Border Crossing - Panamá To Costa Rica

Border Crossing – Panamá To Costa Rica

17 December 2008By Zhu 12 Comments

We eventually left Panamá for Costa Rica. We returned from Boquete on Monday and spent a final night in David, our hub city, drinking beer and watching movies at the local theatre.

It took us over two hours to figure out how to do the border crossing. We could either take a frontera bus (David is only an hour drive away from the border) and then hop on another bus on the Costa Rican side. Or we could take an international bus going to San Jose, Costa Rica. The bus station in David was very chaotic and dusty and we went back and forth looking for the ticket booth. When we found it, the employees had gone for lunch and would be back an hour later, más o menos. We ended up buying a ticket on the international bus, leaving the following day at 8 am.

On Tuesday morning, we boarded the bus, barely awake. It took us just an hour to get to the border. There, we had to take our bags (stored underneath the bus) and go to a small round room, with tables. We put our backpacks on the tables and waited for what was coming up next. Sure thing, a custom officer arrived 30 minutes later and searched us.

After that, we rushed to put our backpacks back on the bus, and started queuing to get our exit stamp from Panamá. We bought an actual stamp for 1$ that a lady stuck in our passport (no idea what was that for) and then had our passport stamped.

The bus was waiting for us on the Costa Rican side, so we walked about 200 meters to the other border control. We got our Costa Rican entry stamp without much troubles. We weren´t even asked any question.

But once again, the bus driver called us and we had to take our backpacks with us. A border officer took our passports and we were told to line up. We were called, one by one, and searched again.

Back in the bus. Phew.

We had decided to skip San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, for now, and to get off at San Isidore Del General. We bought a Coke and braced ourselves for a quite original ride…

Bus Station In David

Between Panamá And Costa Rica

Costa Rica, Border Control

Final Border Control, The Bus Waiting For Us

12 Comments »

Max Coutinho said:

Hi Zhu!

David doesn’t sound so bad!
Now, all this frisking is appalling, isn’t it? Anyway, what matters is that you are ok!

So…now is Costa Rica, eh? Super!!!

I am ready for the news…

Cheers

# 23 December 2008 at 11:28 am

Zhu (author) said:

@Tulsa Gentleman – I just can´t believe it´s Christmas, it just feels like summer to me. It is weird, people here display Santa Claus near palm trees and fake snow on their garden

@Bluefish – Sorry I can´t keep in touch more, the connection is so slow I barely have the chance to update my own blog… please let me know when you move to Europe!

@Larry Gambone – Thanks for the tip! We may go after Xmas, after Nicaragua. I wrote that down

@Linguist-in-Waiting – Land borders just don´t make any sense to me. They are so… artificial. We could cross anywhere, but people die trying and that´s the sad part. We are lucky to be born with the right passport, allowing us to travel… other, not so lucky.

@kyh – Supposed to be, but we haven´t seen that many. A few backpackers here and there but less than I had thought.

@Gail at Large – Yeah, I don´t like not having my passport… but sometimes, you just have to give them, it´s easier than arguing.

@Seraphine – I´m definitely IDing Santa when I see him. This old man is just weird. It´s winter up there? Ohhh… sorry

@barbara – Crossing borders is somewhat a lottery, that´s very true! I don´t get into troubles going to the US anymore because I´m a Canadian resident, but I used to be questioned for hours… it sucks. Here it´s mostly about the non-efficient and the occasional bribe, but we cross fairly easilty. Well, I don´t wanna jinx it!

@RennyBA – I should have Olga with me, I bet it would like the hot weather for a change!

# 19 December 2008 at 5:09 pm