The Day We Got Mugged in Costa Rica (And Why We Would Still Go Back)

So... that was a first! I mean, I had my entire purse stolen once in London, my wallet in Madrid and witnessed a few attempted thefts (that didn't succeed in Barcelona - will write about that someday) but this was new.

To be honest, we absolutely loved our adventure in Costa Rica and we spent an amazing month there. But we left the country with a bitter aftertaste.

Here's our story of how we got mugged in Costa Rica + our recommendations for more safety during your travels at the bottom.

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Let's start from the beginning: our failed world trip due to Covid19 

March 2020: If you read through our personal stories, you know that we created this blog in order to document my travels despite a chronic disease and more specifically our year-long world trip that was supposed to start on April 1st 2020. But then Covid19 happened.

After three months of lockdown, we decided to take the car and get on a road trip through Europe, starting in Western Austria to explore Sebi's home country. We visited highly instagrammable hotspots such as picturesque Hallstatt or historical Salzburg and even hiked up to the Olpererhütte to take that famous illusionist picture of the bridge 'hanging above the mountains' (actually the header of this website).

Then, we wanted to head towards Croatia but spent a week exploring different corners of Slovenia, still with our car and again visiting picture-perfect places such as Predjama Castle, the capital city Ljubljana or dreamy Lake Bled.

After Slovenia, we finally started our epic road trip in Croatia. Driving along the Adriatic coast, we stopped in Pula, explored the surroundings of Split and went all the way down to Dubrovnik.

Travelling during a pandemic wasn't easy and so our original plan to get to Greece via Albania was impossible due to closed borders. We took a car-ferry getting us to Italy instead, where we visited the Sassi di Matera before continuing - by ferry again - towards our original destination: Greece.

We discovered amazing beaches and hidden gems in Crete, were in awe contemplating the fascinating Meteora monasteries and had some very romantic moments while admiring Santorini's epic sunsets.

Finally leaving Europe

August 2020: by now, we were heading back home to celebrate the wedding of some very dear friends. While Europe was still celebrating its kind of successful tourist-summer - despite less people travelling.

And we were actually worrying that we might  be stuck again because the situation started to very slowly but gradually head towards a second Covid19-wave at that moment.

September 2020: That's when non-European countries suddenly announced that they decided to re-boost their economy by letting foreigners in - midst a few safety rules such as bringing a negative PCR-test.

This would be our first in a looong (and expensive) series of PCR-tests (funny, because up until then, I had never heard that term before).

By the end of the month, we had booked our flights to get to Costa Rica in October. We had an amazing month (check out our itinerary!) visiting volcanos, rainforests and waterfalls, seeing giant Green turtles lay their eggs and hatchlings trying to get to the sea in National Park Tortuguero and it would have been a perfect trip.

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Ending a perfect trip in San José, Costa Rica

By the end of that epic road trip, we had already decided where to go next as we wanted to experience the Día de los Muertos in the country that celebrates it best: Mexico. We had a friend waiting there for us.

We went back to San José, Costa Rica's capital city - two days before boarding our plane to Mexico City. It was our second visit in the capital as our whole Costa Rica trip had started here as well.

Just to be clear up front: Costa Rica is actually known to be the safest country in central America and we felt very safe the whole time.

But this was about to change drastically...

Following directions - very hard in Costa rica

We arrived in a guarded residential area somewhere close to the industrial zone in San José in the middle of the afternoon. The directions given on AirBnB aren't always precise and in Costa Rica, people are used to give descriptions of the way to get there, rather than the exact address. Apart from big cities like San José, houses aren't even numbered.

So we had booked our apartment and our host Beatriz told us to "type on Uber/Waze/Google Maps: Musmani La Colina and it will show as A060. The house is around the corner of this bakery." [sic]

Which we did.

Turns out, that bakery has three corners and it wasn't clear which house it actually was. 

Asking for help in a guarded (!) street

Arriving in what we thought was the right street, we found said bakery and turned around it a few times. Still not knowing where we were supposed to go, I noticed a guard sitting in his little box a bit down the road.

We parked our rental car in the street (as it turned out later: right in front of the right house...), I took out my phone with the directions and went to ask in Spanish:

"Can you tell me which building this is?"

"Let me see ... I don't know exactly. Must be somewhere around there" and he pointed at three houses looking pretty similar to each other.

I asked if he knew a lady named Beatriz. He said he didn't.

Still lost - where's that AirBnB??

We were on our way back towards our car and the three houses the guard had pointed at. I had just turned around briefly to see him leaving on his bike - probably to do his rounds.

My phone still in my hand, I noticed a white, sporty car with darkened windows, slowly coming down the street.

It stopped almost next to us.

But nobody stepped out.

Because we were supposed to meet Beatriz at the apartment at 1 o'clock, we figured it must be her and that she was certainly trying to check from our Bio on AirBnB if it was really us and that's why nobody was getting out of the car.

What a misjudgement...

And then it happened...

I was just about to ask Sebi why nobody was getting out already when both the front and back doors of the car flew open!

Two guys, one sitting in the front, one in the back, half jumped out, keeping one foot inside the car, both wearing scarves to cover their mouth, and started yelling at us.

