Crossing the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua

When I arrived in Liberia my driver Armando had been waiting two hours for me. He drove me to the border, Peñas Blancas, and dropped me off so I could get in the long line-up. Then he reappeared and motioned me to move to the front of the line, as he was friends with someone who allowed us to skip the line, which would have taken hours to get through. I didn't have cash with me, but on the way back need to give this person some money for helping me and saving me hours of waiting.

Earlier Armando had taken a picture of me and texted it to my Nicaraguan driver Irma. He dropped me off at the border, and told me to follow the other people making their way to the Nicaraguan immigration, a few tourists like me, but mostly Nicaraguans going home for the holidays. I was very glad that all I had was a backpack and my small carry-on suitcase on wheels. 

When I got to the other side I was immediately greeted by Irma, who had recognised me from my picture, who had also been waiting several hours for me, and who had been just about to leave when I arrived at the Liberia airport. She showed me where to line up, and told me not to worry. The line-up was massive, probably easily double the length of the one on the other side, and would clearly involve at least three hours of waiting. Irma came back and motioned me to follow her. She had friends in immigration who took me right away. Nicargua was the only country that asked to see proof of vaccination. 

On the drive to Costa Dulce, Irma told me that during covid, Tyson, the owner, had told all his staff that he would continue to pay them, but that he could only afford to pay them just enough to survive on. He then returned to Canada and got a job, so he could send them his earnings. Because of that, Costa Dulce was able to quickly recover once tourism started to pick up again. However, many other hotels have not survived the pandemic, and have disintegrated from two years of neglect without being maintained. 

While talking to my sister-in-law Susy, she explained that because of a richer economy, many Nicaraguans work in Costa Rica, and that the large line-ups were because many were going home to see their friends and family. After New Year's, there will be large numbers of Nicrguans returning to their jobs in Costa Rica.