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Published: June 29th 2015
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Distance driven today: 267 miles / 430 km
Cumulative distance driven: 7,384 miles / 11,883 km
Today’s trip: Managua, Nicaragua to San Jose, Cosa Rica
International border crossings: 1
We left Managua at 7:30am in the morning, to avoid any rush hour traffic leaving the Nicaraguan capital. We made really good progress, and by 11am we were already at the border to Costa Rica. Since we have crossed enough Central American borders by now, we figured that we knew the drill really well, and that we had the right expectations. 3 hours later, we had passed through the last Costa Rican control, and had started riding towards the Capital San Jose, were we arrived early evening. Here is an account, of all the 35 steps required to pass the border from Nicaragua to Costa Rica:
Step#1 Find a local handler before the Nicaraguan border and negotiate the fee he requires to help you through all the paperwork.
Step#2 Go to the immigration office and show your passport and get it stamped.
Step#3 Go to the Nicaraguan passport office and get the form for paying the “country exit fee” (after you have shown your stamped
passport).
Step#4 Go to the Nicaraguan immigration accountants office, show the “country exit fee form” and pay it. Don’t forget to get a stamped and verifying receipt!
Step #5 Take the “country exit fee” verified receipt back to the Nicaraguan immigration office and show it.
Step #6 Go to the customs office and fill in a customs exit form.
Step #6a Get yourself a bottle of water, or bottled ice tea, as the temperature is already 40C/100F and you are sweating copious amounts.
Step #7 Show the temporary vehicle import and transit permit (which we obtained when entering Nicaragua) to the customs office.
Step #8 Go to the officer next door (unclear what his title is…) and get the Nicaraguan vehicle import and transit permit stamped and verified. Make sure that the license plate number on the form matches your license plate so that they can let you ride out of the coutnry.
Step # 9 Drive to the Nicaraguan border exit station and show the passport (again), plus the stamped and verified vehicle import and transit permit.
Step #10 Have your handler (who has been with you each step so far)
to find a good money exchange handler and negotiate a competitive exchange rate. You are getting ripped off on the exchange rate and possibly the authenticity of the notes you get, but what option do you really have?
Step #11 Exchange Nicaraguan Cordoba to Costa Rican Colones. Make sure that you don’t get totally lost in the conversion and all the zeros of the new currency.
Step #12 Take a deep celebratory breath! You are now out of Nicaragua. Your Nicaraguan handler has done his part and gotten you out of the country. You are half way there, but you are also somehow stuck in between countries and a shitload of semitrailers that are all over the road. You are not exactly sure which way to go now, so just keep driving until somebody from a Costa Rican authority (who may or may not be in uniform) tells you to stop.
Step #13 Hopefully you are now at the Costa Rican border entry point.
Step #14 Find yourself a Costa Rican handler and negotiate the fee he requires to help you through all the paperwork on the Costa Rican side. Market economy works really well here,
and there is plenty of supply of handlers, each claiming to be better, more efficient and experienced than the other. Don’t forget that you are the customer and you are negotiating for a good deal, at the same time as you realize that you would be totally lost without a handler.
Step #14a Get yourself another bottle of water, or bottled ice tea. It has been over 45 minutes since the last bottle and you have lost all of that liquid through perspiration!
Step #15 Go to the Costa Rican immigration passport control.
Step #15a Have your handler negotiate so that you can jump the ridiculously long line of tourists that just exited 3 tourists buses, and who are now forming a long line outside the passport control booth. This is where your handler gets to earn his money. Ours did a great job, and got us a head of 100 or so unsuspecting tourists :-) I have no idea what he told to the immigration police officer, but it certainly worked.
Step #16 Get your passport stamped by the Costa Rican immigration police.
Step #17 Fill in the Costa Rican customs form you just
got.
Step #18 Pass through the metal detector and put all of your belongings through the X-ray machine (!)
Step #19 Go to the Costa Rican customs control and present the customs form.
Step #20 Show you vehicle title, registration, driver’s license and passport to the customs officer.
Step #21 Fill in a temporary vehicle import permit, and have the custom’s officer check the motorcycle and the license plate, and verify that those match the description on the vehicle import form.
Step #22 Take the temporary vehicle import permit and go to the customs accountant’s office and pay the fee for applying to import a vehicle into Costa Rica. Make sure you get the receipt!
Step #23 Take the above receipt and go back to the Costa Rican customs office and exchange the receipt for a stamped and authorized temporary vehicle import permit.
Step #24 Get yourself a third bottle of water, or preferably bottled ice tea. It has been over 30 minutes since the second bottle. Also, take a short bathroom break and get a little snack to eat. Luckily, there are plenty of merchants hanging around the entire border area, selling everything you need. Make sure that you don’t get confused by the new currency you now carry, and how much you are supposed to pay for each item you buy. You are probably handling them way too big banknotes, but you have no idea (or time to figure out) their worth. Besides, you have more important things to do right now.
Step #25 Now is time to ask your Costa Rican border handler how many more steps/stations you need to go through. When your handler says “you are almost done, it’s just a few more minutes” take that answer with a VERY big grain of salt. Chances are you have one more hour of paperwork left!
Step #26 Go to the Costa Rican office for temporary vehicle insurance. This is required during the time your vehicle is passing through the country. On your way to this office, you have to drive for 1-2 minutes, through a huge parking lot filled with 50-60 semitrailers waiting to do the same thing. Lucky for you, your handler knows the way, and is walking in front of you, showing you the right way.
Step #27 Act surprised when your handler tells you that the lady manning the insurance office has gone for lunch (!!!) and won’t be back for a while. Do not attempt to ask how long her lunch break is, or when she might be back. It’s not that your handler doesn’t want to tell you. Rather he has no idea where she went for lunch.
Step #28 Sit down on the floor in front of the insurance office booth and take it easy. Don’t forget to go get yourself a fourth bottle of water, or bottled ice tea. You are coming up to 3 hours since you first got to the Nicaragua border, and it is vital that you keep yourself constantly hydrated in the extreme heat.
Step #29 Once the insurance office lady is back from lunch (in our case she was gone for 35 min.) fill out the insurance form she gives you.
Step #30 Go to the insurance accountants office, show the form and pay the insurance fee.
Step #31 Take the receipt, go back to the insurance office, show the receipt for paid insurance fees, and get your temporary insurance form stamped and verified.
Step #32 Get on your bike and follow your handler, as he is running through all the parked semitrailers and hope that he is guiding you towards the final station of the Costa Rican border.
Step #33 Pay your Costa Rican handler and ask where to go next.
Step #34 Drive to the customs officer ahead of you and show him your passport, temporary vehicle import permit and valid Costa Rica issued vehicle insurance.
Step #35 After 3 hours, 4 bottles of water/ice tea each, and countless documents, you are finally through the border and ready to drive. Don’t forget to double check all your vital documents, like passport, vehicle title and registration and driver’s license, and make sure that you didn’t leave anything behind. You are now ready to drive to your next destination.
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Mike Lubrecht
non-member comment
On our trip to Costa Rica last year, we finally gave up on trying to convert exactly. Our rule of thumb was that "monkey bills" were $10 and "sloths" were $20. That seemed to work pretty well!