Last Updated: 07/22/03

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July 29, 2002:  Costa Rica, Please let us in...

The boarder crossing from hell!  First we took a frustrating taxi ride from Bocas to the boarder.  Since the boarder on the Caribbean coast is little traveled by tourists or gringos, there is no real easy or direct route to get there.  The taxi was supposed to eliminate three or four different buses and simplify our trip, which thinking back it probably did...  but, the ride was still frustrating.  We did a number of our drivers errands along the way as well as pick up other locals who apparently also needed a ride.  We definitely had the feeling we financed everyone's trip.  To make matters worse as soon as we crossed the boarder the Costa Rican side closed for lunch.  It would be another 45 minutes before we could continue.  While we were waiting a group of nine people traveling together came after us.  They were trying to make a flight in Panama and realized they would never make it in time due to poor planning (they didn't know about the time different between countries; Panama is one hour later) and the boarder lunch break.  Anyway, they "push" themselves to the front of the line with their sob story and so we had to wait even longer.  Turns out once the boarder re-opens and we finally get through, we just missed the bus.  We were stuck for another two hours before we could leave the boarder crossing town.  This of course made us extra annoyed with the group of nine since they contributed to us missing the bus.

But that made the Costa Rican boarder crossing itself, once it re-opened, sound easy... and that was definitely not the case.  Costa Rica would not let us enter their country because we could not PROVE "onward travel."  That means we didn't have any tickets showing our plans to leave the country once we entered it.  In truth, almost all countries have these types of rules.  They are usually enforced by airlines in the way of round trip tickets.  But... when you are traveling via bus and not planning to return to the country from which you came, it is virtually impossible to prove on-ward travel with a transportation ticket.  One way around this is usually an option to show "proof of funds" to support your planned length of stay.  It is usually enough to be traveling with a US passport for the boarder crossing officials on bus routes to recognize that you can support yourself and are not going to stay in their country and become a drain on their system.  Especially at boarder crossings on bus routes that are heavily traveled by gringos and backpackers, proof of onward travel is never an issue.  The only reasons we could come up with for the trouble here was either 1) this boarder crossing was not heavily traveled so they were not used to backpackers traveling "through" or 2) Costa Rica is the first country we hit where rules are more heavily enforced.  Both are probably true.  In any case, we were getting nowhere with the boarder crossing official here, she would not budge.  We didn't have any tickets and she would only accept fax verification from our bank about our "funds" which would have been practically as impossible to get as an onward transportation ticket.

In the end, we faked the system by returning to Panama (YES... actually walking back across the boarder) and finding someone to write us an "international" bus ticket to return to Panama the next day.  This bus line did not exist (there is no road at the crossing; everyone walks across a bridge that has some train tracks but that's it), and regardless, we had no intention of using it.  But, we now had a piece of paper with a date that showed the lady we were going to leave her country.  It was so crazy... we all knew this was bogus, but it worked.  She needed the paper, some document, to make us legal.

After that mess (and the extra two hour wait since we missed the first bus), we had a three hour ride up the Caribbean coast until we finally stopped in the port town of Puerto Limon.  We wish the story could get better here, but Puerto Limon didn't give us much to brag about.  A punk kid tried to shake us down for money for "showing" us to a hotel that we were already going to.  The hotel prices were high for what we got, and the town felt generally unsafe.

Overall, this was a pretty bad day.  We are really starting to consider what are now referring to as "Operation Take Break" or "Operation Go Home."  After reflecting on the day, we realize that much of our experience has to do with our own attitude.  Four months ago a day like today would have been "fun", "interesting" and "part of the adventure"... but today it just made us "pissed off."  We know we are tired, and that is affecting our attitude which is ultimately affecting our experience.  We don't want to visit all these amazing places tired and/or with a bad attitude, so that is why we are really considering taking a break to refresh ourselves.

July 30, 2002:  Tuesday around Puerto Limon

We were up super early toady and actually had to wait for the laundry place to open at 8am.  Any doubt that we didn't like Puerto Limon left when we found out it was going to cost $25 to get two loads of laundry done.  There were no self serve laundry mats, and the only dry cleaning place charged by the piece instead of by weight for regular laundry.  We basically didn't have any choice since there were no other places in town to get it done.  We checked email and tried to research tours and things to do while we waited.  We soon realized that there were no tour offices in Puerto Limon and anything that we could set up via internet originated in San Jose.  It was clearly going to be easier to get things done in San Jose... even if that meant traveling there (three hour trip) only to travel back to the Caribbean coast for places and tours that we were interested in.  By 10am we decided as soon as our laundry was done, we'd grab the first bus to San Jose.  At 2pm we were on our way and by 5pm we checked into a swanky first class hotel!

July 31, 2002:  San Jose

OK, we have calmed down a bit.  We like it here in San Jose; Costa Rica is looking up.  It feels good to be back in a bigger city and the weather is nice.  We had a major planning day today.  First, we got tickets to go home for a three week break.  We are going to visit Karen's dad in Michigan for a week and then fly to the bay area to visit the rest of our family for two weeks.  We are already feeling more energized by simply having the tickets to return home and visit with everyone.  We will spend another 10 days in Costa Rica before we go.  To make the best use of our time, we booked ourselves on a 6 day package tour that includes most of the highlights in Costa Rica.  Given our state of mind, we thought it might be nicer, and easier, to have someone else do the planning and arranging.  This will be quite a change from what we are used to.  Time to visit Costa Rica in style!

August 1, 2002 --> August 10, 2002

We're sorry we stopped journaling our Costa Rican experience.  We had a great time visiting the sites... from Sea Turtles laying their eggs at night on the Caribbean beaches in Tortuguero to the active volcano Arenal to of course the beautiful cloud forests of Monteverde.  It was wonderful.

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