Crossing land borders in most places, most definitely in Latin America, are quite a different experience than with airport borders.
The general flow is there is an initial check just to make sure you might be able to get through, that’s usually very quick, then you sometimes need to pay an exit fee — this will sometimes require going in a different line. Eventually you enter a line to get your exit stamp. Any or all of these lines could be inside the same building, or different ones, or outside. All of the lines could be slow. Depending on the country you may then have your bags scanned.
Eventually it’s time to enter the new country, you may end up doing this in the same building, in a line right next to the previous lines. Or you may end up walking quite a distance to the next border. (Or driving if you have a car — something that can make it even harder and take longer).
Eventually you’ll have collected all your receipts and stamps and you can leave.
The part that is most weird is you can quite easily accidentally cross into the new country without having gotten the stamps. But doing so is generally a bad idea, as when you want to leave they will demand to see proof you entered.
Our guide tells us that pretty much every border here varies their specific requirements every few weeks. One week a group can be processed altogether, the next they must go individually. One week they’ll accept local currency, the next they won’t. One week you can pay your exit fee in the one line, others you need to use a different line.
We had been lucky and it’s only been around an hour to get us through each border…
However going from Nicaragua to Costa Rica it was 3 hours in the peak midday sun for all but the last 10 minutes. Apparently there is a concert in Costa Rica tomorrow and lots of people are coming in for it.
Crossing borders is an exercise in patience. And more importantly, remembering “you have no power here”. Don’t ever argue, even with someone else pushing inline. Both of you will be thrown out. This happened to an American (not in our group).
