We’re not leaving today. Very strong chance we’re leaving tomorrow morning. Just not today.
First order of the day was getting to the customs depot in San Jose by 8am. I left the boat around 6am and made it to the region of the airport in good time. My instructions were to look for a named building/address (not sure which) about 1.5km from the airport. I must have looped back some because I had to stop to ask directions and found I had to go back the way I came to find the building.
Using the piece of paper the marina manager had written on for directions I was first directed to the Fed Ex customs office where I was told to go somewhere else. Following these new instructions I walked to the warehouse where I present my paperwork. Within 10 minutes our package was visible inside the building. I asked if I could take it but was told to wait for customs to arrive at 9am – another 45 minutes away.
I walked off to find somewhere to eat and found one of the many ‘Sodas’ which sell food. I picked a fried cheesy thing (tasted as good as it sounds) and a coffee. Having used up all my small change on tolls I gave the lady 10,000 colones. She couldn’t change it so she gave me the food and coffee for free. Nice.
Back at the warehouse I waited until 9am and the arrival of the customs agents. I chatted to a ‘Canadian Tico’, Carlos, identified by his Canada tee shirt who now lived here and spoke the local language perfectly. Carlos proved to be an asset as the morning progressed explaining to me what what going on. As we were both in a similar situation we ended up staying together all the way through.
Once the computer switching on / jabbering to each other ceremony had been completed the paperwork began. Our biggest threats were the agents with piles of items to clear but fortunately we seemed to work our way through reasonably quickly. We were soon taken into the warehouse where our packaged were open and the contents inspected. Then the officers went back to their computers and their paperwork. After another wait I was presented my bill. I had to pay the customs 72 colonies. 72!!! The US$ exchange rate is something above 500 to the dollar so that amounts to something a little less than 14 cents. In UK terms that’s 9p. 9 pence!!!! Of course they couldn’t take the money directly and it had to be paid so Carlos and I had to go to the nearby (short driving distance) bank to pay our 9 pence in.
Returning to the warehouse area we then went to the office that ran the warehouse which was a private company. There was a fee to pay for privilege of having our stuff detained by customs. We took tickets and waited our turn only to be told we needed proof that customs had accepted the proof from the bank that our 9 pence had been paid in. So we went and rejoined the scrum in the customs office to show our stamped papers from the bank so that they could in turn stamp them to show they had looked at it and confirmed the 9 pence payment.
Back at the warehouse office we again took tickets to wait our turn to pay for the forced storage. Being a private concern the warehouse had a different idea of enterprise charging me 3,300 colonies for holding the parcel (about 6 bucks). With proof I had paid for the privilege of having my goods withheld to extract the 9 pence from me I was able to go back to the customs office to get some new paperwork (duly stamped) that enabled me to have the package released from the warehouse. I thought I was home free except for being stopped by security less than 10 seconds after having been given the package to double check (and stamp our papers to confirm the double check) that I had the right package.
At the exit to the compound I said my goodbyes to Carlos thanking him for all his help, got in the car and drove back to Puntarenas reaching the marina about 11:50. I asked the girl in reception for directions to the immigration office – a difficult conversation when neither of us spoke the others language. I ended up with a map scrawled on a piece of paper which was almost right – enough to find the place. On the way there I picked up our propane. Processing our passports took a while but there were no obstacles.
The next stops were customs (for clearance) and the port captains office for our international zarpe – the one thing we really need. Both these were 20km away in the port of Caldera so off I went. The customs office was a bit slow and took a while to print out my clearance. They checked every piece of paperwork I had and fortunately found nothing wrong. Next stop was the port captains office. They again inspected everything and discovered that the customs office had put the wrong date on their paperwork and refused to process me until I’d gone back. Back at customs the guy who dealt with me had gone but someone else reworked everything and gave me a correct form which I took back to the port office.
The girl there inspected everything again and then told me (I think as it was all in Spanish) that the port captain wasn’t there and that I could either pay some more money to get my papers a 6 this evening or wait until 8am tomorrow. Leaving well after 6pm was not an option so it has to be tomorrow.
On the way back to Puntarenas I stopped off at the DoubleTree resort to pick up the guy who I had to take to the marina who would return the car. He was due to return in 5 minutes so I sat down to wait. I fell asleep. I think it ended up being around 45 mins but I have no idea really. I eventually got back to the marina and onto the boat and related my days tale to Helen and John over a much needed beer. As with this blog entry I left the worst til last. On the way to the airport I had really tried to be good with the speed limit. As far as I could tell it was 80km/h most of the way. However, coming out of one toll booth the speed limit (I learned from the officer with whom I had a long conversation) was only 40km/h and he’d clocked me doing 92km/h. A large part of me thought I’d just take the ticket and not pay but I was not in a mood to risk much and so let the policeman lead me into the direction of an on the spot fine. He’d showed me other tickets of around US$200 for similar offences so an on the spot fine of $50 didn’t seem so bad. I learned later that Costa Rica are having a huge program against traffic offenses and I’d just got caught up in it.
So, for my 9p ($0.14) government charge for holding my tax exempt pump I’ve had to pay for an additional days car hire, about $20 in fuel, $6 in warehouse fees, $10 in road tolls, about $55 in fines, another nights marina fees and seen a small tree converted into paperwork. I’ve run out of words.
