Kom meg av gårde fra San Juan del Sur når mannen uten bein hadde fått montert beina sine så han kunne flytte ATV’en så dama som drev Hotellet kunne flytte bilen så jeg kunne komme ut 🙂 Etter noen få mil var jeg ved grensen mellom Nicaragua og Costa Rica. På Nicaragua siden fikk jeg en kar til å hjelpe meg gjennom prosessen (som var meget enkel). Han fikk 5$ for jobben å jublet sikkert når han snudde ryggen til. På Costa Rica siden tok jeg jobben med å komme meg gjennom prosessen selv.
Steppene for den totale grensepasseringen skulle være som følger:
1. Stop at the small booth on the left side of the road. If it’s busy, park just past the booth.
2. Give your passports to one of the guards out front. They will look at them, but not do anything.
3. Give the vehicle permit to another man near the booth, he will scribble something on it and hand it back.
4. Get back in the car and drive a short ways. Go past the set of buildings ahead and turn left. Then drive past the customs/immigration building and turn left again. Park here.
5. Walk around the other side of the building to the exit immigration. At the small booth pay the $1 per person exit tax.
6. Proceed to the immigration window. Fill out your tourist exit card. Pay another $2 fee to the official and he will issue a receipt. Keep all receipts!
7. Head back to the other side of the building, and find an official in a while shirt with the DGA Logo. Hand over your Nicaraguan vehicle permit. He may want to check your car and/or verify the VIN. He will then stamp/sign/scribble on your permit.
8. Next stop is to find a police officer, possibly in the building, possibly wandering around outside. The officer will add another signature and stamp to your permit. They may also inspect the car.
9. Proceed to the small window on the corner of the building. Here another official with a DGA polo shirt will take your permit again. She will enter a few things in the computer and hand your uber stamped-up permit back to you.
10. Get back in your car and haul it to Costa Rica before they ask for more stamps.
11. When leaving the border area, an official at a small shack will ask to see all the passports and the vehicle permit. He will keep your uber stamped-up import permit.
12. Stay to the right and stop at the fumigation booth. Pay the CR$2175 fee, and then proceed through the fumigation station.
13. Continue to the big white immigration building on the left. Just past it, also on the left, is a good place to park.
14. Go to immigration, fill out your entry cards and present the card with your passports to the official. Your passport will be stamped and returned. Now for the fun part.
15. Look across the street at the small yellow building that says “aduana” on front. I know you want to go there. But don’t be fooled. This is not the aduana you are looking for (at least not yet). Get back in your car and drive about 300 meters to the “other” aduana or walk if you can stand the heat.
16. Go to the insurance window on side at the far end of the building. Hand over the vehicle title, the drivers passport and license. Pay the fee, about CR$8365 ($17 USD)
17. Go to the copy shop. Make sure you have one copy of the title and insurance paper. You will also need one copy of the passport photo page, immigration stamp, and driver’s license for every person that intends to drive the vehicle in Costa Rica.
18. Now, get back in your car and drive back to the first aduana booth. The official here will take all of your copies and originals. He’ll ask you to fill out a form, and return your original and your copies with the form on top all neatly stapled together. He may verify your VIN or search your car.
19. With the paperwork you have from aduana #1, drive back to aduana #2. Go through the doors at the very end of the building. Hand over the pile of paperwork you received at aduana #1. Enjoy the air conditioning.
20. The official will enter more info into the computer and hand back a new piece of paper, this is your vehicle import permit.
21. Stop at the small exit booth and show your vehicle permit to the guard. Get out of Dodge.
I utgangspunktet stemte de fleste punktene men punkt 15 stemmer ikke. Man skal faktisk gå til denne boden, få papirene, fyll ut papirene, sørg for at de stemples. Så kan du utføre punkt 16, dropp nr. 17, dropp nr 18 så kan man gjøre nr 19 (som også tar kopier. Da er det bare punkt 20 og 21 igjen.
Etter å ha kjørt ett stykke i Costa Rica fant jeg meg en ATM å tok ut 20.000 Colón.å tenkte at nå er jeg sikkert en holden mann en stund, men etter å ha fylt bensin skjønte jeg at 20.000 Colón ikke en gang ville holde dagen ut. 20.000 Colón tilsvarer ca 320kr så etter bensin og en middag var jeg blakk igjen 🙂
Vell fremme i Tamarindo fant jeg etter litt leting ett bra hotell til 54$ inkl. tax. Generelt er Costa Rica ett dyrt land for å være her i Mellom Amerika og i tillegg er Tamarindo ett av de dyreste stedene i landet. Tamarindo er en party og surfe plass å dette gjør vell at prisene skrus opp når alle Europeere og Nord Amerikanerne kommer for å slå seg løs.
Ellers så virker det som det er en litt røffere kjørestil her i Costa Rica. For min del virker det som at de landene hvor jeg ikke har hatt forsikring å hvor det heller ikke er normalt at de har forsikring kjører folk mer kontrollert. Her i Costa Rica må du har forsikring (jeg også 🙂 ) å plutselig er altså kjørekulturen endret. Vet ikke om dette er helt tilfeldig eller ikke men ………
Rommet har sjø utsikt, nede er det hammock, solsenger og 100m til sjøen så jeg tror jeg blir her noen dager.
It’s not the destination, but the journey, that matters. 