Tico Bandito Tamarindo
( Costa Rican Local Thief )
Tamarindo started so well, really cool hostel, nice people, happening place. We had cocktails on the beach as the sun set, picked out which of the 75 foot Catamerans we would sail around the world, had dinner in a sports bar with 100 americans watching ice hockey. It had become apparent that Costa Rica is to Americans what Bali is to people from Perth.
The next day Jorje turned back the clock on a borrowed long board and hit the local waves, with some success, and the occasional faceplant. Juanita soaked up the rays, in short a pretty lazy day, we liked it and decided to stay another night, put some washing on and head off the next morning. A chilled night at the hostel and smiles a plenty. A broken sleep as one of the lads in the dorm got lucky and decided he needed to be in and out of the room ( amongst other things) several times keeping everyone awake. One of the joys of sharing rooms while backpacking.
Eventually got some sleep and woke ready to head to Montezuma. Out to Pack the car only to find the car door already open and Jorje's Backpack gone. Shit my clothes, shit my gear, shit my electrics, shit my medication for malaria, shit my boots. Shit. It took a minute to dawn on me that Id taken my passport out of my day pack when diving and left it in the car. SHIT, MY PASSPORT ! Apparently the secure parking with 24 hour security is only valid when the guard is awake. ( later the police told us that its was the 4th car broken into in 3 weeks where security 'must have been sleeping' ... suss much ? ) Hostel staff very sheepish.
My bag was in the car as it didnt fit in the lockers inside, i thought all my valuables were inside, bit of an oversight on the passport i'll admit, its usually in my day pack but as i said, secure parking with security. I didnt think anyone would take my dirty clothes. Turned out dirty clothes was a bit of a blessing as half of my stuff was at the laundry mat, but all my winter gear for later in the trip was gone, as was my shoes, sleeping bag and thermarest which were attached. Hard drive, adapters and all the gifts id bought so far including cuban cigars for the lads back home. Gutted.
Called the consulate straight away, no response. And again, and again. Called the embassy in Mexico, they said keep trying the consulate. It took the cops 6 hours to turn up and do a report. Still no response from the consulate. We got the police report scanned and sent it off to the travel insurance folk etc. Still nothing from the consulate. Sent email after email. Eventually Mexico got back to us with the right phone number and email address as the ones on the Dfat website are incorrect ( cheers Tony, not your usual standard of incompetence but helpful none the less ) So it turns out Australian consulates wont answer the phone and are only contactable by email, if they're not busy. Still no word by email
at 7pm so we decided to stay the night ( for free ) and drive 5 hours back to San Jose in the morning. Seething, again not much sleep.
The trip back went as well as can be expected. My garbage bag of remaining clothes sitting lonely on the back seat. Good news from the car rental place, the busted lock would only cost $25. Eventually found a hostel for a few nights and checked email. The consulate would see us
at 3pm the next day so we sunk into a couch with booze and finally got a good nights sleep. The wheels are in motion at least.
Friday afternoon and a few things confused me at the consulate. We got all the paperwork done and they were very helpful. However an emergency 48 hour passport actually takes 5 days, and they don't work on weekends. So really we were looking at 7 days after it taking them 2 days to respond to our plea for help. Secondly, the Australian government fines you for having your passport stolen, $120.00. Thirdly, the Australian consulate is not authourised to send paperwork to the Australian embassy in Mexico, instead we were handed the paperwork with directions to the nearest DHL office. However when we receive the passport back it has to be sent to the consulate at our expense for pickup due to security reasons. All up it cost about $400 Aud. We are hoping to get it back earlier than
next Friday but no gaurantees. We have the car still for 3 days so time enough to get out of San Jose for the weekend and get the travelling back on track. We decide on Manuel Antonio national park and hatch a plan.
