One of the main reasons I put up this
blog was to tell the following story. It sounds unbelievable, it is 100% true. Hopefully the information will
be helpful for anyone driving across Central American borders.
In April, 2013, my husband drove solo
from Texas to Managua, Nicaragua, where I joined him. He had to deal
with the borders of five countries before having me to help. I am
normally the one in our relationship who handles paperwork. So, I
took over after I reached Nicaragua for the border crossing into
Costa Rica and then Panama. I had come prepared, after reading
others' recommendations: I brought copies of the car title,
registration, driver's licences – all necessary, by the way, but
doesn't save you much time since there is always a place to make
copies at borders and they invariably want something you don't have,
so you have to visit there anyways. And they seem to prefer black and white
copies – not color.
Basically, border crossing with a
vehicle is a formula. Check yourself in, check your car in. Check
your car out, check yourself out.
Checking yourself in is a matter of
filling out customs paperwork which shows your name, passport number,
what your purpose for being in the country, paying a fee and then
getting your passport stamped. Checking your car in mainly involves
buying the insurance if required, having the underside sprayed for
bugs if required, having an inspector look over the car to verify the
paperwork and to check for smuggled items (or people), getting or
giving authorities copies of your car title, registration, and
drivers licenses; and then, for all your trouble, you get the
issuance of formal paperwork showing you are legally able to drive
this vehicle in the country for X amount of days.
We crossed into Costa Rica on April 2,
2013. We crossed into Panama on June 29, 2013 – 89 days later.
(Your limit is 90 days in country.) I had gone on-line and printed
off a “how to check out of Costa Rica and into Panama” border
recommendation by another traveler, so felt pretty confident at my
2nd border crossing experience. When I filled out the
vehicle paperwork to check our car out of Costa Rica, there were
three boxes with verbage after each, all in Spanish. Now, I know
LIMITED Spanish – mostly conversational type stuff like where I'm
from, where I'm going, food items, etc. I looked at the form and
THOUGHT it was to terminate our insurance coverage for Costa Rica.
The office workers spoke about the same level of English as I
Spanish. The boxes had something about three months. Making what I
thought was an educated guess, and thinking that it didn't much
matter anyways (BIG mistake), I checked the box I felt was most
appropriate and we headed our way into Panama.
About one month later, we were heading
back to the States from Panama; check out of Panama and head to the
Costa Rican border crossing, Paso Canoas to check in. At the Aduana
(customs) office, we are told, “You are not in our system.” and
after a lot of confusion we learn, “You checked THIS box on your
form which says that you intended to not return for three months.
Your vehicle must stay in Panama an additional two months before it
can return to Costa Rica..” We were astonished and flabbergasted
and complained, but the workers behind the desk and just shrugged
their shoulders and said, “Nothing I can do......Next in line....”
We asked to speak to a supervisor. We sat waiting for hours in
chairs in this office not knowing for sure if the workers understood
what we wanted, whether the supervisor was busy or gone for the day
(as his door was closed), if we needed to take a number, if he even
KNEW we wanted to see him, etc. Finally, about 4 hours later, we
were motioned into his office. I tried to explain that I had checked
the wrong box and that we needed to cross the border in order to
drive home. He basically said, “Sorry, there is nothing I can do.
We have to follow the rules.” We asked for an interpreter since
his English was broken, thinking maybe he didn't understand. An
interpreter finally arrived, and the upshot was the same. She did
say that we could appeal our situation via a lawyer in the next
office over, but that it would need to be written in Spanish and
faxed to the appropriate person – and that the lawyer leaves at 4pm
and tomorrow is a holiday, so offices are closed. GREAT! We had
about 15 mins before closing, so she offered to write the appeal and
we got it submitted to the lawyer by three minutes to four; and were
told we'd have an answer Friday morning by about 8:30am. We felt
it'd be a slam dunk. What did I do wrong? Checked the wrong box on
the paperwork. Don't know Spanish. Dumb tourist.
Border towns are usually the kinds of
places you want to get in and out of ASAP. Most are hustle towns
with hustle artists offering to “help” you get through the border
for a fee. Most are rundown areas, small, with little in the way of
food, motels or shops. Paso Canoas is an exception.
If you have to be stuck in a border town, it's probably the best
one. It's rather large with lots of shopping, motels and
restaurants. You can't really tell where the actual border is as they blend together and you can walk freely all around
there. We ended up finding a great hotel called the Hotel Real
Victoria for $20/night with internet, hot showers, and secure
parking. It became our home (or prison!) for the next two weeks.
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| view from our hotel window of Paso Canoas |
We go back Friday at 8:30am, and of
course, have to wait for the lawyer to arrive. Another couple is
ahead of us dealing with similar issues. They are bi-lingual and
help us by asking the office workers and lawyer in Spanish what the
status of our case is and they give us suggestions on what we can do
or who we can go to.
