Frick-I got mugged!

Yep, that's right. I freaking got mugged. I guess that's what you call it. Kate and I spent that last 4 days in Montezuma. It's this small beach town right on the ocean. Totally has a hippie vibe, and I totally loved it. Except for that one time my camera got jacked from me. I'll give you the skinny, but this is going to be the clean censored version, because during it all I was cussing...a whole lot.

The first full day Kate and I were in Montezuma we decided to go up to the Montezuma falls. It's just a short walk outside of town to the trail head, and then you have to do this pretty treterous climb up the river to the waterfalls. The river is shallow, but rocks are everywhere and those mothers are slippery. Real slippery. So we are treckin' along, scaling those rocks like it's our j.o.b. We pass a guy (a tico) who was coming from the other direction. He said hi, and so Kate asked him if we were getting close. He was totally helpful and told us it was just a little farther. Two seconds later I slip on a rock, and in I go. Gash up my knee, loose my sunglasses, and my whole body is in the river. Frick. I handed my camera to Kate, which had been slightly submerged into the water, and she dried it off for me with her t-shirt. The nice guy we just passed came back to ask if I was ok. A little embarrased I told him I was fine, and just slipped on the rock. He headed back in the opposite direction, Kate hands me my camera, and we headed for the falls once again. Thirty seconds later, I hear footsteeps behind me. As I look back the "nice" guy grabs my wrist forcefully and says "Give me your camera." I seriously couldn't believe this was happining. You're supposed to be nice dude, what the hell. Why the frick are you stealing my camera? I said firmly "NO!" But then he pulled my wrist again, this time more towards him and he demanded again that I give him my camera. He was bigger then me, and I felt real threatened. I handed him the camera with out even trying to do the standard kick him in the balls move. After I handed my beloved new nice precious camera over, he was gone. I felt so helpless. I didn't scream. I didn't punch him. I didn't know what to do. I didn't even know how to yell in spanish "Get back here you f-ing asshole!" (That's exactly what was going through my mind. And like I said, this is the clean, explicit free version...for the most part.) The crappy thing is that he didn't even know I had a camera until after I fell, and saw us drying it off. Dannngit! Hows that saying go...don't trust a wolf that looks like a sheep? Yeah, I got straight up screwd by the sheep look alike.

Looking up though, I guess I don't have to worry about getting my camera stollen now. Man, I was so bummed though, for a solid couple hours. I can't think of another word other than bummed. Just straight up BUMMED. I had no emotion what so ever. We never even made it to the waterfall. After the whole getting my camera stollen situation, we headed back to town because in my camera case I also had my debit card and 3,000 colones. I only had about 60 bucks on my debit card, which I cancelled right away, and I'm really hoping that my camera dosen't even work from water damage from falling into the river. Then the freaking bastard would only be left with 3,000 colones, which is equivelent to 6 bucks. We went to a resturaunt on the beach to get a drink. All I wanted was a smoothie (and my mom) to drown my sorrows. The smoothie was delicious, so that helped.

