AMAZING RACE SEASON TWO – First Road Block – One Way Ticket to Costa Rica

Several times during our travels we have felt like this was an episode of the Amazing Race, either racing through 4 countries in two days, or struggling to find alterative transportation options. This leg of our trip would start out no different. First, unbelievably we were late getting to the airport. Even though this was round two of packing and should have been a breeze, having access to additional clothes and things meant rethinking what to bring. On top of that John wanted to clean up the van since we had been living in it for 6 weeks, and “winterize” her for the extended time we would be away. That, of course, took longer than expected and John was barely finished packing when the taxi arrived. But the last minute dash out the door to get to the airport was ordinary for us, the real fun was yet to come.

As we attempted to check in at the airport we were told they could not let us board unless we had proof of departure out of Costa Rica. I had read that some countries may have these requirements so I had an itinerary on hold from Bogata to Lima for sometime in July. Nice try but not good enough, turns out it has to specifically show how and when you will leave Costa Rica. Apparently this rule is to assure the Costa Rican government that you don't plan on staying indefinitely. Ok, so tell me, if you wanted to move to Costa Rica and did not plan on following the visa rules, wouldn't you just pay the additional $100 for a round trip ticket and simply not use it? Right, so the point of this rule is ....

We explained that we would be traveling by bus to Nicaragua. “Do you have the ticket?” “No.” Okay that's still a problem. Luck was with us though and it came in the form of an unbelievably helpful airline agent behind the ticket counter. She let me use her phone and I was able to put frequent flyer tickets on hold for travel out of Costa Rica in June. But we still needed proof, so we had to run over to the American Airlines terminal and get a print out of the itinerary, run back to Frontier Airlines (which by the way flies to Costa Rica via Denver) show them the proof, and check-in. The clock is ticking again and the race is on. Next stop – San Jose, Costa Rica.