• About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms
  • Unsubscribe
No Result
View All Result
Live and Invest Overseas
FREE REPORT
BEST PLACES TO RETIRE
*No spam: We will NEVER give your email address to anyone else.
  • HOME
  • COUNTRIES
    • Top Destinations
      • Portugal
      • Panama
      • Belize
      • France
      • Colombia
      • Dominican Republic
      • Thailand
      • Mexico
      • Spain
      • Argentina
    • Browse All Countries
    • Best For
      • Retire Overseas Index
      • Health Care
      • Cost of Living
      • Investing in Real Estate
      • Editor’s Picks For Retirement
      • Establishing Residency
      • Starting an Online Business
      • Single Women
      • Playing Golf
  • BUDGETS
    • Super Cheap ($)
      • Cuenca, Ecuador
      • Chiang Mai, Thailand
      • The Philippines
      • Las Tablas, Panama
      • Granada, Nicaragua
    • Cheap ($$)
      • Algarve, Portugal
      • Medellin, Colombia
      • Boquete, Panama
      • Carcassone, France
      • Buenos Aires, Argentina
    • Affordable ($$$)
      • Abruzzo, Italy
      • Barcelona, Spain
      • Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic
      • Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
      • Costa de Oro, Uruguay
    • Luxury On A Budget ($$$$)
      • Ambergris Caye, Belize
      • Paris, France
      • Panama City Beach Area
  • Real Estate
  • ARCHIVES
    • Living & Retiring Overseas
    • Raising A Family Abroad
    • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
    • Offshore Diversification
    • Our Latest On Coronavirus ⚠️
  • Making Money
    • International Real Estate
    • Banking
    • Employment
    • Investing
  • CONFERENCES
  • BOOKSTORE
Live and Invest Overseas
  • HOME
  • COUNTRIES
    • Top Destinations
      • Portugal
      • Panama
      • Belize
      • France
      • Colombia
      • Dominican Republic
      • Thailand
      • Mexico
      • Spain
      • Argentina
    • Browse All Countries
    • Best For
      • Retire Overseas Index
      • Health Care
      • Cost of Living
      • Investing in Real Estate
      • Editor’s Picks For Retirement
      • Establishing Residency
      • Starting an Online Business
      • Single Women
      • Playing Golf
  • BUDGETS
    • Super Cheap ($)
      • Cuenca, Ecuador
      • Chiang Mai, Thailand
      • The Philippines
      • Las Tablas, Panama
      • Granada, Nicaragua
    • Cheap ($$)
      • Algarve, Portugal
      • Medellin, Colombia
      • Boquete, Panama
      • Carcassone, France
      • Buenos Aires, Argentina
    • Affordable ($$$)
      • Abruzzo, Italy
      • Barcelona, Spain
      • Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic
      • Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
      • Costa de Oro, Uruguay
    • Luxury On A Budget ($$$$)
      • Ambergris Caye, Belize
      • Paris, France
      • Panama City Beach Area
  • Real Estate
  • ARCHIVES
    • Living & Retiring Overseas
    • Raising A Family Abroad
    • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
    • Offshore Diversification
    • Our Latest On Coronavirus ⚠️
  • Making Money
    • International Real Estate
    • Banking
    • Employment
    • Investing
  • CONFERENCES
  • BOOKSTORE
No Result
View All Result
Live and Invest Overseas
No Result
View All Result

Border Between Costa Rica And Panama

Kathleen Peddicord by Kathleen Peddicord
Jul 10, 2011
in Costa Rica, Panama, Retirement/Living
0
There are many options going on about What To Do In Panama City.
209
SHARES
3k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Which Way To The Border?

Traffic came at us from every direction. We darted and zig-zagged and tried to keep moving forward against the chaotic flows.

Cars, taxis, buses, bicycles, motorbikes…children, tourists, backpackers, farmers, pets…I even had to dodge a chicken crossing my path…

In this no-man’s land between Costa Rica and Panama, it was a free-for-all. In the dark, I struggled to keep my footing, not to trip over the swirling mass of little kids and small dogs all around me, while watching out for the semi’s, the pick-up trucks, and the buses.

Friday morning, we flew from Panama to Costa Rica. Friday night, we were making our way back across the border.

