The Trip to Miami For Real – We Need to Get Ready (by Cindy)

February 2021 – It Starts Anew

In December and January, with the holidays (obviously during which we stayed put in Costa Rica), the start of the new year, and everything else going on in the world, we’d managed to push the March 2^nd tourist and driving deadline out of our minds.  But all of a sudden, it was February, and here we were again. This is the second of our posts about our trip to Miami.

We still had driving restrictions two days a week, one weekday (Friday) and one weekend day.  The country had changed the weekend restrictions so that now we weren’t allowed to drive on Sundays, rather than Saturdays, as we had before. This had been a helpful change for us, so we didn’t have two days in a row that we couldn’t drive.

Costa Rica was still welcoming tourists from everywhere, as long as they arrived by air or sea. Land borders were still closed. There was still no negative COVID test required for entry. But tourists still had to purchase COVID insurance. We’d heard from Mar Vista neighbors that came to Costa Rica in January, that there was now a new, cheaper, option for the insurance that they had used.

As I said, we continued to keep our heads in the sand, so to speak. We hoped there would be an extension, but admittedly, this time it seemed different. In the past, the Directorate of Migration had made tourist extension announcements months in advance of the deadline. We were now in February, and the Directorate of Migration had not made any announcements at all. This was unusual if they were planning on an extension to the March 2^nd date.

The Facebook group for Costa Rica expats also did not have a lot of discussion about another possible extension of the March 2^nd date. This was unlike the last time around, when there were a lot of posts in the group because there was a disconnect between the tourist extension date of March 2, 2021, and the driving extension date of November 18, 2021.  This time the posts related to this topic were mostly about what was required for leaving and reentering the country, and also where people were going to go, or had already gone, for their border runs.  (Mexico seemed to be a popular option for some – cheap, no negative COVID test requirement, and lots of partying.  Based on the latter two reasons, we quickly ruled out Mexico as a possible destination.)

Our friends Randi and Bill forced us to discuss the reality of the situation. On February 16^th, only two weeks before the deadline, they called us, asking us what we were going to do about the border run. They had made their decision to leave the country around March 1^st.  Like us before, they didn’t want to wait to the last minute, in case all of the procrastinators decided they really did need to leave and scrambled to fill up flights last-minute.

After our call with them, John and I went back and forth on whether we should wait for a possible extension or leave the country for a border run, and if we did leave, when we should do it.  Probably the largest concern was that once we left the country, that placed us in the 90-day tourist cycle, including purchasing the required COVID insurance from now until we were able to get our residency. (Our attorney told us that he thought we should hear something in the first trimester of this year – not an entirely hopeful assessment.  It had been almost 20 months since we submitted our application.)  If they did make the extension, once we left, we would no longer qualify for any further government extensions for tourists who originally entered before December 1, 2020. 

It took us longer than usual to come to the decision that we would make the border run before March 2nd. I will admit, there was a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth while we debated. In the end, there seemed to be more factors for taking the trip, rather than against. Things felt different this time around with how the government was handling the tourist extension and what we were seeing in the online chats. Plus, we needed to allow time to get our COVID test and results to enter the US (now a requirement for everyone entering the US). If we waited until it was too late and we couldn’t drive, it would be extremely difficult to get somewhere to take the test.  We started making arrangements for a flight that evening, coordinating with Bill and Randi via WhatsApp.

Our preference was to use the international airport closest to where we live, which is Liberia, an hour’s drive away. San José is where the other international airport is located, which is a 5 hour or so drive.  There are a lot more options for destinations when you fly out of San José, but that adds another two days, hotels and meals to the trip. We could get to the US from Liberia. We decided that the short, 2 ½ hour nonstop trip to Miami would be the best option (again).  Now that the US required a negative COVID test upon entry, at least we would be on a plane with other people that had tested negative recently.  Of course, once we got to Miami, all bets were off – we follow news from the US and see what’s going on there. We decided that we would have to stay overnight in Miami, but we didn’t have to stay more than one night. And we didn’t have to make a point of going to crowded, party places.

