So last time I left you we'd had a big day and were heading off to give an English class. That all went well, everyone is progressing nicely and we always have a few good laughs.
It's great that some of the English speakers come along and help with the group work.
Little Ike, seen here with Kieran is doing great, he's one of the best students.
As I include a bit of Spanish in the lessons BJ decided to attend and to bring Suraya the monkey.
I always try to include some games to keep things interesting, this week's game involved throwing a ball but in the end I wondered if I should be teaching ball throwing skills instead of English - as there were one or two coordination difficulties lol
The next day Porl and I went on a great adventure. We walked to the end of the beach and around the rocky headland. After walking around quite a few bays we backtracked to where we'd seen some rickety concrete stairs leading steeply up a hill. You could start by walking up the stairs but then you ended up having to climb around the side and up one edge to get onto the next section. Once you actually got up the hill there were lots of stairs leading off into the distance. I climbed up and decided it looked like a good adventure so talked Porl into joining me. He was a bit dubious because he had been refused entry by an armed guard into a property in the vicinity, when he had been out witnessing previously, and he thought we might be entering the back of those private properties. I assured him that even if we were it was highly unlikely that we would get shot, and after all there were no 'do not enter' or 'private property signs' to be seen. So up we climbed.
I would show you lots of lovely photos of the whole adventure but last night my camera was stolen (more on that later) so you'll have to use your imagination.
So we climbed and we climbed at the top of the steps we popped out onto a road which, sure enough, looked like a private road with a few flash houses complete with pools and high gates. I was thinking that this may be a shortcut to get to the giant Jesus statue so we headed in that direction. Before too long we could hear workmen's voices and machinery and there was another ridiculously steep set of stairs so up we went. Finally we did pop out behind giant Jesus, and yes it was the property Porl thought it was, complete with armed guards. Thankfully the guard at the entry, where we made our exit, just looked at us rather bemusedly as we greeted him with a friendly 'buenas' and walked straight by. You'll be please to know that no shots were fired :)
We had climbed quite a height so now walked 'down' to the lookout lol - here's someone elses image of what we saw ....
After climbing back down we had a great body surf at this end of the beach (we live at the other end) and headed home, a little weary but having thoroughly enjoyed our little adventure.
This was the headland that we walked around and where we climbed to ...
This brings us to the new bikes! Yes we have bikes, sooo exciting. Our lovely friend Jesus, not the giant one but our Bible student from the bike repair shop, handmade us two bikes from all sorts of lovely parts.
I had also taken pics of these but you'll remember that the camera is no longer in our possession so I'll have to save shots of those for another blog. I will say however that bikes come in very handy for catching robbers, especially for me as I've never been a very fast runner :(
So ..... home invasion.
After a busy day in Rivas, with lots of studies and the collection of bicycles and all, we had not long been home and the door was open. I was in the kitchen which is just in the main room which is also the lounge/dining room (Porl was in the bedroom) when I heard a noise and turned round and there was a homosexual/transvestite standing in the middle of the room. Here the local refer to transvestites as Maricons which I believe is a derivative of María - ie. a big Mary but it's probably not very polite so I'll just stick to transvestite.
So, anyway there he was in the middle of the room, very skinny in tight jeans and a long shirt with black eyeliner and his hand on his forehead saying - por favor, agua, agua - please, water, water.
I was a bit taken aback as you can imagine but gave him a drink of water. But he just stood there and still holding his brow he said, una pastilla, por favor, tengo dolor de cabeza - a tablet please, I have a headache. His eyes were very glazed and at this stage I decided that enough was enough and said no that I didn't have any and that he should leave. He then staggered and clutched his head saying, entonces papel higienico, then toilet paper??? Toilet paper?? Whatever next, so I took the two steps to the bathroom to get the toilet paper and yup you guessed it all I heard was the flip flop of retreating footsteps. I ran to the door and just saw him run around the corner. Porl then came out and I started to look around wondering if something had been stolen. Sure enough Porl's phone that had been on the table was missing.
Well, here we were, a robber on the run and us with new bikes! So we set off in hot pursuit. A couple of guards had seen the transvestite running past so we carried on past the restaurants on the malecón (esplanade). We found a different transvestite who at first denied knowing anything about it but later told Porl that if he gave him $10 he'd get his phone back for him. Yes, please, why don't you and your friend rob us and then we'll give you money too!!
