Chaotic Border Crossing--Peñas Blancas
Trip Start
Oct 10, 2001
1
41
79
Trip End
Feb 19, 2002
San Jose,
Costa Rica
Sunday, December 23, 2001
The crossing was chaotic, as we didn't know where to find the Nicarguan immigration, after some hard searching and asking around, we had to walk back about 400m and got our exit stamps. As we were walking towards the Costa Rica crossing, I saw something that I didn't expected to see on this trip or any other future travels
Death is mysterious
. A man was crushed to death under a cargo truck at the weighing station of the border patrol. The incident happened only few meter behind us as we walked across the "unofficial" line. I didn't see what happened, but by the short glance at the body, I believe the man was doing his job try to affix a wooden bar under the truck to stop the tires from moving, then unexpectedly the heavy truck moved back and rolled over the body of the man, who apparently in a moment of panic slipped and was crushed by the truck. (Of course this was only my version of the story). The blood was spilled all over the road, the man's shoes was beside him while his body was still underneath the truck. Suddenly a huge crowd gathered around not knowing what just happened. A woman (in her late 30's), presumably the new widow, screamed at the top of her lungs and crying for God among other things. After a brief moment of this chaos, sounds of sirens began to approach from the Nicaraguan side. I told Juliette not to look at this horrific scene as we didn't want to get caught up in this mess. It happened so quickly and we had to cross into Costa Rica.The entry point at Costa Rica was absolutely chaos. This was the last week before Christmas holidays and people are travelling to see their families and friends, so it was busier than usual. The lineups at the immigration was so long that we didn't even move for an hour. We couldn't wait any longer, and we tried to take a short cut, but was kicked out by the security guards. We then entered on the exit side of the immigration and sneaked in the line. Finally after about 2 hours, we got our entry stamp into Costa Rica. All of the the border crossing previously had gone very smoothly, somewhat exceeded our expectations, but his one, at Penas Blancas, was truly the worst case scenario.
On the bus to San Jose, I was finally be able to breath after all the stress from this border crossing. Me and Juliette talked about the man who was killed at the border. I couldn't believe what happened, and just to think that could have been one of us. Death is mysterious, and can happen at any time, anywhere. I didn't wanna think or imagine anymore, forward we go into the unknown.
San Jose's Coca Cola bus terminal was very busy when we arrived. People coming and going everywhere. We walked a long way until we found our hotel, thanks to a nice gentleman who helped us with the directions. An incredible day, a memorable day, a tiring day. At last we can take a hot shower and relax.
