ask us a question, & remember thinking that he must've been in a hurry to be walking towards us at such a rapid pace... until the pistol came out. Wtf.

It was over very fast, but the image hasn't left my mind. I still think about it a lot, but, thankfully, it lessens every day. It's not something I'd have imagined to happen ever, especially not on this trip I'd looked so forward to (um hellooo, I'm from Brooklyn!). I'd started hearing about crimes like this a couple days before my incident, mainly to university students. You don't actually think it'll happen to you. Isn't that how it always goes?

My reason for sharing this is, well, its life & its the truth. I almost changed my flight home to the next day, a whole week early, but I'm happy I didn't. I'd have missed the best leg of my adventure! So, come to Costa Rica. For the culture, the beauty, the beach, the people. Keep your time in San Jose to a minimum. Reports are not honest & we look at Costa Rica as one of the safest countries in both Central & South America. even Maximo downplayed the possibility of crime, telling us 'your typical crimes happen here, just be smart.' To me, being held up at gun point is anything but typical. It's funny in a way... there's all this hype & criticism about the US military coming down here to clean up CR's drug trafficking, but yet, clearly there's a disconnect in the countrys' inner workings. Police, gun laws, prostitution...Oh, but stealing turtle eggs gets you a $4,000 fine & 8 years in jail...

Irregardless, the country is truly wonderful, & I will not let Thursday evening define my experiences: living with my host family, teaching the kids in Carpio, meeting new friends from all over the world... and sitting here watching the sun set behind me, I actually get it.

As long as San Jose isn't in the picture ;)