"Dáme tu teléfono!!! Ahora!!! Dámelo!!! Ya!! Ya!! Tu teléfono!!! PHONE!!! PHONE!!! Now!!!"

That was the guy in the back, reaching his hands out towards me, aggressively gesticulating - there was barely half a meter between us.

His buddy in the front was yelling too but I couldn't make out any words - I was just starring at the gun he pointed to my head.  

I was paralysed for minutes. At least that's what it felt like. Truth is: I guess the whole thing didn't last longer than 30 seconds.

You know when you witness something and you're just thinking "this can't be happening"? Well, that's what I had in that moment. It felt surreal like "come on, you must be dreaming". But no.

So I had a gun pointed at me and a guy wanting the phone I had in my hands. I could have waited for him to just grab it but I actually handed it over. You actually still have this survival instinct which means that if you got a gun pointed at you and someone wants something, you just give it to them!

He took the phone, looked around, yelled something to the guy at the steering wheel (there were 3 to 4 guys in total) and they drove off which screeching tyres, doors still open.

Thinking back

Of course, after something like this happens, you start thinking: "Should I not have given up my phone that easily?" "Maybe the gun was fake." "Maybe they really just wanted to scare us and weren't planning on shooting anybody."

But the truth is: you never know. There might even be an unintentional shoot, a panic reaction from their side. Then what??

Where was Sebi? He was actually behind our rental car and had a much quicker reaction than I had - maybe because our jeep stood between him and the gun and it felt kind of safe at that moment: he threw his phone and the car-keys underneath the jeep and ducked.

And he seemed a lot calmer when they left because - like I said - it happened so fast, he didn't immediately realise they actually got something. He didn't see that I handed over my phone.

We need internet!

Because we knew we weren't going to stay that long in Costa Rica, we never bought a local sim-card. So we didn't have any internet to contact our host Beatriz. We quickly drove to the nearby McDonald's that we had seen on the way to use the wifi to contact her.

Poor lady, she felt super bad. And she was so sweet to pick us up at the McDonald's to safely guide us to her flat. She also went to the police to make a report. And she was totally shocked because in the 20 years of living in that neighbourhood and running an AirBnB, something like this never happened before.

I guess it was just bad luck, we were on the wrong place at the wrong time.

Still thinking...

Of course you will still worry for a while after such an experience. Thinking things like "Was the phone locked?", "Did they see the address we searched?", "Will they come back at night to finish the job"?

Et cetera.

You get somewhat paranoid.

But I guess that's a natural reaction.

I called my brother, a police officer, to get some reassurance. And it helped. He told me that these kinds of gangs were out for quantity, looking to accumulate stuff. They probably just drive around the city the whole day and attempt to get as much valuable things in a short time as possible.

They will most likely try to get inside the phone but they are actually never professional hackers but just petty thieves. It will most certainly never work. Because if they could do that, they would be spending their hacking time and resources on bigger fishes. Not paltry tourists, just wandering around.

Lucky after all!

It was just a phone. Nothing more. Because I also had my whole purse with me! With our cards, money and passports inside - which I usually hide inaide the car or the accommodation - I never carry that stuff around. But yeah, we were just about to "move into" a new place and so I had everything on me.

And I guess they would  have taken all of this as well and maybe even kidnapped us if they had more time - that happens sometimes: they take you to the nearest bank and have you empty your accounts while threatening you with some weapon.

But I guess they were thrown off because the guard was actually coming back from the other side of the street on his bike. And they didn't have the time to wait.

So yeah, it was just the phone.

And - totally going to advertise for Apple here - only the material part of the phone.

First thing I did: I took the computer and logged into my Apple ID. I reported the phone as missing and activated the option that completely erases all personal data, pictures, phone numbers, etc., as soon as the phone is connected to the internet.

When you loose your phone, Apple lets you configure a message with an emergency contact in case your phone is found. But I knew that I wasn't getting my phone back anyway, so I left a different kind of message that stated:

"Thanks for taking my phone but you should think about your actions. Remember: Karma is a bitch."

I know, this is petty and it doesn't have any effect whatsoever on these guys. But it was good for my peace of mind.

Sleepless night

Even though our accommodation was located behind Beatriz's house, gated and all, we didn't sleep very well. I jumped at every little sound - and in the city, you get quite a lot of them.

Because we were too scared to leave the house to get food, Beatriz even cooked for us. She felt so bad and was incredibly sweet trying to accommodate us the best she could.

In the morning, I checked up on my Apple ID on the computer and saw a message saying that the phone had been connected to the internet and all the data erased - one worry less! No sensitive information in the hands of the bad guys! 

Right after that, Sebi received a message: "Cynthia's iPhone has been found, please log-in at [insert dodgy site from a Russian server] to see the location."

Sebi's number was my emergency contact so naturally, he got the messages. 

My first reaction was "I gotta log in to see where they are and maybe give the location to the police!!!" I didn't even properly read the link. But then my brain kicked me and I had a second look. A link ending on ".ru" can't be trustworthy.

So I didn't react.

And Sebi got another message.

And another one.

Until they probably just abandoned and it stopped.

