MAL PAIS AND SANTA TERESA FOR THE LAST TIME

MAL PAIS AND SANTA TERESA FOR THE LAST TIME

Travelled back into Costa Rica and got hassled at the border for an onward ticket. Its got to be a scam involving the bus companies which forces people to buy useless tickets just to get approval to enter Costa Rica. The same thing happened later at the border into Panama but I was prepared that time. When I cashed in this ticket I bought here I lost about 30% in the value! We reached the turnoff where the buses turn up into the highlands toward San Jose and I made a snap decision to get off and stay in Puntarenas. It was based on the time we had been held up at the Costa Rican border where we lost 2hours to immigration holdups. The next day the shorter ferry still wasn’t working so we went the long way with the horrible road but I was lucky to meet April who had a hire car and lived near Freddie’s place so I got a lift and that was heaps quicker than the bus.

Freddie’s had a big wedding about to take place so I stayed down the road for 2 nights while I said my goodbyes and had some surf with Freddie’s dad Peter who did take me to some different places which was nice of him. Caught the 2pm bus out of town and reached San Jose about 9 pm.