Costa Rica Redux 2014

Golfito's a nice place. If they let you in.

By 2014 we were pretty well experienced with checking into and out of all kinds of countries, and we'd already been in and out of Costa Rica once. Our check-in with Immigration this time went as smoothly as usual. However, our next stop - Customs - is where it all fell apart. It seems that the Customs supervisor who was processing our paperwork said "we" had a "problem" with our documentation...FROM THE LAST TIME WE WERE IN COSTA RICA. IN 2010. FOUR YEARS PREVIOUSLY. She claimed that we had failed to properly check out of Costa Rica back then, knowing full well that we'd be unable to prove otherwise because (1) she insisted on seeing the original documents, which (2) back in 2010, we'd had to submit them to Golfito's port captain before we left the country. I showed her the official exit stamps Costa Rica Immigration had made in our passports in 2010, and the following Ecuadoran entry stamps that showed we'd arrived legally in Ecuador with all of Costa Rica's exit paperwork in order. Yeah, that didn't work. Customs Lady claimed that was insufficient to fix the problem now, and only the payment to her of a US $500 "fine" would make things right.

Never before nor since have I encountered such an overt invitation to bribe a government official. 

I was also blown away that our sweaty, raggedy-ass selves somehow looked to her like we had five bills to give her.

"Well, OK then," I said. "I'll go to the bank to get the money and be right back."

Instead, I grabbed GB and a taxi and hustled back to the boat. Told GB we were now officially in Costa Rica illegally, and that we'd be lamming it out of Costa Rica and to Nicaragua as soon as we got food and fuel. I shared our dilemma with Tim and Katie at Land and Sea, and they indicated that this same Customs supervisor had been hitting not just certain other cruising boats for the same amount of mordida, but some of the local businesses as well. Mind y'all, at this time in 2014 Costa Rica had gone through an unpleasant series of upheavals in their national government and it was no big surprise that government officials further down the food chain were having very uncertain times both for their agency's budgets as well as for the security of their own pensions. I can understand that such an official might be tempted to shake down the occasional foreign pleasure boat quickly passing by. But when the same official starts touching all the local entrepreneurs? Her neighbors? Not cool, man. Not cool at all.*

[*I later heard rumors that this particular official was transferred elsewhere and that Golfito officialdom has once again returned to normal.]

Meanwhile, we'd now be sailing northbound on the down low. I started practicing in Spanish the explanation I would give the government officials in Nicaragua when we showed up without the proper exit paperwork from Costa Rica...THIS time.

We dallied long enough at Land & Sea Marina to add to our collection that nice balsa-wood mask at the top o' this post. It was carved by Dite, a member of the local Boruca tribe, and he's a very good artisan. Suck on THAT, mean old Customs Lady.

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