While this was annoying because you know you're getting messages from the a..holes that took your stuff, it was also reassuring because if they are trying to get inside your phone through phishing, it means they didn't succeed in another way.

No phone for the next three months

Knowing Apple's system and being a huge fan of the iCloud, I didn't want to just buy a random phone and thought I might just wait until I could get my hands on an iPhone again.

Also, I had to block my sim anyway and couldn't get a new number from home while we were still travelling around, so there was no use for it.

And we still had Sebi's phone - though we did use it a lot less for pictures, we were still quite anxious the first months after it happened to even get the phone out of his pocket.

So we went to Mexico, then to Peru where we explored Cusco and the Colca Canyon, spent Christmas and New Year's in the Dominican Republic and went to visit a friend from university in New Orleans.

And that's where I got myself a new phone. They are a lot cheaper in the US than in Europe.

Thanks Apple, for allowing me to get all my contacts, pictures, messages and notes back in one single click by automatically transferring everything from the cloud.

Years ago, during my Nokia-times, I would have been devastated because the worst for me is loosing my pictures, the memories. But I am definitely an Apple-aficionado, and especially since this event, and I will probably never get another kind of phone ever again.

Does this mean Costa Rica is unsafe to travel?

No! Absolutely not!

Apart from this event, we actually never felt unsafe during the whole trip. 

But we were in the capital city. And a city is always more dangerous than the countryside. This goes for all bigger cities all over the world. Petty crime is everywhere. Pickpockets and muggers lurk around in Europe as well.

Costa Rica in general is known to be a safe country, the safest in central America.

Just keep some things in mind and don't be careless by bringing yourself into dangerous situations and it should be fine.

Also, the pandemic has been hard on everyone and so the whole world has basically seen some kind of rise in criminality in general. That's no different in Costa Rica.

And we were probably the only tourists in the area at that time. 

It could have happened to anyone, anywhere. And it could also have been a lot worse.

This event affected our behaviour the following month, being a lot more "on edge", looking around more frequently every time people get close, having our hearts race when we notice cars slowing down somewhere near us.

But we loved Costa Rica and despite what happened, we would be glad to go back someday and explore corners we didn't get to visit during this trip.

And we won't stop travelling to places known as "not as safe as Europe" because of that. You know what they say after a car accident or falling off a horse, right? Get back in the car as soon as you can. And get back on a horse as soon as you can.

So we kept on travelling. And we had a blast.

However, in order to feel safer you might consider booking organised tours for visiting cities like San José. Have a look at some really cool tours below:

A few general safety tips

Never carry around valuables

Always have copies of your passports, keep the originals somewhere safe.

Make photocopies of your credit and debit cards and keep the originals close to your body, i.e. little flat purses underneath your clothes.

Always keep money in different locations.

Don't wear flashy jewellery.

Never EVER leave your phone unattended or carry it in your hand when in cities. Again: these are things I know. And I usually just take out my phone briefly to shoot a picture and then put it back ever so quickly. I was reckless and totally unusual for me to have the phone in my hands for that long. Maybe I was just lulling myself into a false sense of security because of that guard. 

Also, the more you travel, the more confident you get. And you start to be less careful because subconsciously you think "well, nothing ever happened, so...".

Get the correct address and do your research

When booking an accommodation without any kind of shuttle or pickup-service, make sure to have researched where the exact location is. Especially in cities. Also check Google street view to know what the place looks from outside. AirBnB for example usually only shows pictures from the inside.

Get yourself a decent travel insurance

Really. Don't just shrug it off by thinking "urgh, you never need these anyway". You never know when you might. Nothing bad happened to us but that gun could have easily gone off and I would have ended up in a hospital getting stitches or worse and then a big fat bill that would have ripped a hole in our budget.

Travel with some useful items

Below are some very useful items we will most certainly be carrying on all our travels from now on. The links are affiliate links which means we earn a tiny commission from Amazon if you purchase through one of these links.

• If your room doesn't have a lock or you don't trust the one on it, there are little portable locks to block any door. We have one from Addalock because you just feel safer that way (and sleep better!).
• Consider getting pepper spray. But if you do, be sure to read each destination's rules regarding pepper spray as it's not allowed everywhere. We found this discrete one linked below that probably fits in every purse.
• The third item listed below is a portable alarm-keychain. This is something we are getting for our next longer trip as this might have caused the robbers to drive off immediately. I was just so shocked that I wouldn't have been able to scream at all - just pressing on that button probably would have done the trick.

Read also | What to pack for a road trip

Some things to remember

Follow the rules. Don't be stupid. Don't get reckless just because "nothing ever happened to me". Because yeah, I never had a gun pointed at me either. Until I did.

Always be on your guards but don't let the anxiety overpower you. Go out, explore the world, make experiences. But safely.

And enjoy every single instant, you never know when life might be over.

I hope this didn't put you off but I felt this experience was worth-sharing.

Feel free to leave a comment or message us with your own experiences - would be nice to read other stories so that I don't get the feeling that "these things always just happen to me". Because I know they don't.

Also, please pin and share this experience as a reminder for others.

As ever

xx

Cyn

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