Crossing the border into Costa Rica at Penas Blancas

     Not sure where to begin explaining this chaos but I am going to do my best.  The drive to the Nica/Costa Rican border was the easiest part but anyone reading this and interested in doing this should be aware that there are some gangs of hustlers that work both sides of the border and they work well together.  The steps I am about to explain feel weird to recall because the hustler did all the work for us.

     Step one was going through Nicaraguan customs to leave the country. It costed $20.00 per person but an extra $5.00 each for the hustler.  No doubt he saved us a lot of standing in line time. We had a group on the Nica side of 4 guys. 2 were handling our bags, 1 was hustling ahead of all the lines and doing it quite well and the other guy was just hanging out.  The guy that was hustling the lines knew 100 percent of the way what was needed to complete this process and acted in a manner that would surly make you think that he has been at this for quite some time. (there was also a few other hustling fees to different ones in this group but they earned there fees) (im guessing we paid $100 to the hustlers)

     After we left the Nica customs the young hustler started filling out our customs declaration slips for us and he was accurate and talented to do this as we walked.  He had arranged for another guy on the Costa Rican side to meet us.  

     Very important note here is 1) You cannot go into Costa Rica without a ticket to leave. 2) Car rental places want a $900.00 deposit and around $100.00 a day. (and your deposit isn't returned to you until 60 days later)

    We were unprepared and had not purchased any tickets to leave Costa Rica with so the new hustler on the Costa Rica side told us not to worry he could handle it through his friends and to follow him.  The first thing he did was walked us up to a young girl where we purchased a bus ticket for $25.00 each. ( a bus that we will never use and for all I know it may be a complete fraud) He phoned someone inside the customs office for Costa Rica and then walked us in and showed us what line to stand in.  A guard tried to tell us to move but our hustler argued back with him telling him no.  The transaction went smoothly as we each got our passports scanned and stamped to walk into Costa Rica.

    The next step was baggage check-age which was simple.  Our young hustler waited on the other side making sure we had no issues and needless to say he was waiting on the other end and ready to be paid.  We gave him $20 and at this point we realized what a big hustling ring that was well orchestrated but then again I am not sure if I should even complain. After all was said and done it felt more like having someone with more experience walk us through and it did save a lot of time and trouble but it surly had a price to pay.

    We wanted to rent a car but the prices were ridiculous so we caught a bus to Liberia, Costa Rica for the price of $4 and close to 2 hours later we arrived in front of The Maxi Pali in Liberia, Costa Rica where we grabbed a taxi to take us to Playa Coco. (coco beach)
(taxi cost was $60.00)

I will later discuss my views of Costa Rica and my events in Costa Rica in upcoming blogs.

More Important Facts about border crossing:

 even if you have and own your own

car in Nicaragua you cannot cross the border with it unless you meet the below requirements
    1) you must have Nicaraguan Residency card or aka cedulla
    2) your insurance on your Nica car
    3) cirulaccion card (its like a registration)
    4) Inspection papers
    5 permissio de salidada which is obtainable at the police department