Twenty Countries in Seven Months: San Jose, Costa Rica

February 20 ,2013

Hola,

We are in San Jose, Costa Rica. On Wednesday we arrived in Costa Rica by Tica Bus. To get into a country every one needs to go through customs so this is our story of customs in Costa Rica. Usually on a bus its not hard to go through customs but in Costa Rica they are very strict. So we arrived at the border and we all get out and stood in a long line.We were waiting in this long line and the border patrol officers would take a group of about twenty people and bring them back into this dark room. They would do this about every twenty minutes. We waited in the that line for about one hour! Once we finally made it to the back room, we were put in more lines. Then you wait another ten minutes and you can finally talk to the guy at the desk.They were very strict so you must have a ticket out of the country either by plane or bus that is within a certain time span of a month. We didn’t have a ticket out of Costa Rica so we showed our ticket out of Guatemala in July and he said ‘no you need a ticket sooner, its the law‘. Then we had to go sit in the back of the room while Dad ran out to this little hut that was selling bus tickets. At the little bus hut you can only use Costa Rican money but the problem is that we just arrived in Costa Rica and we only had Nicaraguan money. The tickets were really expensive. Luckily, while waiting in the first long line Dad had gotten money from the ATM and had just enough to pay for all the tickets. Then when he got back in after 20 minutes, we had to wait in line again. Finally we finished the passports and tickets thing. We headed to the bag checking area expecting the worst. We got there and all there was was a x-ray scanner and nobody even watching it. There was nobody in the room you just put in your bag, get it on the other side then leave! So we got all the way through customs and the whole bus had been waiting for us and one other family. So going through customs in Costa Rica took forever, when going through to Honduras we didn’t even get off the bus and the whole bus was done in ten minutes. Now on the bus there is a toilet in the back and we were sitting in the back near the bathroom. Near the middle of the drive, which was six hours, a guy had really bad diarrhea. It smelled terrible, really really really bad, like terribly bad. Then for some reason it seemed like everyone had to go to the bathroom, so every time someone would open the door we would put our jackets over our face and keep it there. Finally we arrived in San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. We were planning on staying at the YWAM base and meeting up with the team we met in Guatemala. We had gotten directions to the base but the problem here is that they do not use addresses at all! So, our directions were next to the university, west side, red gate and that was it. We showed the taxi and he seemed to know the area so we tried to put our five suitcases in his super compact car. We got three in the trunk Marije’s bag was on dad’s lap and Mimi, Lilia, Mom and I were all in the back seat with the backpacks. There was one problem, we couldn’t fit Dad’s suitcase. So the taxi driver got a bungi cord and tied it on. To be clear his bag was only on by one bungi cord on the trunk and every time the car turned in would almost fall off. We were praying for the bag’s life the whole car ride! Then we somehow found the base and arrived just in time to see the YWAM’s team graduation. That was our day of travel from Nicaragua to Costa Rica. Now we have been at the base for three days and tomorrow we are headed to Monteverde. Monteverde is a cloud forest full of hot springs, waterfalls and animals.