American Airlines was the best option for us. Unfortunately, they don’t provide these Liberia to Miami flights every day of the week. Notably they omit service on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. March 2^nd was a Tuesday; well, that was unfortunate timing! We either needed to go before, or after the extension. We decided it would be safer to go before rather than after. Of course, if there was a last-minute extension, we’d have put ourselves into the 90-day tourist cycle unnecessarily at this time. By the end of the evening on Tuesday, February 16^th, we had booked our flights. The four of us ended up choosing to leave on Saturday, February 27^th, and returning on Sunday, February 28^th.  

The next challenge was obtaining a COVID test. Bill took charge. The following day, on Wednesday, February 17^th, he drove to Beachside Clinic, a 24×7 clinic that does COVID tests for travelers.  He talked face-to-face to the clinic staff. They told him that he could do the PCR test or the antigen test. A person in line at the clinic chimed in that the antigen test was cheaper, had a shorter turn-around for results, and was accepted for air travel.

Bill arrived at our house shortly after visiting the clinic. Admittedly, we were dubious about the antigen tests.  We looked it up online and were happy to see that the official US government sites confirmed that the antigen tests were accepted.

Our next step was to get a Beachside clinic appointment for our COVID antigen tests.  Each one of us had to enter information into an on-line form. Bill had obtained a link to the form at the clinic. John started first. It required entry of basic information, and there was a checkbox for a COVID test, and a drop-down for type. He chose Antigen. After hitting the submit button, he received an application number. I went next, and then Bill did his for he and Randi. We wrote down the numbers assigned, and Bill headed back to the clinic to make sure we got our COVID test appointments. At the clinic, because we were doing the antigen tests, which required only a two-day turnaround for results, they gave us appointments on Thursday, 2/25, in the afternoon. This was two days before our flight.

Bill called us and told us when our appointments were scheduled – 2:40 in the afternoon.  Our cleaning person, Ofelia, comes on Thursday afternoons. Ofelia arrives by bus near the entrance to Mar Vista. We have to drive to the entrance to pick her up from there and drive her back to our house. When she is finished, we drive her to a bus stop in Brasilito. We sometimes leave the house when Ofelia cleans, but we have to be cognizant of the time, so we are back at the house when she is finished. We figured our afternoon COVID test appointments wouldn’t be a problem, as they were scheduled in the middle of her normal cleaning time, the clinic was 15 minutes away, and a test should only take a few minutes.  What were we thinking?  We’ve lived in Costa Rica for over a year, and by now, we should have known better!

The afternoon of Thursday, 2/25, found us sitting outside on our patio, baking in the afternoon sun, as Ofelia was inside cleaning.  Not only were we very hot, with no shade relief, there was at least one fire in the distance. (The fires are from farmers burning their sugar cane fields, or just fires in the wild. Both have been happening frequently during the dry season, but sugar cane burning is common.)  The fire was producing a noticeable amount of ash, that was falling into the pool and also onto us, which wasn’t at all pleasant. We decided maybe we should go early for our 2:40 COVID testing appointments. Even if we had to wait, at least we could do it in our air-conditioned vehicle and we wouldn’t have ash falling on us!

John and I arrived at the clinic and parked in the back of the gravel parking lot. COVID testing is done at a back building, adjacent to the main clinic. There is a covered walkway between the two buildings. It didn’t look like there was anyone in the building getting tested, which we could see, since there were only two rooms, and both of the doors to the rooms were open. 

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We walked up to the guy in full PPE (a doctor we later found out) manning the back building and told him we were there for our COVID test. He looked us up on a paper list filled with names and found us both listed. That was the good news.

Nothing but bad news came after that.

The doctor looked through a box with labeled plastic bags, each bag containing materials for the COVID test. He easily found John’s test bag. After several runs through the box, he still couldn’t find mine. At this time, two gringo men with a girl about 7 or so also walked up for their tests. The doctor found the men’s tests, but not the girl’s.  He used a walkie-talkie to converse with the main building. He then told us that there was a problem with the forms we had filled out, and we needed to go to the main building to get it straightened out. I asked what the problem was, but he didn’t know.  FYI, when John, Bill and I entered the forms the week before, if we made a mistake, like entering the phone number in the incorrect format, it did give us an error, and made us correct it before allowing the form to be submitted. We each had successfully submitted the form and received an application number, so the fact that there was a problem with my form was puzzling.

