Is Nicaragua as dangerous as the US State Dep't. website claims???

pluralofcow1 - I'm sorry to hear about your misfortune. Could you give us some details about what happened? It would be helpful to others who might encounter a similar situation.

Gracias, mesacrow

"but some of the flippant "you'll only be a victim if you're stupid" attitudes on this board are a bit much. Bad things happen" thank you, very well put... I've been saying this for years on this branch: when it's your time, it's your time, period, no matter how experienced or prepared you think you are

Plural...did your express kidnapping happen on Ometepe Island?

#50

Pluralofcow

I find it odd that you just made first post on the forum, and it happens to be about a "Express Kidnapping" in Nicaragua, yet you have not offered not a single piece of info, nor have you contributed one ounce to the forum afterwords, yet you are so "Traveled".

So please indulge us on your time in Nicaragua.

Why were you there? Where you in a private vehicle? What area were you in? What could you have done differently that would of prevented it? Is your husband doing business there, or your were strictly tourist? Did this happen while you were staying in a hotel? if so, where?

Otherwise, your opinion on this particular thread, is no more than chatter, banter, and at best, a story.

Yeah, Cows, how about some detail? Like, was Waterfrontmary involved?

Waterfront Mary reminds me of Crazy Mary-

Since I moved to Chicago in 1991, this old nutty homeless woman is a fixture on the Goldcoast and Michigan Avenue, she swears and yells at any female walking by, blurting out slut, whore and bitch to complete strangers, young and old alike. Anyone that has lived in downtown Chicago knows here, harmless, but hilarious. When we dont see her for awhile we ask the bar owners and beat cops where she is, and they tend to know the scoop, as we all giver food, clothes and a sometime a good chuckle.

Yes, it was my first post under this name. I used to use the handle "pluralofcow," but it's been a few years since I was on here and I can't access the password (attached to yahoo account that is now shut down). Hence the new name. I used to post on the Africa boards quite frequently, way back before the format switch (largely 2001-2006). I don't know whether those old posts are still accessible, but if you really cared to I'm sure you could way-back-machine your way to them.

I'm sorry you don't believe that this is for real, or think that I'm some kind of a troll. Lovely that you give new posters the benefit of the doubt so readily.

We were not on business, we were tourists. It happened in Masaya/Managua. It was almost to the letter what is described on the State department site, which I is why I thought it important to bring up--given that the subject of this thread is whether the State Dept warnings are to be taken seriously or are exaggerations.

We were on a bus from Rivas to Managua (with plans to disembark at the junction for Masaya and taxi into town). We had planned to take a taxi from Rivas, but the people managing the guesthouse we stayed at in SJDS recommended this route instead.

Anyhow, my husband and I were sitting in different areas of the bus as it was quite crowded. A woman sat down next to him and they got to talking. Apparently she offered that she was from Masaya and would share a taxi with us when we disembarked as she was also headed into the center of town. She was an older woman (50s or so). I was not party to this conversation.

So we exit the bus, and my husband introduces me to her, not really adding much information. A taxi pulls up (legit looking taxi, red plates, etc.). He explains that we've agreed to share a ride...at this point I should have gone with my gut and said no, but since I had no idea what they had discussed I trusted that my husband had better information than I did and got in the car. It played out in the typical manner...more people get in (all women btw), we have to change routes because of an "accident" in Masaya, start heading towards Managua. I know this is headed nowhere good, but what can you do? Eventually the driver pulls a knife, and they drive us around for 1-2 hours pulling money from our bank accounts and then drop us off sans luggage (although they were quite fastidious about making sure we had our passports, credit cards and even our tourist cards so we could leave the country). They left us in a relatively upscale area of Managua where we were quite lucky to find some very kind people who took us to an ICT center where we could call our banks and cancel the cards, and then drove us to the airport (we were flying out the following day, so just checked into the Best Western for the night).

I posted this, because as I noted before I've long been a skeptic and poked fun at State Department warnings. But what happened to us was to the letter what is described on the site.

It's not to say we ought all lock ourselves in our homes. Simply that their warnings are often based in fact, and that having read it and therefore having knowledge of what was unfolding helped me to make the correct decisions in a dangerous situation (i.e. we knew that fighting back was a bad idea as they likely wouldn't harm us, or at least much, and just wanted our money). If we didn't have that information and thought we were about to die...well, we very well may have!

Thanks for the details. I never said you were a troll, just a tad suspicious, as this is the first report. This also happens in the USA, though its not reported.

I hope we hear more from you.

No problem. I know bad things happen everywhere (I live in DC now and read the police report on my phone every morning before I get out of bed). I've been quite lucky to have never been the victim of a crime (even something minor) previously, largely, I believe because I have always been quite cautious and heeded warnings from guidebooks and travelers/colleagues with a lot of experience in my destinations. As a previous poster said, sometimes it's just your time, I suppose :)

I'll try to post here some more, but this was my first trip to Central America, so I'm more likely to be at my old haunt on the Africa board, or on the India board (my latest travel obsession).

Solo (56)
perhaps they are one and the same. did she have an ice pick? another crazy mary has been reported in La Ceiba. There used to be a Scary Mary in my home town in S. Indiana. She drank too much, looked real skanky, was obnoxious.