We’d taken a taxi from Jaco to the point where Costa Rica stops. We paid our driver, picked up our bags, and walked over to the Immigration window along the side of the road to get our Costa Rica exit stamps.

Now what?

No signs to indicate the way as far as we could discern, so we took off in the generally opposite direction from that which we’d come. Through the bowl of territory that is neither Costa Rica nor Panama but where people of all descriptions and who knows what objectives were coming and going this Friday night.

Our guide for the day took the front position. Lief fell in behind him, leaving me to follow behind. After a few meters, Lief turned around to make sure I was keeping up.

“Why don’t you get in the middle?” he suggested, standing by so I could pass and he could take up the rear post.

“Follow Jim,” he said. “Don’t lose him.”

Easier counseled than accomplished.

Up ahead another counter…and a long line.

“You wait in the line,” Lief suggested, looking back over his shoulder, “and I’ll try to find someone to ask what we’re supposed to do.”

“Pasaporte?”

The young girl who’d approached me held out a book of stickers, with the intention, it seemed, to affix one in my passport.

Lief had the passports with him across the way, speaking with a guy at the counter.

While I hesitated, the Asian girl behind me spoke up.

“Si, aqui,” she said, “offering her passport to the other girl, who stuck in the sticker and then held out her hand for the US$5 dollar bill the Asian girl had ready.

Then the Asian girl took her bags and walked away, out of the line and off down the street.

Lief returned.

“She’s asking for the passports,” I explained. “And she has these stickers. I’m not sure what it’s about…”

Lief held out our two passports to the girl, whose look of confusion grew as she flipped through the well-stamped pages.

She wasn’t finding whatever she was looking for.

“Somos residentes,” he explained.

“Ah,” she replied, returning our passports and turning her attention to the guy behind me with the mass of dreadlocks atop his head.

“What should we do?” I asked Lief.

“Wait.”

We waited.

Our new friend, our guide for the day, Jim, meantime, had walked around back and several blocks down the way to retrieve his car from where he’d parked it early Friday morning in anticipation of our evening crossing.

Jim returned. We continued to wait.

Finally, our turn at the counter.

What do we do for a living…how long will we be staying in Panama…what is our intended address…the usual questions. Then we were instructed to look into the tiny camera on the counter. Passports stamped, photos taken, we were waved through.

“Do we need to go in there now?” I asked, pointing to the room to the left with the table where travelers’ bags and suitcases were being opened and searched. Again, there were no signs or instructions, but I guessed that room was Aduana.

“No one has instructed us to go in there,” Lief replied, “so, no. We’re done. Let’s get out of here.”

Back out into the wave of humanity making its way from Costa Rica to Panama and vice versa, I did my best again to keep up with Jim as he led us to where he’d pulled his car around.

Bags in the back, inside the SUV, air conditioning on, we all heaved a sigh of relief.

“Why did we do this again?” Lief wondered aloud.

“Well, it seemed like it’d be quicker this way,” I offered. “Easier than driving back to the airport and waiting for the next flight.

“Plus, I wanted the experience of walking across a border. I’ve crossed lots of borders…but never before on foot.

“Now I’ve done it. We don’t need to do it again.”

“In fact, though,” Lief continued, “I wonder if all that was necessary. As far as I can tell, the border is completely open. There are no fences, no gates. I saw a few armed policemen, but they were hanging out, drinking coffee.

“It seems to me we could have gotten out of the taxi, retrieved the car, and driven on across to the Panama side of this mess…and nobody would have noticed or even minded…”

Kathleen Peddicord

Comments

Tags: 'Travel Costa Rica'travel panama
Share84Tweet52
Previous Post

On The Idea of America

Next Post

Understanding The Living Overseas

Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord has covered the live, retire, and do business overseas beat for more than 30 years and is considered the world's foremost authority on these subjects. She has traveled to more than 75 countries, invested in real estate in 21, established businesses in 7, renovated historic properties in 6, and educated her children in 4.

Kathleen has moved children, staff, enterprises, household goods, and pets across three continents, from the East Coast of the United States to Waterford, Ireland... then to Paris, France... next to Panama City, where she has based her Live and Invest Overseas business. Most recently, Kathleen and her husband Lief Simon are dividing their time between Panama and Paris.

