We returned our car in Liberia, CR and stayed at the Hotel Guanacasta where we enjoyed our last Pilsner cervezas and delicious casadas set to the sounds of some boisterous karaoke by an all male crowd. There are several buses to pick from that take you across the CR-Nic border. The hotel booked us seats on a Central Line bus headed to Rivas, Nicaragua. The cheaper option would have been to take the local bus to the border, handle the paperwork yourself, walk across the border, then enter Nicaragua and get another local bus onward We had heard the touts at the border could be voracious so we opted for the tourist bus who essentially handled everything for you at both border posts. Well almost, you still needed to grab your bags, walk through the checkpoint, and hit the button - green - you are clear, red - you are stopped for a random inspection. I knew I should have gotten in front of John. I got RED. I carried my very large backpack into the room where they did the searches. The border agent asked me to open the bag. I thought, hmm, once I open the bag it just leads to more smaller bags, each stuffed to the brim with different items - all the tops in one bag, all the pants & shorts in another, winter stuff in another, and then there are the hiking boots, poles, etc. He looked at how tightly and fully packed my bag was and was probably thinking the same thing as me (this could take some time if I have to unpack this bag) he said “solomente ropa” (only clothes) to which I responded “si” and he waved me off.
