Our driver came to pick us up at 5:45 AM. AM?!?!! I like my morning sleep, so this wasn't all happy turn of events. However, we had the alarm go off at 5'ish, so we were prepared. Grudgingly so. We had packed most of the stuff in the car the night before, so it was a quick lift-off, saying bye to our dear friend Carlos, who got up just to say Adios to us. Our driver, Miguel, didn't speak much English, so this was an intensive Spanish class for us.
It took us about an hour to reach Peñas Blancas, the border crossing to Costa Rica. We parked out car, and went to the passport control. Luckily the lines weren't too long, since we were there so early in the morning, just as the border opened. I had to pay about $20 for one day's overstay, but we already knew that, altho.. it was more expensive than the original $5 we thought I'd have to pay. Still cheaper than flying out of the country to keep the date. After getting through the passport control, we went to the Agriculture-side of the area, and got Kaleb's paperwork stamped and cleared. Then back into the car, and driving to Costa Rica.
We stopped at what you might call a no-mans's land to switch cars. Apparently you can't (or it's very difficult) to take a Nicaraguan car across the border, so we changed and packed to a car with Costa Rican plates, and off we went to the Costa Rican side of passport control. When going to CR, you'd need proof that you had a ticket out of there too. So you wouldn't want to stay and enjoy their tropical paradise without paying taxes to them. We thought our driver would've gotten us to the Ticabus booth to buy us return bus tickets, but he had expected us to do it ourselves, before entering the passport queue. Well, thanks to my quick thinking .. ahem.. we had our Panama address on Kaleb's vaccination papers, and that was enough to convince the official that we were actually going to leave the country. Phew!
Another trip with Kaleb to the Agriculture-portion of the area, this time he was seen by a vet there. He checked and stamped Kaleb's papers, and then gave me a lecture about how to travel with Kaleb in CR, not to upset their fragile eco-system with a foreign dog or something. Didn't get much of it, since it was in Spanish, but I kept nodding like I understood. The driver of the Costa Rican car was bff's with Kaleb from the start. He was so nice, making sure Kaleb had a nice drink before we continued our trip.
Miguel, who is actually a Costa Rican, I think, and just lives in Nicaragua, wanted to take another route to the border, one that would take us along the coast. The beaches there were indeed beautiful, but I had read some traveler complaining before about Nicaragua not having as lush flowering trees and bushes as CR has. I didn't see any of that in CR. It was pretty much the same green as Nicaragua, I would even venture to say there were more flowering trees and things in Nicaragua, than what we saw in CR. There are probably more maintained green areas in the tourist spots, since CR is a richer country than Nicaragua. But at least Nica has the Trees of Life! (slightly sarcastically)
After a few stops for potty breaks and food, we arrived at the Paso Canoas border crossing at around 4 pm. The area is also a tax-free zone, which means a lot of stores are selling their wears there and it can get really crowded. So no wonder we missed the Costa Rican side of border control. Oopsie. We had to walk back there, get our passports stamped and then go back to the Panamanian passport check. The passport controls are somewhere in this area:
Finally at the Panama passport control. Of course they were asking us when we get out, and what do we have as proof of that. Still don't quite know how we got out of that, mostly, I'm sure, by Miguel's invaluable assistance. Until it was time to have Kaleb admitted. Across the border that is. Apparently the vet in this border crossing only works from Mon-Fri.. in any case, not the weekends. We had a choice of leaving Kaleb there, and coming back on Monday when the vet was there, or stay there until Monday. So much for that.
After getting that situated, they wanted to see all of our luggage, and we had to carry it to the customs office. Chuck actually dropped his computer and associated equipment there a couple of times. Not a good start. Finally they let us continue towards the border, where we were stopped once more by a police/army patrol, questioned about our motives and having the dog with us. Eventually we were allowed to cross the border through a decontamination shower for the car.
It was getting late by now, and we would rather find a place to sleep overnight, than to drive all through the night, so we decided to drive to Santiago, some 4 hours from the border, just to be a little closer to our final destination. It was already dark, so I didn't get many memorable pictures of entering our new home country, but what was memorable tho, was all the police/military stops and inspections we went through on our way to Santiago. I think we were stopped 2 or 3 times before reaching the destination, every time our paperwork and luggage being checked. Miguel told me that one of the officers had even asked for a "donation" to let us pass, but Miguel told him he had already paid enough at the border, and wasn't going to pay a cent more! So, so happy we had Miguel with us!!
Apparently the fact that we had Costa Rican plates in the car made us a special target for these little rough-ups with the law. Officially the want to crack down the drug trafficking, but I think it's just to scare the tourists and maybe get some donations (or protection money) while they're at it. At that point, I wasn't sure if I wanted to stay in such a police state.
In any case, we got to Santiago eventually, with no arrests, and checked into a motel that seemed to me might have hourly rates too... Unfortunately a nicer hotel along the way was already fully booked. At $36/night, no wonder why they were booked. This motel had only one room available, with 3-beds. Well, it all went well, altho when Miguel, even tho tired from a long drive didn't return to the room until the wee hours, Kaleb decided to "welcome" him back.. loudly.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
