Crossing the Panamanian Border - Part 3

So the journey continues...by now you know from reading Journey to San Vito Part 1 and Part 2, that very little went according to plan. At this point we are on a bus from Rio Sereno to Paso Canoas, an unexpected detour after being turned away at the Rio Sereno border. This part 3 concludes our journey.

There is no eating on the bus here – we had no choice but to take the food with us and wait until we arrived at Paso Canoas to eat. This road, for me, was a good path. The engineers here had to create roads through the mountain and what they did do in addition to guardrails and create huge ditches all along both sides of the road. Except in rare circumstances, if the van swerved for whatever reason, it would end up in the ditch rather than tumbling down the side of the mountain. People would be hurt, and the mini-bus would be destroyed, but everyone would live. On the way up the mountain, we saw this truth in evidence. A car which had passed us on the left speeding ended up in a ditch with his jeep turned sideways. He and his friend were standing next to the car unhurt by the time we came by. I’m not a mechanic, but the jeep looked okay except for the fact it was sideways in a ditch. The driver was a man after my heart. We crept along at 10 to 20 miles an hour, and he drove in the middle of the road (my husband hates when people do that☺) as often as possible. Safety was clearly his #1 priority. Between the driver and the road, I was 100% confident we would reach our destination without the need for my prayers. I took a much-needed nap.

Our driver’s abundance of caution meant the trip took 2 hours and 45 minutes. Despite the setback we arrived and were able to go into the mall there to eat. After eating, we arrived at the Panama immigration booth to get our passports stamped. Contrary to what I was led to believe in the past, it was a quick process. There were three people in line ahead of us. We spent 10 minutes on line before we were called up. I read that I would need a copy of our passports, so I had the passports and copies in hand. Instead of asking for the copies, we were all (except the baby) electronically fingerprinted. I read that we would have to pay an exit fee to leave Panama and an entrance fee to enter Costa Rica – we did not receive any request to pay fees from either side.

It was on the way to the Costa Rican immigration building that the hustle began. I did read that there are people at the border who will help you navigate the process for a fee. We were approached by one such gentleman. He was very personable and quite helpful, we chatted about his six children and family in Miami, he complimented us on our understanding of Spanish and was appropriately delighted when the baby recited his numbers and colors in Spanish. When we arrived at the Costa Rican border, I saw a requirement for entry that gave us pause.

I did know about the economic solvency requirement. We had to demonstrate we either had $500 in the bank or $500 cash to support ourselves while in Costa Rica. Before our arrival I made sure I put $500 in checking and then print out my bank balance, and I went to the ATM to print out a bank balance the day before our trip. I understood that to return to Panama; I needed to demonstrate to Panama that I had a return trip back to the United States, what I didn’t know is Costa Rica wanted me to confirm that I had a date of departure from Costa Rica as well.

The $5.00 buses do not offer tickets – the only bus that offers tickets is the San Jose to David line. The only way to demonstrate we were going to leave Costa Rica was to purchase a return ticket from San Jose, Costa Rica to David, Panama. The cost? $21.00 a person for tickets I would not be using. Our helper showed us where to buy the tickets.

With all of our paperwork in order, we cross the Costa Rican border – the time? 3:15pm. I am starting to worry about taking the bus to San Vito, if the bus ride is too long we would be traveling at night, and that falls outside of my safety first mandate. While I am thinking our guide is telling us we should take a taxi to San Vito and brings us past a row of taxis to one waiting in the front. When I inquire about the cost, they tell me 25 and start loading our luggage into the taxi. Even as the luggage is loaded and I get inside of the cab (with seat belts I am happy to report), I don’t feel like I have the answers I need about the cost. I remember that the blog I read was written seven years ago and I can’t imagine the cost of taking a taxi has not gone up in seven years. When I turn to my right to ask my driver again about the price, I see our driver giving our guide some money. Now I get it, our guide got money from us for helping and gets money from whomever he steers us to. He didn’t just happen to find us a taxi; he had a deal with this taxi driver.

I don’t let me taxi driver start the car without getting 100% clarity on the cost. I ask him again what the cost is and he says 25. I ask, “25 what”? 25 000 colones. What does that mean regarding US dollars I ask? “$60.00” he replies. I turned to my husband and said: “Let’s go, I’m not paying $60 for a 15km trip”. My husband asks him how long it does take to get to San Vito from our location; he says, two hours. When we asked why so long, he said because it is up to the mountain with a lot of windy roads. My husband asks me if I am willing to pay $50 for the two hours. I agreed. Let me just say the hustle continued. It took 1 hour and 15 minutes to get to San Vito, not two hours. When we arrived at our destination, we paid the taxi in two parts, American dollars and 2500 colones we had exchanged at the border. Our taxi driver seemed hesitant but took the money. When I got inside to look up the exchange rate on my computer, I could see why. 25000 colones is $44.76. He wanted US dollars because I would effectively be paying more than the cost of the trip. Even though I was satisfied with the negotiation, I was still misled. What I didn’t plan for was the currency exchange.

We did arrive safely to our final destination, and I am happy to report that despite the challenging journey, San Vito is a vibrant city with a state of the art hospital (that is very high on my list of amenities I need nearby), a library and interesting restaurants. We are a short walk away from the Botanical gardens and are staying in a beautiful cabin with 16 sides all around.

We learned a lot getting here and experienced a couple of moments of, “maybe we should just go back.” We pressed forward, however, and I’m glad we did, the journey to San Vito is, in my estimation worth the adventure.

Enjoy.