Los Chiles: Nighthmare Border from Costa Rica to Nicaragua

The first bus in the morning from Cano Negro to Los Chiles stops at the lodge around 7.00 am. The next one doesn't have a convenient schedule if you are crossing the border to Nicaragua. 

Dock in Los Chiles, Costa Rica

The bus will drop you off close to a square "parque central". You have to cross that park.
Across the immigration office you'll see a group of dodgy ladies seated around a table. They are the ones in charge of the boat that goes from Los Chiles to San Carlos in Nicaragua. Before you go to the immigration office to stamp your passport, get your boat ticket with those dodgy ladies. It's very important to get your name on the list. Especially if you are arriving in the late morning.

There is no schedule. The boat departs whatever the dodgy ladies decide to. Not even they know when. It depends on the number of people that they already have in the list.

On your way to the dock stop by an office, next to the restaurant on your left, to pay the exit tax. 

Later, one of the dodgy ladies will come and organize a line by the list's order. After that an an immigration officer has to go there and check all the passports again. This can take a long time. 

Dock in Los Chiles, Costa Rica after more than 2 hours

We arrived around 8.30 am and we left after 11 am. We were waiting under the rain and with no food. 

These dodgy ladies that are running this boat business are so bad planners that they didn't realize that they already had enough people for 2 boats instead of 1. Well, maybe they just don't care since there is no competition. This is what happens when you let a monopoly own the last mile. You get a terrible service (yeah, I'm not turning this into an economics lecture, also because I'm not an economist).

I found Costa Rica more disorganized than the other countries that I previously visited in Central America. Even the boat that does the opposite route, that goes from San Carlos in Nicaragua to Los Chiles in Costa Rica, has a schedule. It's shameful for Costa Rica. 

There is no such thing as an organized transportation system. Everything relies on privately owned companies that are operating in a small scale and they are not connected in any way. If you want to go from point A to point B, you should pray because very likely you have to connect at least a couple of times and no one will be aware of the schedules. 

Rio Frio border

When you get in the boat the crew will try to force you to get one of the seats on the back. This is terrible (again the lack of organization in Costa Rica is painful) because when you arrive to San Carlos, you'll take a long time to leave the boat and to get into the line to the immigration. Those who arrived later, will leave first and they will be the first ones going through the immigration. Pretend that you don't speak Spanish, ignore them and get a seat on the 2nd or 3rd row. The 1st is reserved for the dodgy ladies's friends. 

Landscape along the border

Many tourists come from Arenal to do a boat tour in this area thinking that they are visiting Cano Negro National Park. FYI, those tours don't go to Cano Negro. The landscape across the border is beautiful and you still can spot wildlife although it's not as impressive. And you don't have the same type of experience as we had.