Like I said, other than getting my camera stollen Montezuma was really great. Here are some things that I totally loved about the trip.
-We got to met so many awesome people from all over the world. Our first night at our hostel we met a group of 4 guys from Argentina. They were so fun, and so cool. And one of them, Diego, loved Kate, which I trulley enjoyed every second watching him interact with her! :) Hilarious. We sat around a table, talked for a couple hours, and then they made us dinner-at 10 pm. We all ate family style and enjoyed each others company. It was awesome. We headed down to the beach afterwards and had a bonfire with about 20 other young adults (I guess that's what I'm considered now being a college graduate and all. Young adult...yeah!) We also met some sweet chicks from Isreal, Sigert-a 24 year old dude who is a fisherman up in Alaska, our new friends from Texas-Kelsey, Amber, Lauren, and Dan, the "Honeymooners" from ATL, Kim and Brittany from Canada, Anna from London, and a rather intreaging older couple-Lynn (he's a dude) and Karen from Costa Rica. We had lots of cool conversations with these people. And here was probably my favorite part about the town of Montezuma. It's small. There is the main street that backs right up to the ocean, there are shops, hostels, one bar, and restaurants, and that's about it. And... you see everyone... everywhere. And it's awesome! Everyone would either wave, or stop to talk. We were there for 3 full days and after day 1 it felt like we were townies, because everywhere we went we saw someone we knew. So fun!
Lets see what else...
-We went snorkeling! We took a boat over to Tortuga Island, which was freaking insanely beautiful, and went snorkeling. We snorkeld in two spots, and then had lunch on the island, and layed out...in lawn chairs!!! Kate and I have were very excited about the chairs! Kate had never been snorkeling before, and as we were about to get off the boat and into the ocean, she asked kind of confused, "So...we just bob there?" For some reason it was hilarious, but not as hilarious as when a we saw our first school of fish swim past us, and she freaked out. I was like "Dude, that's snorkeling. You watch fish swim by" but she wasn't a huge fan :) We were laughing in the water for a solid three minutes!
-We hung out with our Texas friends almost the whole time we were there! Kelsey and Amber moved from Austin 4 months ago. They are teaching English in San Jose! So we will get to hang out a lot, which is super fun! And their two friends in town from Texas, Lauren and Dan, were a blast!
-Diego, the guy who was in love with Kate, asked if she was a woman of the church. He thought she was a nun. People, come on-that.is.hilarious! A nun!
-The first night we went to go check into our hostel, and they told us they accidentally gave our room that we had reserved away. They said that they had one room left...the honeymoon suite, and we would only be charged the rate of the initial room we had booked! I know what you're thinking. Honeymoon suite...awesome! NO! More like-Honeymoon suite...shit hole! It was a joke. Every other room in that hostel was wayyy nicer then the honeymoon suite. There were lots of bugs (we had to sleep with the bug net around us) and it was just straight up nasty, and not to mention tiny. We had a queen bed to share and that was all that was in the room. There wasn't space for anything else. When we walked in there was bird poop on the bed. Vom. So, we go to check out early the next morning, on a mission to find any place better then the "honeymoon suite" and the lady was baffled that we wanted to leave. She kept saying in a funny accent "But, you don't like the honeymoon suite?" NOOOOO woman, we don't like the freaking honeymoon suite. Peace out! So we headed to Hotel Montezuma, paid 3 bucks more a night, each had our own queen bed, had a bathroom in our room, our own kitchen, air conditioning, and there were no bugs! It felt like we were staying in the freaking Ritz Carlton-for only 18 bucks a night! Don't mind if I do!
-One other quick funny story about the honeymoon suite. I woke up early that morning to something falling onto me. Good thing we had the bug net around us, or else it would have landed right on my chest. Startled, I layed up, and flicked it away fearing it was some giant spider. But as I flicked it away, I thought "Oh, it's only a Pringle." I went back to bed, and both Kate and I woke up 20 minutes later. I wasn't totally conscious yet, and I told her a Pringle had fallen on me earlier. She was confused. "A Pringle Lis?" I matter-of-factly replied yes, and leaned down to the ground to pick it up to show her. Nope. It was actually a leaf. For some reason though when I woke up startled, it didn't seem weird at all that a pringle chip had somehow mysteriously fallen from the sky and landed on my chest. A PRINGLE. What was I thinking?

It was a good long weekend, but it was nice to get back home to San Jose. Our friend Fernando, who is a layer and leads Young Life with us, offered to pick us up at the bus stop so we wouldn't have to take a taxi home. And...he had Dr. Pepper waiting for us. Seriously, he is awesome! Now I'm home and stoked beyond belief to get this week started. Young Life and Wyld Life start this week, and we have our first basketball game! Can't wait to post more and tell you all the ways God is working down here. Thanks for reading, thanks for your support, thanks for your prayers, and I love you all!

Hasta Luego!