Costa Rica Day 6 pt 2

Wow, what a day,

I think when I last left you we were at an internet café at a small shop. We were able to do some shopping and then headed out to Santa Cruz where we are staying in a small motel/villa set up. It is out a little from town and seems like a safe place. The family that runs the place is extremely nice. We had an awesome time in Santa Cruz. Some may not call it awesome but I would file it under the category of extremely memorable. During supper, Aby received a call and the indoor soccer team that he is a chiropractor for was playing about 100 yards from where we were eating. This team representing San Jose was playing the league champions from Santa Cruz. Now we didn’t know all this. Aby just asked us if we wanted to check out a soccer game. He is friends with many of the players. We all said sure. When we arrived, he told us which to cheer for and we did. We soon found out we were cheering for the visitors, and besides us there were only about five fans cheering for the San Jose team. The game was great and intense. These guys were extremely talented and the game was very close. Both teams played dirty and there were several red and yellow cards. Towards the end of the game Aby turned to me and said “I have to use the restroom, when the game is over head back to the bus and I’ll meet you there.” No problem, sounds easy enough. About the time Aby left the gym the coach for the San Jose team was thrown out of the game and that’s when the real excitement began. There had already been two San Jose players thrown out of the game so tempers were flaring. The coach went to sit in the stands by his wife. Who just happened to be sitting right behind us. When he did a fan from Santa Cruz threw a bottle at him. I looked back to see his wife jump at and go towards him looking for a fight. At that time players started running up in the stands to try to stop a fight from breaking out. Then, before we knew it we found ourselves right in the middle of what was about to be a sure nuff sports center moment. Here were 30 gringos who had been cheering for the wrong team surrounded by a gymnasium full of Costa Ricans and here we are with five adult males. For a moment there, I was excited because I was thinking, “cool, we’re gonna get to see a fight” then I realized we were about to be a part of it, rather we wanted to be or not. We immediately started getting our folks out as fast as we could. We made it out safe but we were definitely skating on some thin ice. Now that may not seem like a funny story and it certainly wasn’t at the time. The funny part came when we were safely on the bus and our guys started talking trash about how they were ready for a fight. Here are some of the lines I heard, “I was just waiting for somebody to swing at me,” “Man I was gonna bust somebody,” “Oh, I was ready for a fight.” I sat in my seat with a huge grin because the guys talking the most trash were the ones who made it out of the gym before some of the girls did. Now I won’t name any names but that was good entertainment. Best part about it – It was all free.

Keep us in your prayers, J. Ray