Costa Rica - Tilaran
Trip Start
Feb 05, 2008
1
20
24
Trip End
Apr 24, 2008
Tilaran,
Costa Rica
Friday, March 14, 2008
Well, our first day in Costa Rica turned into a rather interesting and eventful one! WeŽd heared horror stories from other travellers about the chaos and length of time it took to cross the Nicaraguan border and get through Costa Rican customs. But to our surprise, we managed to navigate our way through the frenetic and chaotic masses, queues, and conjested vehicles in the no-mans-land between the borders, in very timely fashion.
Feeling pretty chuffed withourselves, it was onto our next mission: find a bus or taxi to take us to the next big town with a bus terminal to allow us to continue our onward journey. A taxi driver agreed to take us, along with another American traveller, for a reasonable price to the closest main bus terminal. The American, David Hamilton, turned out to have a very entertaining (if slightly disturbing) story of his journey to Costa Rica so far. HeŽd got out of prison in the States 5 months ago after failing to pay out his wife in a court case settlement over their divorce. HeŽd been living in Venezuela for the past 15 or so years, so (with an expired American passport!!) decided to illegally make his way back through Central America.
He got through the border into Mexico undetected, paid some locals to get him around the border into Guatemala, hired a horse to cross the border into Honduras, but was finally caught when trying to leave and make his way to Nicaragua. He had paid some locals again to show him where exactly to walk through the Nicaraguan border in order to avoid the officials. But the locals scammed him, leading him straight to customs, where they promptly threw him in a Hondurian detention centre for 4 months while they decided what to do with him! He eventually convinced them to let him go and continue his journey to Venezuela. When weŽd met him, heŽd just been stopped by the Costa Rican authorities because of his expired passport. A few hours later, his honed skills in persuasion had got him the required entry stamp to Costa Rica (with a 24 hour limit to get out of the country) which is when we met him. He told us heŽll be writing a book about his experiences...will definitely be keeping my eyeŽs open for that one!
Thinking that was probably going to be the most eventful thing to happen to us that day, I was sorely mistaken when we arrived at the bus station. We were the only two gringoŽs there, which two suspect looking characters had picked up immediately. When queueing up to get onto the bus, one of the guys stood between Charlotte and I, gesturing for her to go first. Thinking it was some polite Costa Rican custom, Charlotte frowned at me but proceeded to board first. The guy in front of me then proceeded to drop all his coins just as we were climbing onto the bus. Destracted by this and trying to help the guy pick up his money, I was an easy target for his mate behind me who proceeded to lift my wallet from my trouser pocket. I lost my credit card, debit card, and 100 pounds worth of freshly drawn cash! Definitely a school boy error to have everything together and not in my money belt, but I managed to cancel both cards and Charlotte has been my source of funds ever since. I transfer money to her online, but it means weŽve only got one card left between us, which weŽre guarding like a royal treasure.
Luckily, my first impressions of Costa Rica were to be completely overshadowed by itŽs beauty and charm over the coming weeks!!
