Early Friday morning we packed up and left Panama. Our dear friends took us to the bus station where we got on the big coach bus and headed back towards Costa Rica.
The border crossing started out being a nightmare, but we prayed ourselves through it and by some miracle we survived and only waited around there for two or three hours.
That might sound bad, but I was pretty happy considering how it started out. Basically, when we reached the border we were told to turn around...and pretty much drove to the end of a mile long line of semis. After sitting there for maybe 10 minutes (give or take a few) and not moving, the driver got a call and we made our way to the front. We were directed off the bus, grabbed our luggage and crammed into a small room. Our bags were lined up in the center, and we were lined up along the wall behind tall tables. They did roll call, and then let a drug dog in. We were silent as the dog did his job, and of course the dog stopped and super-sniffed our bags. Darn hostel cats! But the process went smoothly, and besides being intimidated by being lined up along the wall, no problems.
From there we were sent to the end of a mile long line of people waiting to get their passports stamped to exit the country.
We stood in that line for awhile...before we were told that there was a special line for us. A few minutes later, we were stamped and ready to walk the no-mans-land to Costa Rica entrance stamps.
That was simple, (the Costa Rican border control officers are much more friendly and understanding than the Panamanians for some reason) and after standing and then sitting and waiting for awhile we were told we would be waiting for another hour before we could get our bags checked and head out.
Great. For those of you who travel, you probably know that sometimes sitting and waiting can be the most tiring part of traveling. Probably because you actually let yourself breathe in between crazy border crossing stress. It's rediculous...and exciting. As long as you keep in mind that you ARE okay and the world doesn't revolve around you, everything is fine. :)
While we were waiting a man came around asking for money for a school or some other kids activity. He said in exchange for a donation he would give us a sucker. I gave him some, and he was so greatful that he gave me two suckers! Ha. I'm not sure if I gave him money to help to kids or to get the yummy mango sucker.... Hahaa. Okay, that was a little bit off topic...
So, after waiting around for a while longer, we were finally herded into a big cage like animals. Okay, not really. But we were in a huge cage like box. We stood in line with our migration papers and bags waiting to have our bag checked. For some reason, I am always intimidated by bag checks. I don't think I have ever had anything remotely questionable in my bags, but somehow the possibility of a big scary Costa Rican border control officer going through my bag and potentially throwing everything out on the table and forcing me to repack (or explain why I have some random travel item in my bag) freaks me out a little. And for the record, they are usually pretty good with me. (The blonde woman tourist look must not be very suspicious for drug trafficking.) So I got to the table and started to open my bag and the guy just shook his head and waved me through. Ha! Never have had it quite that good. I don't think anyone else got that lucky either...especially the guys who came through with baggy black clothes, long hair, and countless tattoos and piercings. Word of advice: if you are one of the baggy clothes/long hair/tattoos/piercing guys, then unless you want to repack everything you own, you might want to cut your hair and wear your best dress and look like a rich business guy. Err maybe don't look rich. Just don't pack much and you'll be fine. ;)
Just a side note, we had the greatest bus driver ever. Because we had bought our tickets so early we were sitting near the front. The bus driver was so sweet, helpful, and hilarious. I sincerely hope that every poor pathetic soul (like me) that ever has to cross a border without having the slightest clue what they're doing gets a bus driver like him. I'm not sure if we would have made it without him. :)
After getting successfully back into Costa Rica, we enjoyed our six hour bus ride (Kayla next to an ornery fat guy and me next to a beautiful, sweet young lady who knew a decent amount of English and had started a church with her husband! Sorry, Kayla...) back to San Jose...And then for some reason we made this stupid decision to catch a taxi to Alejuela instead of staying in San Jose...
Another word of advice: watch out for the taxi drivers! Seriously, more often than mot, they are rediculosuly dishonest people that will do anything they can to get as much money as possible from you. Almost every hostel has a huge notice saying: WATCH OUT FOR TAXI DRIVERS!!! They will lie and tell you we are full or take you to another hostel that will pay them commission to bring new guests or pretend to be lost to rack up your miles.
That's exactly what happened, so I am really glad we had that warning from the hostel. We told him where we wanted to go and he said that hostel was bad and would cheat you. Instantly both Kayla and I argued and said we wanted to go there. Then, he started saying he didn't know where that hostel was but he knew a better one (huh...I thought he knew it because he knew it was bad. That's funny...) and then, as he was saying he didn't know where the hostel was, he made a call to "get directions." Then we were told that the girl from the hostel couldn't help because she was in San Jose. (Ahaha. Big joke.) Annywayy, we finally got him to let us out to walk and find it ourselves (he happened to let us out right outside of it) and luckily we had gotten him to agree on a set price before we started, or I am sure we would have had a rediculous milage fee...
So this is the part where I say we found the hostel, got a room and lived happily ever after... I wish.
We went inside to find that it was pretty expensive (really nice, but $17 a night is way out of my price range) so we got directions to another hostel, walked a mile to get there (literally. Maybe two.) and found out they were full...at that point the girl who had been helping us left, so Kayla and I got the name of another hostel, walked everywhere to find it, didn't find it, asked for directions about 10 times, almost got robbed by a crazy gangster (thank you Jesus for angels who intervened, that was seriously the most scared I've been on my travels. He kept after us asking for money, then we went in a store to get away from him and thought he was gone, but he stepped out of the shadows as we exited. Eeeehhh.)
After that we were soo sick of walking around with our huge bags, we were tired (it was close to 9 at night) soo, we hopped into a taxi, he took us to the hostel, dropped us off, charged us $20 for the mile drive, and left... wait, what? Yeah. Aparently after traveling all day in different countries and time zones and currencies we were done using our brains. We were pretty frustrated, but thannnkk God the hostel had rooms AND they were really great!! ...even though they laughed a little too much at our stupidity for falling for the taxi driver cheating us.
Ahh well. Here we are, safe and alive. :)
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