The Letter of the Law

Immigration laws tell me that I can only stay in Costa Rica for 90 days before I have to leave the country for at least 72 hours. (Just a little note to the immigration law--you can suck it!) Having arrived back in CR February, my time is up tomorrow, which is why I find myself sitting in an Internet cafe in Rivas, Nicaragua, which I feel compelled to not recommend for your next trip to Nicaragua.

I had heard lots of things of Nicaragua. Back in October, I heard the diving is beautiful, actually better than Costa Rica. OK, good thing to know IF I HAD THE MONEY TO DIVE!

Everything else I heard about the place was negative (though I have to say the woman who told me didn't have a positive word about anything in the universe, so I took her info with a grain of salt)--as in it's dangerous and more expensive than Panama. OK, whatever, thanks, I'm going to Nicaragua.

I set out from Barranca, Costa Rica at 2:00 Monday after waiting for 3 hours for the bus. I had been told different departure times and felt like it was best to get there early. Boarded the bus, handed over my ticket, and searched for seat 22, on a bus with no marked seats. Finally, an employee came to help and as it turns out someone else had seat 22 as well and since she was there first (everybody else but me boarded in San Jose), so he led me back up front, removed some coolers of food from seat 2 and I sat down for the 3.5 hour ride to the border.

We arrived right on time, and there are definite advantages to being in the front of the bus, as in I didn't have to wait in line to get my passport stamped to exit the country. I got to wait in the cool air conditioning of the bus with my Sprite and 3 Musketeers while talking to a couple of guys from the States. The process was really simple and took only about 30 seconds per person.

As we were driving across the border, a guy began collecting our passports and $8 per person. Didn't matter if you didn't have change, hand over your money, you'll get change later. OOOOKKKK. Little strange. Upon arriving at the Nicaraguan immigration office, we were advised to disembark, with all of our luggage. Fortunately for me, I only had a small backpack. Others had to wait for their luggage to be taken out of the storage below the bus. And then we realized we needed to wait in the line for bag inspection. Really? They're going to inspect every bag? I had heard it wasn't an open border. I was in no rush, so no complaints really.

While I waited, some guy came around selling movies, just like they often do in Costa Rica, so I began to flip through them. At $2 a movie, you have to look right? Arrived at the immigration desk rather rapidly, having not paid attention to the process, was asked for my declarations page (as in, am I bringing anything of great value into the country, live animals, food, etc.), and that was all. No bag inspection. So I turned my attention to figuring out which movies I wanted and decided on 4 for the grand total of $6, with the whole 4 for 3 discount. And then we began the process of reembarking by having the names called out of the passport. Really? There has to be an easier way. I had to laugh when the guy calling out names only called out one name for an Asian guy. I'm guessing there was no attempting the rest of that name. And I immediately, I'd love to see an entire busload of Asians with someone attempting to call out names. The whole immigration process on both sides for a tour bus full of people took about 90 minutes. Not too bad actually.

Thirty minutes later we arrived in Rivas, the first stop along the route, and my stop. Didn't really want to go any further than necessary. Inquired at a 24-hour Texaco where to find lodging and it was only a half block. Seemed safe enough to walk at 7:30 at night. And it was. I arrived, was shown a room, seemed fine, $10 a night. OK, here's $10. I was going to look around the next morning to see what else I could fine, but paid for another night the next morning before looking. STUPID. Immediately found another place for only $5 a night. Granted it doesn't have a TV with cable in the room, but it does have a fan that I can point directly on me all night rather than one that rotates in circles and only hits me about 20% of the time. Of course, the other place had a really comfortable bed. This one, not so much. There are two single beds in the room, so I will be, behind closed doors, putting one mattress on top of the other to make myself infinitely more comfortable for the two nights I have to stay here.

I spent part of today making inquiries about crossing the border on Friday. I believe I may have to have a ticket out of Costa Rica when I actually go back in. They want to know I'm not going to stick around, though one look at my passport will tell them I'm gonna stick around for 3 months, leave for 3 days, and then come back again. Not that they care about that. Inquired in two bus offices and in a hostel and finally decided I'll take my chances. I have the receipt from the roundtrip ticket I bought this time that I plan to falsify. Shouldn't be hard to turn that 5 of May into an 8 for August. And IF they ask for it, I'll show it. They don't look closely when they're dealing with 100 people on a bus. I just refuse to spend any more money on bus tickets at this particular moment in time.

Tomorrow I'm debating heading to San Juan del Sur where there's a beach. It involves an hour ride on a Nicaraguan bus, which are less than half as good as Costa Rican buses. Not sure if it's worth it. If I don't go, I'll spend another day writing and reading and eating my two meals a day.

As for that advice I received . . . well, I've not been able to tell it's dangerous here, other than that I was told there are no public telephones here because people destroy them. From where I'm sitting I can see my hotel across the street, so walking home tonight won't be an issue. There are hundreds of people out and about during the day and I've never felt unsafe, even when I've been receiving catcalls and whistles as is typical in this part of the world. And as for prices, well, perhaps stuff is cheaper in Panama, goods wise, but the food is cheap enough. I had lunch with a Coke, more food than I could possibly eat, and paid 65 cordobas, which is the equivalent of about $3.10. Dinner was 80 cordobas, only slightly more. (21 cordobas equals $1 if anyone is trying to do the math.)

I can think of other places I'd rather be in this particular moment, but I'm comforting myself with the fact that in about 37 hours, I'll be back on Costa Rican soil with a cell phone that has service.