If you move to Costa Rica without residency one issue you may face is that you will have to leave the country every three months. Thanks to this many gringos travel to Nicaragua by bus because it is easy to travel to Nicaragua and it is cheap to do so, and it keeps you legal in the country.
Many people choose to travel using Tica Bus. An average round trip ticket on Tica bus is about $42 to $52. Though you may find that flying is more expensive in some
Tica Bus Costa Rica
ways it may be an easier way to travel.
When I decided to travel using Tica bus, I was at first quite happy that the bus left on time and my luggage was handled carefully. The seats on the bus were pretty spacious. A word of caution to those who travel with children: The length of the trip encourages the Tica line to play movies during the trip; however most of the movies they play are Rated-R. The audio for the movies are played through the bus speaker system which means that adult language is clearly heard. Tica bus also offers a bathroom on board since they will not be pulling over for breaks. There are several issues with the bathrooms on board which means that though the bathroom is available you may not want to use it. It seems that the bathroom is not cleaned on a regular basis. Another problem is that they don’t provide the toilet paper, hand soap or water, so you may want to include these items in your travel kit
When we arrived at the Nicaraguan border, we were commanded to de-board the bus and submit our legal documents to the immigration agents. Once our luggage was searched, we then re-boarded our bus. Unfortunately for me, the bus was stopped by Costa Rican police, who were in suspicion of our bus. They claimed to have found illegal drugs hidden on the bus. While they were searching for these “never-seen” drugs, we waited outside sitting on the hot cement for hours. After we fought with the bus-driver for our legal documents to be returned to us, we finally were able to walk across the border get our luggage re-checked, only to have to drive to our destination by taxi. Another bus was called, but it wouldn’t arrive until four hours after we had wasted our day away waiting countless hours during the search. Tica Bus was reluctant to give us a refund, despite all we had went through. They claimed no refund should be paid, due to them sending another bus to us. Obviously, Customer service is not their forte. Thankfully, we arrived two hours later to our destination and only paid $35.00 to the taxi service.
As you can see, there are pros and cons in traveling this way. The Tica Bus line provides spacious, fast and cheap transportation, but is it worth the time and headaches that comes with it? Only you can decide for yourself. I can only wish you happy travels!
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Here is our animated experience!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kieUfxdQybY&feature=PlayList&p=15A51311405FB4A2&index=0
I have only lived here for three years but Bocas del Toro in Panama seems to be the preference for a 72 hour hiatus by most expats here in CR. Nature Air flies there at a very resonable price or a bus from San Jose to the border is around 7 USD.
http://steelaway.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!1ED810A32DC9E852!1005.entry
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