Costa Rica

An apparent speeding ticket, heavy rains, and my first destination is reached.

After crossing the border and shortly after going thru a check point with the police who checked my passport, driving permit and insurance I headed for Liberia, the first big town on the Pan American Highway coming into Costa Rica. It was here I was suppose to call and make contact in San Jose with the schools driver who would meet me when I arrived in San Jose and take me to where my home stay family was.

As I made my way into the country a huge storm rolled in with lightening strikes and very heavy rain. I was forced to take refuge in a bus stop shelter on the side of the road. It was very convenient, I just backed my whole bike down the paved slope into it out of the rain and was completely dry. Fortunately there was no one waiting in it and I had the whole thing to myself. As with most big storms and heavy rains it doesn't take long for them to move on. In fact this was the first rain I had seen since Mexico. But moving into Costa Rica with more mountains and still being the rainy season here I expected to run into more, and did.

I was right by the entrance to the Santa Rosa (I think I have this spelled right) National Park, it was not more then 20 or 30 miles into the country, just off the highway. After the rain let up I rode my bike to the entrance to find out about camping and what the park was about. It was $10 to get in, and then $2 a night camping. It had showers and also a visitor center I believe. I had not camped yet on this trip and was hoping later on to get away and do some while I was in Costa Rica. This place had sites away from as well as on the ocean, but the person at the gate said the road was rough down to the ocean sites, and that they had had a lot of rain. I wasn't planning on staying anyway, but all this information could be useful later for finding out what's available camping wise in the country.

So I headed for Liberia a little wetter for wear, but ready to find a decent hotel, dry off and call my contact in San Jose for the next day. San Jose is probably about 4 hours from the border and I didn't want to get there at night, plus I felt like I had earned the rest of the day off.

I found a Best Western, expensive at $70 a night, but then again luxury has its price. It was dry and safe, and I could put everything on my credit card. I had tried a ATM again in Liberia and it wouldn't take my debit card. This was getting frustrating. My travelers checks were no good, my debit card wasn't working, and I really didn't plan on charging everything to my credit cards. The convenience of having cash was getting hard to come by. But I knew with all my contacts in San Jose, the home stay family, my school, and my dentist I would have ways and the time to get things in order and get the money I needed. Again I had not planned on using my credit cards this much, or having to use all my travel cash just to get thru the borders.

I also realized as I filled my gas tank that gas was around or over $4 a gallon here as well. The Central American countries were all a $1 more a gallon then Mexico, and $2 more a gallon then the U.S. An effect on my budget for sure, but more important it effected how much money I needed to change over to get across a country. As mentioned before I was continually running low on the currency I was using in each country. The border people did not give good exchange rates, some banks didn't either, so it was hard to know who to go to, or what kind of rate to expect. So the less to change, the better. You also had to consider whatever you had left over you had to exchange again for the next currency, and take another hit. Unless like me your planning on coming back thru, you could save it. But you never know either, you could get back home only to have a bunch of useless money on you.

So I enjoyed another night at a "luxury" hotel, ate dinner in their restaurant and charged it and left in the morning for San Jose, 3 to 4 hours to the south. Many hotels do offer a free breakfast and many times the food and selection is pretty good, especially at the upper end hotels.

Shortly after getting on the road I was waived down by two police officers standing on the side of the road. The roads were so good and the traffic so light 55 to 60 mph was easy to do. Basically the speed limit of most of my trip. I had forgot that most of Costa Rica is 80 kilometers an hour, or about 48 mph. Some parts are 54 mph. but for the most part the speed limit is less then it appears it should be. And certainly the 70 mph trucks of Mexico and the Guatemalan buses would not be a able to "do their thing here", at least on this stretch of road.

The officer showed me his radar gun and it read 97 Kilometers per hour,or about 60 mph. He said I was speeding and it was a $40 ticket. I said ok what do I have to do to take care of it. He said something about coming back tomorrow and going to the bank to pay it, and then going to court which closes at 3 p.m. He said "you don't want to have to do that do you?" No I agreed, and we both laughed (though I didn't think it was that funny). He asked where I was staying in San Jose and for how long. I told him and told him I could come back tomorrow and pay it. He kept saying something about an extra 30% and no matter how many times I questioned him I did not understand what he was saying, or even if he understood I was ok with coming back to pay for it the next day. He kept saying an extra 30%, and I didn't know if that was if I waited to come back the next day or what. We were sort of stuck at this point. Someone later told me that if you don't pay your fine within a week its an extra 30%, but I'm not sure that's exactly what he was saying either.

I didn't have any cash on me anyway so I had to come back if I couldn't take care of it any other way. Also apparently you have to pay the fine at the bank so this cuts down on corruption.. hmmm... And then go to the local court where the ticket is issued.

By this time the other officer walks over to see what is going on, like maybe I'm creating a problem here or something. Finally after going over this again and me really not understanding what I had to do to pay this ticket I told him if I could get a phone number and have the family I was staying with call and talk to them in Spanish and find out exactly what I had to do to pay this. As soon as I mentioned my family in San Jose and that they would call he said something like "well no ticket for you Mr. French you weren't going that fast". I thanked him and headed on my way, careful not to go over 50 mph again.

One could only surmise from this that he wanted me to pay the $40 directly to him, right then so maybe he could keep it. And as soon as I asked for a phone number so I could have the San Jose family call him and find out about everything I was told well I wasn't really going that fast, no ticket for you! Seinfelds Nazi soup kitchen comes to mind.

More corruption? I was told by someone else this is a good tactic at the borders, mention receipt for everything, and also the consulates number and you'll be surprised how orderly things can suddenly get. Another person told me after a week he went to pay his ticket and it wasn't in the computer. The next week he went and they told him it still wasn't there. The third week he went they told him it had already been paid...... Go figure.

Well after that I ran into another heavy rain storm, too heavy to drive in and again I was lucky, there was a huge gas station with a huge canopy covering the whole lot and I was able to pull into. Shortly after I got there a group of 4 Honda spree's arrived and together we waited the rain out with a kid who was totally drunk and had walked to the station to get something to eat.

After the rain, I shook hands with the drunk kid, he looked like he could either be a friend or foe, depending on how he perceived the world was treating him, and then I took off. Within an hour or so I met my driver and we found another station that took credit cards so I could get some gas, and then I followed him across San Jose to where I would be staying for the next three weeks. It was nice to finally reach my destination and know for at least a little while most of the daily concerns of travel and not speaking the language would not be an issue for the most part. The middle part of my trip could now begin.