Another aside – you are probably
thinking, “Why didn't you offer a BRIBE, you dummy!” While that
system solves many problems and frankly can be quite workable, we
learned that in Paso Canoas, all employees had been fired two years
before because of accepting bribes – and jobs are scarce; this is a
government job, thus secure; noone wanted to risk being fired. No
bribes offered or accepted. They also are extremely lackadaisical in
getting anything done because they are on the clock – 8-5pm; paid
low wages, and frankly don't give a hoot if you sit in chair waiting
for days. Not their problem....
About 11am, we are handed “the
decision” (three pages long, all in Spanish). Our plea was denied.
We want to know what the papers say tho, so ask for the interpreter.
If seems as if the lawyer understood what we wanted and that he
asked for her; but we waited several more hours and she never
arrived. Around 2:30 I find a bi-lingual tour guide in the area and
ask him to read our papers for us. Basically the papers say that the
appeal is denied; that we have X number of days to respond otherwise
we lose our right to appeal. There is nothing on the paperwork
telling us who or where or how we can appeal. We tried to ask the
workers again, basically got ignored but finally got the name of a
place in San Jose to appeal. Then someone in the office (a non-worker) told us
that we could appeal directly to the supervisor's supervisor, a Ms.
Ingrid Ramon Sanchez, right here in Paso Canoas. That SHE is the
head of the department here, has final say, and is in the office
across the street. We try to speak to her directly by going over to
her office with someone who is bi-lingual, but are shooed away and told to go back to the other office. We decided to write up a more
in-depth appeal (with help) and submit it. Now it's late on Friday –
had to hang out until at least Monday for an answer. I get the idea
to contact our US Embassy and I send them an email. We get a response
from a man named Cesar telling us he would help on our behalf. He
tries calling Ms Ramon Sanchez all day Monday – and gets no answer.
She wouldn't pick up her phone, I can only presume she knew it was him. I
walk over to her office to verify her phone number and get her email
address and try to ask why she doesn't answer her phone. I get met with blank stares. The phone number is correct; Cesar sends an email. He wrote a short, weak-sounding plea for us (two or three sentences?something like, “I don't want to
step on any toes, but would you PLEASE let these people drive through your
country for a few days?”). She writes him back saying she'd have
an answer later that day. Well, it didn't come Monday, or all day
Tuesday but finally Wednesday, we go over to her office to try to get
some kind of answer – they refuse to let us talk to her – we get
PUSHED to go over to the other office because THEY have the answer
(which they don't and tell us, no THEY have the answer – it's a
game of ping pong) – and we later learn it is DENIED. We decide to head up to San
Jose to talk to the Big-Wigs in Customs. Surely SOMEONE up there
speaks English and will listen to our case.
It's no easy task to go up to San Jose
– can't drive our car – must take public bus and navigate a city
of a million people. We have to find secure storage for the van in
Paso and the bus takes 6-7 hours to get to SJ. Our first stop is the
US Embassy. We ask to see Cesar. After waiting a good hour, we get
up to the “bank teller” window, find out he is gone and have to
explain our situation to someone else. Cesar then arrives at his
desk and basically tells us he's done all he can and there's nothing
else he can do. He refuses to write a letter on our behalf. Ramon
Sanchez said No; and the US government has no power over the CR
government. Sorry. Go away.
We head to the ICT Tourist Board, thinking
that since we are tourists, getting this knowledge out to American
citizens will be BAD FOR TOURISM. Maybe THEY can do something. The
woman, Lauren, speaks English. She basically tells us that the Tourism Board has little power over customs, and she doesn't think it'll make a difference, but offers to make a call to the Customs office
(of course, there's another holiday the following day, Friday, so she
can't do anything until Monday). She says she'll get back to us
with their answer on Monday. She never does.
We head to the main customs building in
downtown San Jose called the Llacuna Building. We try to see someone of importance there, but talk to Victor Manuel, a worker there who speaks little English and laughs at our
plight. LAUGHS. I get pissed. He tells us that they have no
authority there; that the authority is back with Ms. Ramon Sanchez
(ping pong again)….............. We leave, frustrated, go have
lunch in a downpour, decide to go back and go
higher up. We FINALLY talk to the Director of the Aduana Dept, and she LISTENS to us (she gets
an interpreter from another department). She makes some calls and
comes back and tells us that she's sorry, but there's nothing she can
do. They also insist that we were in country 90 days – the max –
and that we have no time left, despite our passports showing 89 days.
Our only alternative is to SHIP the car out by boat or to TOW it
across country. We cannot drive it in the country. She gives us
the name of a towing company in Paso Canoas that will tow the vehicle
for around $300. The interpreter mentions to us that police
checks aren't made at night.........