I went to the main building to the reception desk and waited for someone to be able to help me.  When I finally was able to talk to the lady behind the desk, I was told that there was a problem with my form, and I would have to re-enter it online, and I needed to use my phone to do it. I asked what the problem was, as I really didn’t want to repeat whatever I had done incorrectly before, especially now that I was going to have to connect to the clinic’s WIFI and enter the form on my phone. She didn’t know, I just needed to re-enter the form. One of the guys with the girl that also had the incorrect form had followed me in and started doing the same thing. After observing my interaction, he didn’t bother to ask what the problem was.

Connecting to the clinic’s WIFI was a bit challenging. My phone took a long time to connect, and the woman told me that their internet was running slow that day. Finally, I was able to connect and successfully submit my form, but it took a while. I took a picture of the appointment number, just to be safe. I am pretty sure I hadn’t I entered anything differently than I had before.

While I was wrestling with the online form in the main building, John was getting his test, but it wasn’t the antigen test. He was clued in when the doctor told him how much the tests would be. (John had gone ahead and paid for both of our tests, trusting that I would be able to resolve the mysterious form issue.) John was expecting about $60 for each test, and the doctor told him that it was going to be a total of $230!  John questioned the amount, asking, “Is this for the antigen test?” 

The doctor replied, “No, this is for the PCR test.”

John told him that we had requested the antigen test. The doctor checked and told John, “No, you requested the PCR test.”

The doctor attempted to make John’s payment, a transaction that didn’t go smoothly. John paid by credit card, and the doctor’s hand-held credit card machine wasn’t working. After several attempts, the doctor used his walkie-talkie to call into the main building. Eventually, a woman came out with a different hand-held credit card machine, which did work. She then returned to the main building with the working machine.

John continued the conversation with the doctor about the tests and results. The PCR test would take three days for results and our flight was in only two days, on Saturday!  The doctor asked what time our flight was, and John answered 1:00 in the afternoon. The doctor said he would put a rush on the results and said we should get them by Saturday morning by email.  John wasn’t reassured, but he bit his tongue.

Bill and Randi showed up for their tests after this, but still before I got back outside. They had conversed with John before they went in for their tests. When I arrived, they were having a serious talk with the doctor, and they were shaking their heads from side-to-side at us, obviously frustrated. When they came out, they told us that they, too, were told that they had signed up for the PCR test, not the antigen test. Now, it is possible that one of us may have made a mistake and not selected the antigen test, but all three of us entering separately on four different forms?  That seemed highly unlikely!  The doctor informed Bill that they need to have a different test package for the antigen test, and since they are made up in advance, that it was impossible for us to have the antigen tests that day. (Seems like swabbing is involved with both, so not sure why that makes a difference.)

Bill and Randi also asked about getting the test results in time for the Saturday flight, and told the doctor that they would be leaving around 9:00 a.m. (Note: this is the time that the shuttle would be picking them up from their condo, and not the time of the flight.) The doctor said that he didn’t think that he could get the results fast enough. Bill protested that the doctor had told John that he thought he could get the test results in time! The doctor responded that John was on a 1:00 p.m. flight and they were on a morning flight, so that was different. Once that misunderstanding was resolved, the doctor told them their tests would be rushed also, followed by quick swabbing of their nostrils and throats. Once again, the hand-held credit card machine did not work – what a surprise! The doctor again used his walkie-talkie, and eventually the same woman came out with the working machine, and after the transaction was complete, once again returned to the building with it in hand. 

The doctor told me (and the guys with the girl with the form problem), that we had to wait for our test packages to be made up and delivered to him from the main building before he could test us. While we were waiting, another medical staff person came out, as 20 people had shown up, all with appointments for COVID tests. The doctor started taking them in the building for their tests. At this point, another woman mysteriously appeared from the main building with two tests in hand and delivered them to the doctor. Yes, those were the tests for the girl and me, and it looked like the doctor was going to process the late arrivals ahead of us! 

