The boarder crossing from Nicaragua to Costa Rica was an event all in it self, it deserved its own blog.
While Erin and I were in San Juan Del Sur we met a nice American, Greg, who had been living in Tamarindo, Costa Rica for the last 3 months and was on a mini vaca in Nicaragua. Since we were headed in the same direction as him we hitched a ride (not something most people would do).
Here is how the story goes…
Greg picked us up at our hotel in his rental car about 3 pm on a Monday afternoon. It’s only a 45 min to an hour drive to the boarder. All of a sudden traffic is at a dead stop down a two lane highway. All semi trucks. So what does Greg do he goes into the oncoming traffic lane like everyone else to pass the semi’s who are all waiting to cross the boarder. There were probably 150 to 200 trucks at a stand still. The best part about it was this:
Yes, that was the driver in a hammock under his truck waiting. He was not the only one doing it. Some trucks had multiple hammocks or two people in one hammock. We even saw a guy with a hot dog cart walking down the highway.
Once we reached the boarder gate we were waved in by a couple of Nicaraguans in street clothes. They then walked us over to where all the tourist buses were (we drove the car) and this is where we were to meet the car rental guy. Meanwhile we were asked to pay this random guy $10 each and hand over our passport, in return he would come back with it stamped. We trusted Greg so we paid the guy $10 and our passports came back stamped. Ok, one boarder down. Next we walked over to the Costa Rica side to pick up the new rental car and have our passport stamped once more.
Greg and Erin Walking to the Costa Rica boarder.
We waited for a bit at the boarder for the new rental car, but it never came so Greg left us to fend for ourselves while he went to the actual rental agency down the road. After what seemed like forever Greg arrived with the car. Again we paid some random dude $10 and gave him our passport to be stamped. All in all everything worked out. But the idea of giving someone $10 and your passport can be a bit nerve racking. Erin at one point though we were going to be sold into the sex trade. When all was said and done it took us 1 1/2 hours to cross from Nicaragua into Costa Rica.
Erin and I crossing the boarder from Nicaragua to Costa Rica.
