The Most Expensive Coke I Never Drank Part 2

…Continued from Part 1

As soon as we were finished with giving our report at the police station, Edwin asked if we wanted him to go by McDonald’s to get a coke or to get something to drink. We all told him that we were okay, we were just ready to get back to the hotel as we had a lot of things to figure out before morning came. Besides, I told Edwin that, “It was coke that got me into this mess to begin with.” So I boycotted it for almost an entire day. Edwin dropped Jeremy, David and me off at the hotel around 12:30 0r 1 am; he had to be back at 4 am to pick the group up for the airport, so it was evident that no one was going to get any sleep that night.

Edwin’s plan was to drop the group off at the airport and then come back later in the morning to pick David and me up to take us to the airport and to talk to the police some more. He had plans to take his kids to school, but I expressed that I would like to get to the U.S. Embassy as soon as possible, so Edwin decided to send his kids to school via a Taxi so he could help us out. At this point we were okay with not talking to the police again; we had a copy of the report for the Embassy and we pretty much knew our stuff was going to be a total loss.

When we got into the hotel, Drew met us at the door with Kadie’s phone; he had his mom, Kim, on SKYPE and she was already working all of the details out for David and me to get home as quickly as possible with as little problems as possible. She had already researched all of the numbers for the U.S. Embassy and started working on getting our flights changed to either another flight on Tuesday or to the earliest flight possible on Wednesday. She also helped connect with my wife, Nicki, to arrange details on picking me up. I found out that my only key to my Nissan Altima was in my book bag, which had been stolen, so I would have no way of getting home, even if we could get a flight out of Costa Rica on Tuesday.

We called the emergency number with the U.S. Embassy and was told that they opened at 8 am and expedited passports would cost us $100 each. They told us there was a possibility that we could get the passports on the same day, so our hopes were strong that even though we may be delayed, we would have a chance to make it home on Tuesday.

Kim called us back with even more great news. She was able to get us a flight at 1 pm on Tuesday if we could make it or at 7 am on Wednesday if we were delayed by the U.S. Embassy. The best news was, she was able to get the fees for changing the flight waved, which saved us over $300!

But then I talked to my wife again, she had bad news. It was going to cost almost $300 to get my car key situation fixed. I told her to do whatever she had to do, because we had no other way to get the car home.

Monday night/Early Tuesday morning David and I may have gotten a 20 minute cat-nap. By the time all of the SKYPE conversations and the emails went out, it was after 3 am and Edwin would be back at 4 to pick everyone up. We were determined to ride with Edwin and the rest of our team as he dropped them off at the airport and then go straight to the U.S. Embassy to be the first people in line. I am not sure Edwin knew he would have to be out there from 5:30 am until whenever for this whole ordeal, he kind of made a painful sound at 6 am when we told him they did not open until 8 am.

Fortunately the Embassy let us in at 6:30 am to start taking our passport photo and to start filling out paperwork. This would prove to be a huge help at 8:15 am when we finally got to talk to someone. Time went by so slow. We were very anxious about how long everything would take and whether or not we would be out in time to catch the flight. Traffic would start getting heavy and we would still have to pay taxes at the airport and go through customs. At 8:15ish, we were called up to make our request. We handed in all of the paperwork, our photos, the police report and a copy of our stolen passports. I asked the lady after she made fun of my last name meaning ‘beef’ or ‘meat’ how long it would take, she replied, “Around 2-hours, maybe a little less since you are first in line.” I asked, “Is there anyone we can sweet talk to insure they hurry up?” “We have a 1 pm flight we can catch if we get out of here in time?” She just smiled. I think she thought I was joking.

Little did I know, some sweet talking was taking place on our behalf! We did not know this, but my brother-in-law Clay heard what was taking place through my sister and my mom. Fortunately, word got out to my mom, and she likes to ask people to pray and give news updates to the family. I am so glad she called my sister when she did, because it opened the door for my brother-in-law to get involved. He told them to get off the phone and call my brother, Ben, who works for Congressman Trent Franks out of Arizona. Ben pulled Congressman Frnaks  out of a meeting and notified him of the situation. He agreed to call if they needed him to, but suggested his immigration representative make the first call since they’ve dealt with immigration issues for years.

The immigration representative for Congressman Franks called while we were seated waiting to talk to the U.S. Consulate. The consulate told Congressman Frank’s representative that he could see us waiting in the waiting area and that we had already initiated the process. As I said, I didn’t know this was taking place, so it all makes sense now that the Consulate was with us very quickly and asked us what time our flight was. When we said 1 pm, he assured us, we’d have no problem making the flight. Before sending us back to our seats, he told us, we’d have our passports in about 20 minutes! We were amazed. The only surprise and problem we had at the Embassy was the actual cost  of the passports ended up being $135 each instead of the $100 the emergency operator told us, but then again….In less than 20 minutes, we were walking out with our temporary passports in hand!

One of the coolest things that makes me so proud to be an American, was having an lady who is a U.S. citizen come up to the cashier and check to see if we had all of the money that we needed. She overheard our story of being robbed at gun-point and was willing to help us if we needed it. Two complete strangers and she was going to make sure we got home. That was very cool!

The Most Expensive Coke I Never Drank Part 3 tomorrow…