Quote:
Originally Posted by coon74
How hard are visa runs to David (Panama) and Rivas (Nicaragua) nowadays? Does CR let people back in on the same day, or can it still demand 3 days of absence, depending on which border officer's shift it is? What are the standard fees / bribes on the borders (when travelling by bus)? As of late, has any runner been denied re-entry into CR at all (I mean, with a long timeout)? What's the probability of being allowed only 15 / whatever days of stay on re-entry instead of the full 30 extendable to 90*?
* 90 days straight away for such lucky countries as the US and the EU.
There are too many threads on the subject on the ExpatExchange forum and the testimonials are muy contradictory.
What % of service workers (and of the youth / population in general) in San Jose and its suburbs understands English well enough for communication, by your estimate?
Nicaragua is a better option than Panamá.
-"probability of being allowed only 15 / whatever days of stay on re-entry instead of the full 30 extendable to 90*?" Is very related to the fact of not staying the whole 3 days. As they will mention you are doing it as a permanent tourist...
-Bribes traveling by bus I would say are not as common, but that is where the "depending on the shift" that you mention. It might be $10-$30
If you want the "baller" less hassle approach, just take a flight out to Nicaragua and back. But in any case, I would highly recommend staying over the three days.
With the language it is hard for me to point out a specific % to be honest. Almost all restaurants and bars have English speaking staff; however, you might find a bit of a problem with supermarkets or small stores. Youth have less problem with it as we have a very strong background on IT/services/Betting/CS which are some of the major employers down here.
Pura vida!