Held up at Machete Point

Ok, so no updates in a while because we´ve been on the beach. And I´m sorry to report that Cara and I were mugged by a masked man with a machete yesterday just before sunset! Neither of us are hurt, but it was a frightening experience. here is what happened as I remember it.

We were at a beach just south of San Juan del Sur, in southern Nicaragua. it was our third visit to this beach in two days, we were there to surf. We packed up the van around 5Ñ30 or so, and started driving down the dirt road, we were the last vehicle out of there.

My guard was down. We´d had a fantastic 3 days there, and we were both excited that Cara had caught and rode her first wave... and then about twenty more! We were flying high.

The dirt road was pretty much one lane, with turnouts every so often. Less than a kilometer from the beach, a very large branch was in the road. Definite red flag, but we were having a great time and I foolishly just got out of the van to move it. I had closed my door, and walked about 15 feet towards the log when I realized that it was a big mistake. I never reached the log. I turned around and saw a guy in ragged clothing and a hood that looked like it was made out of a blue tshirt, eyes cut out, open the drivers door and start yelling.

He was yelling ´dinero!!´ and I could hear Cara screaming. I ran back up to the van. the mugger had the drivers door open and was leaning in. When I came up he waved his machete at me, I was a few feet away. There was lots of screaming and yelling by all three of us. Cara gave him the money we had on the dash, but it was only like 6 bucks which pissed him off and he wanted more. we were screaming we had no mas dinero, I approached again and he said he was going to kill us.

He climbed further into the van a bit, and was looking around for stuff to take. He saw my backpack, and demanded it. Cara smartly turned it right over to him, he put it on and ran off into the shrubs. The backpack had the laptop and about 40 bucks in it.

Anyway, the whole thing probably took a minute and a half or so, but seemed much longer. I locked the doors, moved the log, and we drove out of there. Saw some other people maybe a half mile down the road. Told them what happened.

Went back into town, and stopped by our hotel. Earlier in the day, the power had gone out. For whatever reason, some pump there doesn´t work when there´s no power and then there´s no water. I must have checked this by turning on the sink. Cara had tossed a bikini in there. When we got back, the power was on, the bikini blocked the sink, and there was an inch of water on the tile hall of the hotel, and 3 inches on the floor of the room. Awesome.

After cleaning up that mess, we went to the police station and filed a report. The station didn´t have a functioning copy machine, so the cop let us borrow the report, walk a few blocks to copy it, and then return. When we got back, three american girls were giving their report about how they had been riding bikes to a different beach, and 2 guys with tshirts on their heads holding pocket knives cleaned them out. Just another day in southern nicaragua sounds like.

The whole thing has left us pretty shaken for the moment, and I think we´ll probably hotel it for a couple days, rather than camp in one of the national parks down here. I´ve replayed the whole thing in my mind pretty much nonstop, didn´t really sleep last night. I guess it happened a short 18 hours ago. I remember while it was happening, I was just trying to think of a way to get the guy without Cara getting hurt, and then my next thought was if that she got hurt because of me I would never forgive myself. Those two thoughts repeated over and over in my head, occasionally interrupted by the idea that I could try to slam the guy in the door, and then I´d think about Cara again.

But the real root is that I messed up by getting out of the car to move that branch in the first place. I knew I had messed up even before I turned around and saw the guy at the van. The tree limb just seemed wrong, but I picked up on it too late. Probably because we were both in such high spirits from the great day surfing together, but who knows. Plus I´m paranoid that he had friends on the beach who gave the mugger a heads up, since I saw someone drive past us in the other direction just a few minutes before the event.

I wish I could say the incident didn´t sour us on nicaragua, but it has. I´ve been pulled over here more than anywhere else, got stopped by the police 3 times in 30 miles at one point. I feel much more like a target in Nicaragua than anywhere else. When we copied the police report, a woman there said she´d had two laptops stolen, and it´s the same group of bandits who have been pulling the same stuff for a long time and nothing has been done, no one has been caught. I guess that means there are no or few injuries from these things, which is a good thing. But it seems pretty rampant in that touristy beach region, it´s surprising they haven´t clamped down on it. The cops have plenty of time to pull me over and fine me.

So, we crossed the border (as planned) into Costa Rica. Borders are harassment enough when you´re in good spirits, but getting out of Nicaragua was pure pandemonium, craziest border we´ve seen yet. Glad to be out of there, and glad neither Cara or I was hurt.

We are both well if a little tired, and we´ve rented a beach house for a week with some friends so hopefully that will let us unwind some.

Dave