Now there was double frustration. First, the concern with the test results coming back in time. Bill and Randi seemed less concerned. They acknowledged that it was what it was, and there wasn’t much we could do about it now. Second, this whole test thing was taking far longer than we originally thought, and our cleaning person was at our house. We have to drive her back to a bus stop after she finishes cleaning, as she doesn’t have a vehicle.  I sent her a message asking when she thought she would be done. She answered that she was nearly finished. We still didn’t know how long it would be before I would get tested, and it didn’t look promising. Bill and Randi kindly offered to pick her up from our house and deliver her to the bus stop. They also use her services and were planning on grabbing a bite at a restaurant near the bus stop, anyway. John and I agreed, and off went Bill and Randi to our house to pick up our cleaning lady.

Within a few minutes of their departure, the doctor came out to give me my test. He took me to a tent they had set up for COVID drive-in testing. In a matter of minutes, I was through. We quickly called Bill and Randi, catching them before they got to our house. I messaged Ofelia that we were coming home now. 

Once John and I were back at the house after driving Ofelia to the bus stop, the test result stress came to the surface. Based on how things had gone with the COVID testing that afternoon, we were pessimistic that all four of us were going to receive our test results in time for our Saturday flight. John was laying odds like a bookie. He gave thought that there was a 50% chance that none of us would be able to go due to late test results, and a 75% chance that at least one of us would not be able to go.

Bill and Randi must have been having the same thoughts. Around 4 p.m., we received a text from them. They had already checked flights leaving on Sunday and returning Monday, for availability (yes, there was) and added expense (yes, to that, also). Would we be interested? 

But it wasn’t just the flights, there was everything else, too. The four of us were taking a private shuttle to and from the airport, that was already arranged. If we pushed everything one day out, would there still be availability both ways? Bill was calling to check.

We also had hotel reservations. We had prepaid both rooms, to get the best rate. We called and confirmed that our best rate was nonrefundable, so if we pushed the date, we would be out that money, in addition to the cost of hotel rooms the following night.

The shuttle service manager got back to Bill and told him that it was fine if we wanted to push the date. He also told him that he knew a doctor that would come to your house to give an antigen test and get the results back that night. The cost for the service was $130 per test.

On our end there again was much wailing and gnashing of teeth as John and I “discussed” our options. This trip was already going to cost us close to $900 when it was all said and done, and we were using air miles for our flights!  (Of course, the airline was charging us $150 for taxes, etc., for this “free” trip.) We were paying for the COVID tests, the shuttle to and from the airport, restaurants while traveling, the hotel, and close to $200 for our Costa Rican required COVID tourist insurance when we returned to the country, to cover us for the next 90 days.

Also, we had to purchase a future flight out of the country again, since we have to prove that we are leaving the country, and not just staying in Costa Rica indefinitely. This is a requirement because we are not yet residents. The airlines ask for proof both when you check in for your flight from the US to Costa Rica, and  the customs officials also ask when you go through Customs when you arrive in Costa Rica. I didn’t include the cost of this flight in the $900 number, as we should be able to use the flight one way or another in the future.

You may be asking, why do you need to take a shuttle – why couldn’t you just drive and park your car at the airport?  Well, first, we still couldn’t drive on Sunday, no matter what. And, even though we were flying in and out of an international airport, this airport has a small, gravel parking lot, with no real security. So, $120 round trip for a shuttle service for the four of us seemed like a bargain compared to the risk of getting caught driving on a no-drive day and losing our plates, and/or having our truck stolen at the airport.

The idea of additionally paying $260 to some guy for a quick antigen test, because he knows a guy, who knows Bill, seemed like the one expense that broke the camel’s back for making any changes. In the end, Bill was informed that that doctor wouldn’t be able to come to the house for the test until Friday afternoon, anyway, so he wouldn’t deliver the results until Saturday morning. It wasn’t any better than the situation we were in now.

We all decided to go with the original plan and hope for the best. We were not encouraged when Bill received two emails from Beachside Clinic later that same day. Beachside Clinic sends email confirmation of services rendered and charges to the credit card. Bill received two emails, one with his name on it, and one with John’s name on it. Bill forwarded us John’s email receipt. Bill and John checked our credit card transactions on-line and confirmed that each of us had been charged appropriately (for the PCR test). But, the credit card type and last positions of the credit card number on John’s receipt didn’t match our credit card.  No, not encouraging, at all.

