Our second border run story
This time we decided to go to Nicaragua. The natural option was to go to Panama border on the pacific side which is less then 2 hours driving from where we live now.
BUT we did go there (not knowing that we needed a flight ticket back from Panama to Costa Rica), because usually they don’t ask for it. Unfortunately, we were accepted by a bitch from hell (pardon my French) and she wanted us to stay 2 nights unlike the Caribbean side, and asked us for the return flight tickets and since we didn’t have them and we told her our car is 5 minutes away from there inside a parking lot, she just rolled her eyes and asked us to step out side and wait. she said that she’ll talk with her supervisor when actually after a few minutes a guy came up to us with a rejection form, when I tried to talk to him and asked him to let me buy the flight tickets so we can enter he said it is not possible and we can’t enter Panama in the next 3 days!!! Then he escorted us back to Costa Rica immigration like we were criminals! It was a humiliating experience, reminding you that we’re a family of 6!!
Luckily in the Costa Rican side they were very nice, we did wait for a couple of hours but then they calmed us and told we can go back home and return after 3 days.
After that experience it was obvious for us not to return there (ever!!!) and we decided to go to the Nicaragua border.
We’ve never been to Tamarindo so we first went there, spend the night had a great breakfast at the Soulshine hotel & restaurant (where I might sell my bathing suits 😍) and then we start driving to Nicaragua, as it is only 2.5 hours away to Peñas Blancas the town that borders with Nicaragua.
We arrived to Peñas Blancas and comfortably parked in a small free parking lot (I guess most people take the bus). Very important – there’s a huge huge line of trucks waiting to cross the border, you must bypass it as they wait for many hours to pass and you don’t want to wait there with them.
Just before the immigration, we crossed the street to pay the taxes (10$ per person) and came to the Costa Rican immigration to make exit stamps on our passports. Then we walked for like 500 meters and got to Nicaragua.
First we met a young guy with a white robe, we guess he was an apprentice doctor and he scanned our pcr tests (you have to come with negative pcr test or a proof that you’re fully vaccinated), but he also asked for the receipt and for the email we received from the lab…
Very strict, and after another 200 meters of walking towards the immigration building we arrived to a office with another doctor (or nurse) which scanned our tests again and then he gave us a permit for each one of us.
Afterwards we entered the immigration office and had to wait in line for the clerk to accept us.
When it was our turn we had to answer a few questions, show our medical approval which were given to us, pay 1$ entry tax per each person and then pay extra 13$ per each person and we got in.
We were starving so we entered the first place we saw near the border which was a bar more than a restaurant, so we ate French fries and patacones (a Latin American dish of fried plantains) a lot of oil 😂
We finished after about an hour and a half and just came back to the immigration office to check out. We had to pay 1$ exit tax per person and another 3$ per person and that’s it! We got back to Costa Rica immigration, showed our next flight ticket in the next 90 days and they stamped our passports with another 90 days visa. We drove home for another 6 hours very tired but very happy.
In conclusion: since we’re six people it was pretty expensive to enter Nicaragua and many hours of traveling BUT it was still worth it because of the easy experience and also financially it was cheaper because we didn’t have to stay 2 nights in a hotel with all the included expenses.
When we were on our way back from Nicaragua we met a nice group of people that just did a one day trip to Nicaragua with a very nice tour guide named David he works with the company “natives way” and everyone had a really good experience, so I would definitely check it out for the next time we’ll need to renew our visa. this is the link to their website.