We leave feeling that at least we have
been heard, and figuring that $300 is not bad if it gets us out of
here. We get back to Paso, try to find this towing company and find
out it doesn't exist.
Frustrated by all that has transpired,
we decide to drive to Pavones late at night. Bob had ordered a
custom surfboard; it was ready and we needed to go pick it up. We
figure we'll escape the police checks – isn't that what the
interpreter was telling us?
We make it to Pavones without incident,
where we pick up the surfboard. In explaining our story to his Costa
Rican wife, she makes it clear that if we are stopped/ checked, our
car will be impounded and we could face jailtime. She herself had
their car impounded when she didn't have proper paperwork when they
first bought it; she said they are ruthless. She knew someone with a
tow truck. We decide to take the safe route and have the car towed
the following day. $850.
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| being towed across the whole country |
You would think the story would end at
this point – but the nightmare was far from over!!
We meet up with the tow company, load
the van, and we climb into the van for the 7+ hr ride to the northern
border. Costa Rican roads are not wide, have a few inches of
shoulder, large potholes and drivers are not very cautious when
passing (we've seen buses pass several big rigs). This guy was no
exception. He stopped in one town to pick up his girlfriend for the
ride. Being on the top of a flatbed swaying around was not an
experience I'd like to repeat.
Finally, we arrive at the northern
border around 2:00pm, unload the car, and FORTUNATELY I take a few
pictures of the car while loaded to commemorate our experience. We
are thrilled to almost be out of Costa Rica. We check ourselves out,
drive to where we check the car out and get stopped. Where is the
paperwork on your vehicle? I explain the towing option. Where is
the OKAY to have your vehicle towed? I AM LIVID. We just spent $850
TOWING THIS G... D....... CAR BECAUSE YOU WOULDN'T LET US DRIVE IT the 8
hours it takes to cross the country and now you want a piece of paper
saying that's okay?????? We get ushered to a border supervisor, Geraldo, who
is actually quite helpful. I show him pictures to prove the car was
towed here. He makes some phone calls to verify my paperwork, but
noone is available on a Sunday afternoon. He says that we need
what's called a DUT. Stands for something. Must have this paper;
can get it from the building 5 miles down the road, but of course,
since it is Sunday, they aren't open until Monday. He offers to help
us in the morning since we can't drive there, as we can't drive in
CR.. Meet him at 9:30am tomorrow and he'll take us to get the DUT.
Tired and hungry, there are no restaurants except the border station
has a cafeteria with bins of white rice and old fried food. No
hotels at this border. But we're told it's okay for us to sleep in
our van in the truck waiting area with about 80 big rigs. GREAT.
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| Your choices at the Costa Rica border cafe..... |
The next morning, precisely at 9:30am we are waiting.....and waiting.... Around 10:30am, he tells us we don't need the DUT after all; that we will get a police escort to cross into Nicaragua. Follow him. We get to the crossing in our car, relieved that it is finally over, but NO. Border officials say that because our passport was stamped yesterday as exiting the country and today is a new day, we must GO BACK and get our passport RE-STAMPED. We leave our car right there and walk back; wait in line for about a half hour at immigration. She looks at our passport and says, “You need to get me a copy of this passport page.” Of course, there was a copier RIGHT BEHIND HER, but she wouldn't use that, NO, we had to leave the area, walk about a quarter mile to the copy place, get our copy, and get back in line – now over an HOUR wait, since a busload of tourists had just pulled up and needed THEIR passports stamped. We finally get stamped, sprint back to the car and LEAVE COSTA RICA. YEAH!!!!!! Total border crossing time – 7.5 hrs not including overnight. Onto Nicaragua.
You'd think Nicaragua, one of the poorest nations in Central America, would have the worst facilities. No. Their customs forms are written in both English and Spanish; they have English-speaking employees who personally walked us from place to place – which everything you need is within a stone's throw. We and our vehicle were checked into the country in about 1.15 hours. A record.
I wish I could say that the rest of the border crossings were uneventful – but no. Leaving Nicaragua was easy. Entering Honduras was fairly quick (we went through the mountainous northern border), tho they wanted multiple copies of everything imaginable. I kept having to run to make another copy of something or other. Leaving Honduras was easy. Entering El Salvador COULD have been so fast (we were there early and about first in line), but the immigration office (remote where the vehicles are checked in), had trouble with their computer/printer connection, and it took about two hours before the document we needed finally printed. El Salvador, for some reason, only gave us 36 hours to get thru their country otherwise we would have severe fines (like $800). I don't know why the pressure. Into Guatemala was another nightmare. This time, Bob had checked the wrong box. He said that we would be RETURNING within three months, and since it was now five months plus, they wouldn't allow the vehicle in. We found a “helper” there who found a loophole (Bob had come in solo – now I was there, so I could be the one checking the vehicle out and that was okay – WITH the payment of a fine (BRIBE) of $250). Then the helper tried to ream us out of more money, another story – but we figured out his game.