Kathleen was a partner with Agora Publishing’s International Living group for 23 years. In that capacity, she opened her first office overseas, in Waterford, Ireland, where she managed a staff of up to 30 employees for more than 10 years. Kathleen also opened, staffed, and operated International Living publishing and real estate marketing offices in Panama City, Panama; Granada, Nicaragua; Roatan, Honduras; San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; Quito, Ecuador; and Paris, France.

Kathleen moved on from her role with Agora in 2007 and launched her Live and Invest Overseas group in 2008. In the years since, she has built Live and Invest Overseas into a successful, recognized, and respected multi-million-dollar business that employs a staff of 35 in Panama City and dozens of writers and other resources around the world.

Kathleen has been quoted by The New York Times, Money magazine, MSNBC, Yahoo Finance, the AARP, and beyond. She has appeared often on radio and television (including Bloomberg and CNBC) and speaks regularly on topics to do with living, retiring, investing, and doing business around the world.

In addition to her own daily e-letter, the Overseas Opportunity Letter, with a circulation of more than 300,000 readers, Kathleen writes regularly for U.S. News & World Report and Forbes.

Her newest book, "How to Retire Overseas: Everything You Need to Know to Live Well (for Less) Abroad," published by Penguin Random House, is the culmination of decades of personal experience living and investing around the world.

Related Posts

Cascais, Lisbon Area, Portugal
Lifestyle

Finding Our Dream Life Overseas In Cascais, Portugal

by Terry O’Halloran
February 26, 2021
0

About two-and-a-half years ago, my wife and I made the leap. We moved halfway around the world, to Portugal. Maybe...

Read more
Azenhas do Mar, Portugal coastal town.

Portugal: The Best Place To Live Is Also One Of The Safest

February 25, 2021
Riverside in Tavira on a summer morning, Faro District, Algarve, Portugal.

Why Tavira Is The Best Place To Retire In Portugal

February 24, 2021
Cost Of Retirement In Portugal vs. Panama

Cost Of Retirement In Portugal vs. Panama

February 24, 2021
Panama City. Panama.

Why Panama’s Economy Continues To Boom

February 23, 2021
Dordogne, France.

The Challenges Of Living Abroad And How To Overcome Them

February 22, 2021
Dracula orchid. 

The Top Attraction In Cerro Punta, Panama For Orchid Enthusiasts

February 18, 2021
Next Post
Retiring Overseas

Understanding The Living Overseas

A world full of fun, adventure, and profit awaits! Sign up for our free daily e-letter, Overseas Opportunity Letter, and we'll send you a FREE report on the 10 Best Places To Retire In Style Overseas Today.

Start Your New Life Today, Overseas

Get Your Free Panama Report Today!

​​Simply enter your email address below and we'll send you our FREE REPORT - 101 Things You'll Wish Someone Had Told You About Panama.
 

how to retire overseas

LIOS Resources


  • New To LIOS
  • Ask An Expert
  • Media Center
  • Contact Us
  • FAQs

Quick Links


  • Best Places To Live
  • Best Places To Retire
  • Finding A Job Overseas
  • Real Estate

Sign up for our free daily e-letter, Overseas Opportunity Letter, and get your FREE report: The 10 Best Places To Retire Overseas In 2021

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms
  • Unsubscribe

© 2008-2021 - Live and Invest Overseas - All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Countries
  • Budgets
  • Archives
  • News
  • Events
  • Bookstore
  • Newsletters
  • About Us
  • Members Area
  • Contact Us

© 2008-2021 - Live and Invest Overseas - All Rights Reserved.

WANT TO RETIRE OVERSEAS?

Sign up for our free daily e-letter, Overseas Opportunity Letter, and we’ll immediately send you a free report on the 10 BEST PLACES TO RETIRE in style overseas. Each day you’ll learn about the best opportunities for international living, retiring overseas, offshore diversification and asset protection, and investing in real estate around the world.

Get Your Free Panama Report Today!
 

​​Learn more about ​​​PANAMA and other countries in our free, daily Overseas Opportunity Letter​​, as well as our ​In Focus: ​Panama ​newsletter​​​​​​. Simply enter your email address below and we’ll send you our FREE REPORT – ​​​101 Things You'll Wish Someone Had Told You About Panama.
 

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.