Bocas Del Toro, very unfortunate events.
Trip Start
Jun 03, 2008
1
3
12
Trip End
Sep 03, 2008
Bocas Town,
Bocas del Toro,
Panama
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
To the family of Joseph Lutz,
I wanted to write you the
details of what happened that day. I know that you don't have much to
go off, and the police report was fairly breif and who knows what got
lost in translation. Hopefully you'll find some sort of comfort in
knowing exactly what happened, we'll try to recount anything, if you
have any questions, feel free to ask...
We'll start with how we
came to meet Joey. Kevin, my boyfriend, was riding a bus from San Jose
to Puerto Jimenez to meet me. i believe Joey got on the bus at San
Isidro, they met eyes and when the bus stopped in Puerto Jimenez
chatted breifly and realized they were heading to the same hostel,
which is where I was staying. We talked about heading to Corcavado
together but our plans changed and Kevin and I ended up going South. We
said our goodbyes and Joey stayed in Peurto Jimemez and did the three
day trip to Corcavado National Park, with a few other people.
When we later talked to Joey he told how amazing Corcavado had been. He
spoke of the animals he saw, saying it was like a zoo inside the park.
He mentioned how liberating it was doing the seven mile hike into the
rain forest, crossing numerous rivers.
On a whim, Kevin and I
decided to go over to Bocas Del Toro in Panama. Our second day in Bocas
we ran into Joey and Julia walking down the street. They had just
randomly met up as well moments before. We talked about plans to go to
the beach the next day, but weren't able to meet up to make more
concrete plans for the morning. It was purely by happenstance that we
walked to the same boat, at the same time as he and Julia. We were
super excited to see them and we all set off to the Island of
Bastimentos.
When we got to island Joey was really excited about
the island. He said that he had hoped to find somewhere like that, and
that it was more his speed. He talked of moving over to Bastimentos and
spending time there. It's a fairly small island, with no cars. Only one
paved walkway that runs through the town. It was a really pretty,
thirty minute walk to the beach. We were all talking about how pretty
the island was, and Joey pointed out one plan tin particular that
bright pink and green. He said the colors looked 'straight out of the
eighties' and that 'they should be on a trapper keeper'. The path went
through a grave yard and we all stopped and took pictures of how
interesting the graves were, then kept on our way to the beach.
Once we got to the beach we were all in awe of how beautiful the beach
was. We set our stuff under a shady tree and hopped in the water.
After about five minutes of swimming in shoulder deep water, we
realized we were being pulled to the left and further out from the
beach. Julia was already back at the beach checking on our stuff, not
wanting to be too far away form it. After we could no longer touch we
were aware that there was definately a strong current and it was
pulling Kevin, Joey, and me out quickly. We yelled to Joey to follow
us and swim parallel with the shore. Kevin was the first to get footing
on a sand bar, about fifteen yards from the beach. Joey was not far
behind him, and Kevin helped him up on to the sand bar. I was still
swimming along the beach, a little further out and to the left of them.
I started to panic a little around this time. Kevin started towards
me, trying to reach me. We could hear Joey yelling for help around the
time that Kevin grabbed me and pulled to where i could touch. At this
time Joey was about twenty yards fruther out than we were. It took us a
couple minutes to get on to the beach to look for Joey. He had already
been swept out and was moving quickly. He was panicing and struggling
to stay above water. Kevin was yelling and motioning to Joey that he
should swim to the left, parallel to the shore, while I ran to get
help.
Surprisingly people were not reacting much to the situation. I tried to
yell to where the surfers were, but they were too far out and could not
hear me. By the time i ran back to Kevin we couldn't see Joey anymore.
With as far out as he had been carried, the waves were obstructing our
sight of him, making it hard to keep track of where he was. We had
been told that police were called, so we waited at the beach but after
waiting twenty minutes or so, no one showed. We went to the police
station on Bastimentos, only to find that no one was there, and the
doors locked. So we flagged down a water taxi and went to the police
station on the main island.
Immidiately after talking to the
police Julia and I ran to the internet cafe to find a contact for Joey,
and Kevin went on the boat with a couple officers to patrol the beach.
After searching for around an hour, they had no luck and went back to
main Island.
We were told the next morning that a group of ten divers were at Wizard
Beach searching. The three of us went to the investigation office and
filled out a report with the help of translator. We were also intouch
with the embassy, trying to make sure the family knew what was going on.
Yesterday we met up with Mr Lutz and Mickey in Bocas and spent a few
hours with them. We told them what happened and went to the
investigation office with them.
We were all really happy to
have the pleasure of meeting Joey. I hope this answers your questions,
if there's anything else you want to know don't hesitate to ask. We are
all so sorry for your family, and for the loss of Joey.
Sincerely,
Sydnie and Kevin
It was a very scary and hard thing to go through, and it definately put a damper on the trip, but we're still trecking. We were asked to stay in Bocas three days longer than we had intended to help sort everything out and meet with the family members of Joey.
We were very relieved when they told us we could head back to Costa Rica. We're in Puerto Viejo now. A really cool town with a rasta vibe. running out of time on the internet as usual.... more pics will be up soon!
