garisha

A group of four boys was suddenly decided to visit Nicaragua.
We went from Playa del Coco to our first destination of San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua.The group was happy boys of various nationalities, ages and origin.
Indian guy born in Tanzania with USA passports, Tico with USA passport, a Serb with old blue passport and Me,Myself&I; , Serb with a new red passports.
The first challenge was crossing the border Penas Blancas.
There are plenty of money changers on either side of the border, along with hordes of "tour guides" that offer to lead you through the crossing, as well as carry your luggage for a small fee.
After some negotiation, we decided to accept the best offer.
The offer was 30 USD per person including car.
Later I found out at the border that U.S. citizens pay 7 USD, the car is 22 USD.For Serbian citizens, I didn`t found tariff.Although I tried!
When we crossed the border was the actual swine flu. (I'm writing a year later).
Of course we had to go to the doctor.

Here's how it seemed.
On the border there is a bus station.It was a big crowd because there was a holiday and Nicos were returning home from Costa Rica.

Bus station

After a while our" travel guide" came back and said:"We have a problem"!
"Customs officers can not find Serbia.".
I immediately remembered the story about a girl who had a problem with passport in Dubai.
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.naslovi.net%2F2008-10-11%2Fb92%2Fproblemi-sa-novim-pasosem%2F860924&sl=sr&tl=enHa ha ha party begins!
My friend Issa came up with a newspaper headline:"Indian, Tico and two Serbian terrorists arrested in Nicaragua"
"Travel guide" said:
"Customs officers just called Manaqua to get an official report.
Yugoslavia was on the list but Serbia doesn`t exist!"
Funniest thing is that my friend Louie, had old passport which is valid for officials from Nicaragua.

Crossing the border Costa Rica-Nicaragua with new Serbian passport

Photo taken from the Serbian newspaper,in right hand new one-Serbia and in left hand old one-Yugoslavia.

The tourist guide is removed and promised to return soon with new information.
We continue to make joke and we expect to hear a new story of our " guide".
We did not have long waiting.Here he comes!
"Everything is fine but you have to add 40 USD more, for non USA citizens."-he said.
And we paid.
Again Americans fared better!
Poor Serbian guys...
No more obstacles-Nicaragua here we comes!

written by

garisha on June 5, 2010 from San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua

from the travel blog: Nicaragua

tagged Border, CostaRica, Passport and Nicaragua

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Crossing the border Costa Rica-Nicaragua with new Serbian passport

San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua

Heading South?