Out of Guatemala was easy. Then Mexico --------------- another story. Here, we had heard online that you get 180 days once you check in before you must check out of Mexico. So when Bob checked in, he assumed we had 180 days. He did not bother to check out on his way out of Mexico into Nicargua, because why go through the hassle twice? We'd surely be checking back out of Mexico before 180 days were up. Well, in examining the paperwork, it said he was granted 30 days, not 180. We had an expired permit. We had to drive to a special aduana location (50 miles away) in order to get the proper paperwork. Fortunately, they allowed us to DRIVE there, even tho technically you shouldn't be driving until you have permission to drive in the country. (At first we were told we'd have to bus it there and back.) We get there, it is relatively easy – must repay all the fees, pay fines, lost the first deposit put on the car for failing to leave the country within that 30 days – but we get done after paying about $250 in fees. Met a guy who ends up abandoning a van in the parking lot because a friend gave it to him and he doesn't have the title to it.
We get to the US border in Nogales (VERY clean, very quick) and about kiss the ground. YEAH! BACK IN THE USA! REAL toilets; toilets with TOILET PAPER; bathrooms with not only SOAP but PAPER TOWELS! No water restrictions so they actually FLUSH! Roads with shoulders wider than 6 inches. Roads that don't have foot deep potholes. Roads that don't have people, animals and parked cars in one of the lanes. YEAH!
That's the story. Thanks for reading.
Lessons learned:
- Assume every piece of paper and every question you must fill out is important. If you don't understand something, find someone who will help you to understand
- Take your time; have plenty of patience. A short border crossing is about 1.5hrs, but they can go much longer. (This is with a vehicle. Without one can be much quicker.)
- Think twice before driving a vehicle down to Central America. Yes, it has it's benefits, but these mistakes added at least $1600 in extra costs to our trip. Each country had fees too for entering.
- Ask for the maximum visitation days. You never know if you'll need them.
- Don't hand your original title, passport or anything original over to authorities unless you are right there. SHOW it, but keep your mitts on it.
- Keep the documents they give you while checking in (even something written on a small scrap of paper, as we found out), because there are border checks after the border and they will check to be sure you have the proper docs.
- Remember the basic formula – check yourself in, check your car in, then check your car out, check yourself out. The first two and last two can be in reverse order, but it all boils down to those four things.
- You don't need “helpers”. Instead, ask the officials that work there what the next step is or where you go next. They don't try to rip you off or get a fee. They are straight shooters and most speak English. Except Paso Canoas......
- Recognize that you are in a foreign country and have to play by their rules - even tho even the countrymen may not know what they are or they sound too stupid to be true. Forgot to mention that NOONE could tell us exactly what rule we broke or why we were being held back taking our vehicle into CR. Mentioned were the 90 days that we'd already been in country (when in fact it was 89), and the fact that we had checked the box saying we wouldn't return for 3 months; but in the ruling, and in talking to the head Aduana in San Jose, noone could point out a legal passage. It's like it was at the whim of Ingrid Ramon Sanchez and she decided to put the screws to us for some reason.
- 90 days in country means the TOTAL time you are allowed in Costa Rica. I thought you had 90 days each direction since we spent a month in Panama. No, you have 90 days TOTAL. Of course, in our case, the officials couldn't count. Do yourself a favor and give yourself a few days leeway.
- One hand doesn't know what the other is doing. Even tho we don't speak Spanish, it became obvious that the system is broken and that communication is lacking. Noone knew the rules tho they would appear they did. Rules were made up to suit the situation.
And one other aside: Costa Rica has a stiff sales tax on owning a vehicle in country. Many people do not own vehicles for this reason - so the public transport system is excellent. The sales tax is 52.29% for vehicles 3yrs old or less - that's on top of the purchase price! Insane! Many people escape this by never registering their vehicle in CR; keep one vehicle in Panama and one in CR and then just switch them every three months. This might have played some role in our treatment as perhaps she thought we were playing this game. Hard to know for sure because we obviously were tourists heading back to the USA - but of course, she never took the time to actually MEET us.
You read in all the books to not drive at night. I always thought it was because of banditos. No, I think the real reason is the condition of the roads. In Honduras, you drive along these narrow mountain cliff roads and suddenly you see a section of road that's gone.....it fell down the cliff. No asphalt. No markers. No warnings. No flags. No lights at night. Nothing. Just ….no road. You move over to the other side and hope noone is coming from the other direction. Scary.
Next blog will be on rating Central America vs. Baja.