At this point I suggest that Porl stay and watch this person while I ride on and see if I could find the other one and also see if I could find the police who often do the rounds in their car along the esplanade. I didn't find the police but I found two helpful men, one who suggested I call the police on his phone which I did and the other who asked for a description so that he could sort the robber out if he found him. I said that we didn't want to take the law into our own hands, as in dishing out any kind of punishment, I was just trying to get our property back.
Then I did a circuit around the town and as I was heading back to find Porl I saw the perpetrator with two more of his friends. I looked around for Porl but he was no where to be seen and I weighed up the pros and cons of me taking all three of them on. I decided that 3 might be a bit much and was about to ride off to try and find Porl when they split up. The two friends walked on towards the esplanade and the robber hid himself in a dark little porch behind a little fence. Perfect! My bike has new brakes so it was rather tricky riding up to the house and stopping my bike without alerting the robber but I managed to do so, I also managed to dismount without falling off (well, I haven't ridden a bike for quite a few years you know, plus it's a boys one, with a bar and all, so I was impressed but I digress).... So I'm off the bike and am able to grab the robber. He's laying down in the dark in this porch and he gets to his feet - I demand the phone back but he tells me that his friends have it. I don't believe him of course so he lifts his shirt and turns and shakes his skinny butt at me to show that he has nothing on him, which he didn't. What a let down, so close and yet so far. While I'm pondering what to do with him, he bends over into the darkness, grabs whatever he's stashed down there and runs off shrieking. Oh my goodness, it was so annoying but I still had to laugh at how ridiculous this was all getting.
I thought I better find Porl again which I did and we both set off to see if we could find where he'd gone but this time he'd gone to ground and we had no success. I had told the Police where we were, what had happened and that I had the culprit and that he still had the phone on him but they just said well come to the office (a 20 min walk away) and file a report. Helpful!
We headed home via the local surf shop and after refusing the owners offer of help which involved a number of sticks and a machete arrived back at our place.
Across the road from our place is a little clothes shop and before we took off after the thief, I had gone to tell the lady what had happened. When we got back she ran out and said that she had been so scared because the transvestite came to her store with a camera offering to sell it but at the same time trying to get hold of her phone. She had looked out her door and the two others had been hiding outside in the bushes - she rang the police and they ran away. I described our camera and sure enough our camera had been taken too. Hence the lack of photos in the blog today :(
She rang the Police again who said that they would come after all but they didn't show up.
Kieran and Chase had been out visiting the Scotts and playing cards but when they got home Kieran hatched a cunning plan. He said that he'd go to town and make out he wanted to buy a phone and see what he could find out. He and Chase headed to town with Porl shadowing them from a distance, protector Porl jeje. Feigning intoxication Kieran approached the transvestites on their usual corner and told them he wanted to buy a phone. They said that had a really good one for $100 and took him to a local house to show him. Turns out it wasn't our phone. Kieran said that it was too dear so they took him to a little doorway down the side of the ATM and showed him one for $50, sure enough it was Porl's phone but Kieran hadn't taken that much cash and they wouldn't let him hold it so in the end he had to leave and leave the phone with them. As he left one of the transvestites tried to sell him cocaine, displaying the white powder on his finger tip, but when Kieran declined he wiped it across his own gums - obviously the reason for the glazed eyes. Welcome to the seedier side of San Juan - a good reason why we make sure we're not out on the streets much after dark.
Porl saw the group again later and gave them another chance to return the stolen items before we got the police involved whereupon one of them said to Porl, sounding very put out and in his ladies voice, 'all the people in your house are crazy!'.
After that we decided that as it was past midnight that was plenty of adventures for one night and we went to sleep.
Today, I wrote out a statement for Porl and he headed off to the file the report with the Police. When they had read his report they asked him if he would recognize the transvestite and he said he would. They then brought the guy out of the cell, he'd apparently been caught breaking into another house later that night and was now incarcelated. Porl confirmed that this was the guy, although as Porl said, he looked a bit different now he had a beard. But of course our phone and camera were no where to be seen and who knows what will actually happen to the thief. The locals say, 48 hours in the jail and then he'll be back on the street.
So those were our adventures for the week - a nice one climbing mountains with no shots fired and a home invasion by a big María who was actually very skinny.
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