Tuesday morning we rose early with great excitement for our trip to the other end of  the OSA Peninsula along the Gulfo Dulce to Puerto Jimenez and Carate. Unfortunately this excitement was banished when a woman from the German group asked me if I had heard the bad news. I said I had not. She then burst out that the camp safe had been stolen in the night with everyone's documents and money. I said impossible, but she assured me it was true.

At this news I asked for the camp phone and called our travel agent in San Jose. The travel agent asked us for a full list of what was missing. We quickly put together a list of passports, Ellen's green card, drivers licenses, credit and debit cards, cash,etc. and sent it off to the agent and gave a copy to the camp manager.

While eating breakfast the agent emailed us that she had set up appointments for the embassies, a meeting with the local police, and reporting stolen the credit and debit cards. She also was creating a line of credit for us since we only had $9.00 between us.

So off we went on the 15 mile boat trip to Sierpe, then a 30 kilometer trip by taxi to the police station to fill out paper work. 

No one in police station could speak English, but we finally got it figured out enough to get reports,to take to San Jose and the embassies on Saturday when we will return. When finished with the police we woke our driver and returned to Sierpe to get our bags and continue our adventures.

Now we discover that we are on the wrong side of the river to meet our next driver so we get a local boat taxi to take us over to a gravel landing on the south side. There sitting on the shore is Sandra and her driver to take us through the middle of the Osa Peninsula to the village of Puerto Jimenez. It was a grand ride across the coastal mountains with wonderful views of the Rio Sierpe mangrove system all the way to the ocean. About an hour and a half later we enter the village of Puerto Jimenez and park right in front of the small hotel where I had been five years earlier with my friend, Barry Wulff, and a group. Here we find Arturo waiting for us with his Carate/Luna Lodge taxi. 

It takes about another hour and a half throught the rain forest and ford 3 or 4 rivers to finally reach our next destination of Luna lodge at 3:30 in the afternoon. It has been a while since breakfast and we have only had one cup of coffee between us since breakfast. Fortunately the gracious owner of Luna Loxge, Lana, has a sumptuous lunch awaiting us on arrive.

This place is another paradise on our journey.  The folks at "My Costa Rica" have been brilliantt . Everything that can be done has been done, so we are on with our painting and hikingree. This area is filled with tanagers, honey creepers, and trogons. The howler monkeys greet us each morning with the early light at 5 AM. Off to find more adventures!