Express Kidnapping

My friend Barbara who is a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala came to visit me for what was going to be a fun, relaxing 2-week vacation for the both of us. The first couple of days started out fine but on our way out of Managua to Masaya everything took a turn for the worst.

Barbara and I were waiting on a fairly busy road at 10 AM for a microbus headed towards Masaya to do some shopping in the artisan markets and have lunch with my host family. A friendly Nica woman approached us and started asking about our travels, if we like Nicaragua, etc. She knew we were tourists not only because we're pasty white but we were carrying huge backpackers backpacks.

After waiting for about 10 minutes with no micros passing, a taxi pulled up and the woman offered to share a cab with us to Masaya with her and two other men. It's not uncommon to fill up a taxi to get a better rate so we did just that. The woman was seated in front, a man on one side in the backseat, Barbara in the middle, and me on the other side. The other man tried to enter on my side of the car to sandwich the two of us in the backseat and I told him no. Peace Corps had warned us about these kidnappings, identifying just that as a way to get the victims trapped in the car in a vulnerable position.

I immediately felt uncomfortable and told the driver to let us out at the nearest bus stop instead of taking us all the way to Masaya. As he slowed down to pull over, he made a quick right, slammed on the gas, and sped down a less-traveled road. The man who I wouldn't let in on my side was seated in front with the woman who had befriended us and jumped into the backseat on top of me to lock the doors. I tried to kick him away and escape and received numerous punches and was threatened with a knife, while Barbara kept surprisingly calm and did exactly what they told us.

From there we were told to keep our eyes shut for the entire time as we gave them directions as to where exactly we kept our valuables. We needed to give away pin #s to our ATM cards or else they threatened to harm us. We were told they would leave us with all our clothes, passports, and IDs, and that they only wanted money.

After about 20 minutes the woman was dropped off at a bank and we were kept hostage in the car. I remember sweating and being squished uncomfortably in the backseat, wondering if this was reality or if I was having a nightmare. We continued driving as she took money out of the machines (about $600 worth from my accounts) and made sure we weren't lying about our pins.

Thirty minutes later the three men finally let us off with our stuff in what seemed like the middle of nowhere on a dirt road in a very isolated location. They left Barb with 200 cordobas (about $10) to get a taxi and were told to get out of town (decency?). We took our stuff, hysterical, and walked for about ten minutes until we found a hotel and went inside to use the phone, despite having reservations that maybe the thieves were connected with the hotel owners.

In the end, money was stolen, our cameras, our cell phones, Barb's mp3 player, sunglasses, and a few smaller items. I'm not really so much concerned about the stolen items as I am with the hassle of not having a camera here to take pictures the rest of my service, for example. But more than anything the emotional scars this leaves me makes it scary every time I need to go into Managua for work or medical appointments. But such is life and I will be taking extra precautions to take secure taxis and remain safe.

Barbara and I are healing, slowly but surely. Peace Corps staff has been wonderful with taking care of us. We both have less than four months left in our service so we want to try to remain in-country and make the best of the rest of our time in Central America. We both have had so many positive experiences and relationships here as well and don't want this one event to ruin all the good we've built up. I still think Nicaragua is a great place with such genuinely kind and warm people, and I don't think this experience should change anyone else's opinions either.

Thanks to those of you who have been supporting me through this. You've all been great.