Land Border Crossing Tip - Into Costa Rica

Costa Rica has some very tough border crossing regulations which can cause problems if you are not aware of these issues.

This is a know before you go post which hopefully after reading, you will be prepared for crossing the land borders into Costa Rica with focus on the southern border crossings but part of this post applies regardless which direction you enter from.

When traveling into most Central American countries overland it is usually not an issue if you do not have forward travel arrangements already made to leave the country.  This will be discussed after you read about the land border crossings below. In addition to the land border crossing issues, forward arrangements are also required if you fly into the country as well and most travelers must show a forward flight booking out of the country.

This article will concentrate on the land border crossing issues.

There are two main crossing points between the countries of Panama and Costa Rica.

One is in the north of Panama which is accessed through Bocas del Toro.  From Bocas there are two ways:

• Take a river boat then ground transport to the city of Finca then a short transport to the Sixaola-Guabito International Bridge. The river journey is a much more interesting and enjoyable way to travel.

• Get the boat back to Almirante then bus to the Sixaola-Guabito International Bridge.

The other way is the southern route from David to the border crossing city of Canoas, Costa Rica which is after the Panama border station called "Estacion Terpel Frontera" on the Pan-American Highway, Aserrio, Panama.

The crossing at the Sixaola bridge involves walking across the border along an old wooden railway bridge while trucks are driving across this bridge. There was a very small border shack on the left side after you get to the other side of the bridge, however the little immigration shack might have been upgraded but I doubt it.

The crossing at Canoas is very hectic, full of confusing traffic and once inside the immigration buildings, more confusion, nothing is straight forward. A bit of Spanish helps with this crossing. Also, the buses are a bit difficult to locate for the journey into Costa Rica and arriving without a ticket can cause some issues if the buses are full or few are running.

Now, about the issues of entering the country.

Costa Rica is one of those countries where this issue of onward transportation out of the country can become a potential problem.

Since I have crossed over the border from Panama to Costa Rica a number of times and at both border crossing points from Panama, I personally know that they will most likely ask for this information. So what do you do? Let's assume that you intend to continue going either north or south by ground transportation. You are not sure which bus company you will use much less already have any ticket purchased.

There are generally two ways in which you can deal with this problem. One is to purchase a bus ticket for a relatively low cost at the border city before you make the crossing and the other is to have a fake airline ticket printed out.

Let me discuss the first option. If you are coming from Panama you can purchase in the Panama border city a bus ticket from San Jose back to Bocas del Toro or from Costa Rica to Nicaragua which is not too expensive and you should also be able to do the same thing if you were coming into Costa Rica from the north.

The second option is for those who are good with a computer, have an old copy of an electronic airline ticket and know how to use editing software like Adobe Photoshop. If you can use this software, then you can take the old ticket and make the changes to the older flight ticket and when asked, present that doctored ticket to the border immigration officer and he will be none the wiser. There is absolutely no way they can check the validity of the ticket, all they want is to see something printed showing you are going to leave.

In my own personal circumstances I have successfully talked my way through this with neither bus ticket or fake air ticket or I have used a fake airline ticket which worked without issue. I have never purchase the bus ticket but if you do, you will not be able to give it to someone else or resell it because it will have your name and passport number on the ticket, so it is basically worthless unless you are going to go back the way you came or you purchase a ticket to exit the north of Costa Rica.

The smaller crossing point at Sixaola is the easiest to use the fake ticket due to the fact that is is just a small shack of a crossing with no way to communicate or do any actual verification of your ticket. The other crossing is so hectic (a madhouse) that they do not have the time to do any checks as long as the ticket looks good then there should not be any issues.  Beware, I am not suggesting that you do any of this but instead use lawful methods to enter and exit the country.

However, please keep in mind that if the Costa Rica government has installed any new technology which might enable the immigration officer to check the ticket it might not work, but knowing the crossings especially the Canoas crossing has so much heavy traffic, trucks, buses, private vehicles, then most likely all they will want is to see something on paper and not have time to do more than just look at it.

I do realize that the second method seems a risk and is of course more difficult but it has worked for me personally. However, the best option for you may be purchasing the bus ticket as suggested in option one. Or if you do have an onward ticket from Costa Rica which might be a flight then you should not have any issues.

Happy and creative Travels.