Costa Rica Travel Posts

Costa Rica Travel Guide and Tips – Passport and Stamp Copy

By Patrick Brunelle ⋅ March 19, 2009 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

Keeping a Copy of your Passport
I decided to start with this issue for our guide and tips to Costa Rica because Costa Rica has been making drastic changes to their policies regarding this issue. It is absolutely crusial that you carry a copy of your passport and stamp at all times in order for you to avoid a major headache. Let me explain what happened to me one terrible night in Costa Rica.

I was travelling with my girlfriend and two friends who were on their honeymoon. We had decided to drive from the Pacific Coast to the Atlantic Coast, and had almost made it all the way to Puerto Viejo. My sister and her friend were waiting for me in Puerto Viejo. When we arrived in Cahuita, a small beach town on the Atlantic in Costa Rica, we were stopped my immigration. They asked us for our Passports, which I had forgotten and actually lost but had yet to figure this out.

I was asked to step out of my car and go in a bus they had next to the stop. I had to sit with other people who had been detained. Most of them were Panamanians and Nicaraguans. I wasn’t at any point worried, until the police told me they were taking me to the Cahuita police station. They told me to relax as it was only until my friends back home could fax my passport to their station.

Upon arrival to the station, they asked me to follow them to the back, and to my surprise I saw a holding cell they wanted to put me in. Words could never describe the conditions of this cell. I wouldn’t put my dog in a place like that. What made the situation worse, was that they put myself and a Frenchman with a homeless man that was obviously on hallucinogens, and stunk as bad as can get.

I spent three of the longest hours of my life in that cell. Thank goodness I wasn’t alone with the criminal. The police were very young and unproffessional and really could care less about me. Many of them seemed to actually relish what was going on.

My girlfriend eventually got a copy of my passport with the Stamp (which serves as the Visa in Costa Rica), and I was able to get out, and not a moment to soon.

Costa Rica is a very safe country, and the police here are nice most of the time. If you travel with a copy of your passport and stamp at all times, you will never find yourself in a situation like mine. Puerto Viejo is amazingly beautiful and rustic, and is absolutely worth visiting if you are ever in Costa Rica.