Two tourists, a husband and wife, were robbed at gunpoint last Friday in broad daylight outside of the Basilica de Santo Domingo in Heredia, north of San José.

“This was 4:30 in the afternoon,” said Jim Twomey, owner of Bibi's Bed and Breakfast, where the tourists were staying. “There were kids coming home from school. (They were) a block away from the high school.”

The wife was snapping pictures with a camera when two men wearing hooded sweatshirts approached them and demanded the money belt that the man was wearing, Twomey said.

Upon seeing the weapon, the man backed into the middle of the street while loudly screaming, “No,” Twomey said.

People started to take notice of what was happening, and the robbers grabbed the woman's camera and fled, Twomey said.

“I am not sure, but the fact that there were so many people around may have kept the bad guys from shooting them,” Twomey said. “The guests were lucky they weren't killed, although it was clever of the guy to slowly move away and attract attention to himself by shouting.”

The couple had been planning to spend five weeks studying Costa Rican culture, but opted to go home after the incident.

“They learned enough about the culture of Costa Rica on Friday to last them a lifetime and they left today,” Twomey said. “They won't be back.”