Friday morning we did our usual walk/run in the neighborhood, ate lunch, and made a quick trip to a small grocery store. We wanted to make sure we had food for Saturday and Sunday in case the trip fell through. Upon our return, we found that we had no water at our house. We checked with friends who own a house in the neighborhood, who told us there weren’t any notices of water outages. After waiting an hour, I finally called security and informed them. The conversation, such as it was, was all in Spanish.  I think I conveyed that we didn’t have any water at our house, and in the end, after a lot of me saying “despacio por favor” (slowly, please), and “lo siento, no entiendo” (I’m sorry, I don’t understand), I think I finally got that a man was going to come right now. Well, the man didn’t show up to our house, but the water was back on within a short period of time. It came back on with a vengeance!  The air in the water pipes created such force, that our toilets sounded like they were exploding, and water was expelled from the tank when flushed. The refrigerator water dispenser gushed water all over the front of the fridge and onto the floor when used for the first couple of times.  That’s one way to distract us from fretting over the COVID results.

Friday evening at 7:30 p.m., John saw that he received his COVID test results – negative!  He texted Bill and Randi, as we had all agreed that we would text each other when we received our results. Randi quickly checked her email and found her results in an email that went to her junk mail folder – also negative. I received mine, as well (negative) and sent a text. We printed our results to show to whomever required them, and also entered the information in the VeriFly app that American had encouraged us to use for our US trip, presumably to help streamline processing at the airport. We entered the information, including the time of day that the test was taken.  John noticed that the test time on his document was at 10:01 Thursday morning. Of course, this wasn’t right, we’d had our tests after 2:30 in the afternoon. Were we going to say anything?  Nope, not a chance.

Now it was just Bill. We waited all evening. At 9:00 p.m., we sent another text asking if he had received his results. No. We didn’t dare ask again, and by the time we went to bed, still hadn’t heard anything.

Later when we discussed this, Bill admitted that he was overly stressed on Friday night, and was more than a little irritable (obviously much wailing and gnashing of teeth at their house that night). Randi had tried to reassure him, but was met with, “easy for you to say, you got your test results!” (At the time that they relayed this to us, I mentioned that one of us had also been very stressed about this whole trip, while pointing at John.)  Bill got maybe 1 and ½ hours of sleep on Friday night, worrying that he wasn’t going to get his results. The sleep he did end up getting was due to the fact that he was so exhausted by the end of the night that he finally crashed.

The next morning, Saturday, the day we were all going to the airport, Bill sent a text a little after 7 saying he still hadn’t received his test results. In the text he told us he had called Beachside Clinic after 8:30 p.m. on Friday night, and the person who answered the phone didn’t speak English and told him to call after 8 a.m. on Saturday morning. No wonder Bill wasn’t able to get any sleep!

Our next text message from Bill was happy news! He and Randi ended up driving to the clinic, and the clinic found his (negative) results. They asked if he wanted them to print the results or send them in an email. For Bill it wasn’t an either/or answer. He said, “Both” and they obliged. Looked like we were all ready to go!

The shuttle was going to pick up Bill and Randi at 9 a.m. and then drive to pick us up. I called our Mar Vista security and told them we were expecting a shuttle around 9:20 or so. After that I let Bill and Randi know that the main gate was expecting the shuttle. A few minutes later, at 9:13, we heard from Bill that the shuttle hadn’t picked them up yet. They had called the shuttle manager, and hadn’t heard back. They wondered if the shuttle was picking us up first?  That started another round of stress. What if the shuttle didn’t show?  Geesh, what else could happen? Thankfully, Bill received word that the shuttle was on its way. We were picked up only about 25 minutes after when we thought we would be.

The shuttle driver used highway 911, also known as the “monkey trail”, to get from our house to the airport in Liberia. This is a shorter route than the one we usually take. The reason we don’t usually take this road is because the monkey trail is a narrow road with a river crossing. It is not advisable to drive this route during the rainy season, as the river crossing can be treacherous then. We are in the dry season now, and the van had no problem traversing the river crossing. We arrived at the Liberia airport in plenty of time, breathing a collective sigh of relief.

There’s more to this trip – we’ll let you know in our next posts!