Jan and I celebrating at the Coconut Bar in Playa Del Coco after leaving the customs office.    Pic by Jim

Friday, March-13-15

Well things have progressed a little down here in Costa Rica. Jan and I went to the one-agent customs office in Liberia to get our temporary import permit for the boat re-activated as we were told we could by the Lawyer from the Costa Rican Tourist bureau.

We weren’t happy about the prospect of having to see “Carlos” the same customs agent that had just days before, threatened us with arrest and boat seizure, but if it meant becoming legal again we would face him.

As we got out of the cab and approached his office my final words with Carlos at our last meeting was playing in my head.

His last words to me were “If you stay I will have you arrested!” and mine to him was, “Don’t worry, you won’t be seeing us again.”  That was just a few days earlier and here were, about to confront each other again and I could only assume that he wouldn’t be too happy with me for getting the Canadian consulate, two lawyers and his boss involved.

As we entered the office I was pleasantly relieved to see that Carlos, the agent of all our troubles wasn’t there but another rather rotund fellow, named Marcus sat behind the desk.

Later I we would assume that Carlos’s boss had decided that another confrontation with us and his pissed off agent wouldn’t have been good, so he was pulled from the office, perhaps just for the day.

Anyway, with our cab driver as interpreter, Marcus explained that they would suspend our import permit until we got the boat fix and were ready to leave. So all was looking good. We just had to write a letter (in Spanish) asking for the suspension and bring it back to him in the next couple of days and he would give us a new permit. He re-activated our old one and sent us on our way.

All seemed good but as we left the office, Jan asked me, “did you recognize him?” I thought he looked familiar but I couldn’t place him.

“That is the guy that tried to shake us down for a bribe when we first landed at the airport in January.”

Jan was right. When we arrive back at the boat after Christmas, I had brought with me a bunch of boat parts and a small gas generator. Items up to $800.00 and for personal use (or for a vessel in transit) are supposed to be duty free.

It was Marcus that then said that taxes up to 65% of the value of the item was now due! But if I put some money in the generator box, he would “Inspect it” and he would stamp our papers.

I was upset but being faced with possibility a several hundred dollars in taxes to pay, I had little choice. I discreetly pulled out my wallet and was about to slip a 100 dollar bill into the box when Marcus suddenly got very agitated and told me to put my wallet away and “just go.”

He quickly stamped my papers and sent us out the door as fast as I could push the cart.

As we left the customs inspection area I noticed that a couple of people, one a women had just entered the room. I can only assume it was Marcus’s boss and he didn’t want to get caught shaking down the tourists.

So despite getting our papers re-activated, I didn’t leave with good feeling about the whole customs process that were being forced to wade through.

We took the re-activated papers to the port captain and got permission to move the boat to Marina Papagayo where we will stay until a mechanic comes on Monday to look at our hydraulic steering pump.

While at the marina, the marina lawyer will be looking into getting us a longer extension so we can leave the boat in Costa Rica for the next few months, but considering all that has happened, I don’t think customs will go for it and as soon as our steering is fix, we will get expelled from the country.

There may be a small weather window moving in late next week, and if it appears, I think that Jan and I will be running for El Salvador. But at least if we go now, it will be a legal departure and we won’t run the risk of getting fined our impounded in our next country.

This cruising is not all sipping margaritas and watching fiery sunsets.  I will feel better when Jan, I and Maiatla are out of Costa Rica.

Oh an update on our friend Jim on Meandher. Jim is still hiding out (as best you can in a wide open bay)and waiting for his papers to arrive from Canada. The other day he was sure he was being watched by two police officers with binoculars from their patrol car on the beach. He too is watching the weather.