Central Line is a bus company based in San Jose, Costa Rica that totally fucked us over when we were crossing the border from Penas Blancas, Nicaragua into Costa Rica.
Central Line offers International daily buses from/to(Managua, Granada) Nicaragua to San Jose Costa Rica.
We think Central Line should educate their employees a little, okay, a LOT, better on where their buses actually GO.
This post is a HEADS UP for anyone traveling from the Penas Blancas border crossing to the La Fortuna area. If this just helps 1 person, I'll be happy. Here's what happened. If you're not familiar with the border crossing you can view the video below and maybe get a sense of it all. *And for the record, understanding or speaking Spanish was not part of the problem, so it wasn't a 'communication' thing.
We had just arrived from Granada, Nicaragua to the Penas Blancas border crossing and as were were starting the process we were met by an attractive, well dressed woman, wearing a crispy, clean uniform, complete with identification badge and I should mention, her make-up was Jennifer Lopez perfect. She asked us if we needed a bus. Now, I've crossed this border about 29,000 times, so I was pretty sure she couldn't help us since there's only 1 bus that goes even close to La Fortuna (El Tanque to be exact, which is only about 5 minutes away from La Fortuna).
But, when we mentioned La Fortuna, she said yes, "Central Line goes right past there." I was skeptical. We asked again, this time she confirmed it with another attractive woman who also appeared to work for Central Line. The tickets were about $14. each. As she explained this was a direct shot, so NO stops and the best part, for me anyway, the bus had a restroom. Not only were we going to save a couple hours but also not get all anxious about when the next pee stop would be (I know a few of you out there can relate to that). As we were paying for the tickets, we asked again to make doubly sure.Jennifer even told us how long it would take and she was right, 3 1/2 hours. I was satisfied. I just thought, 'finally, a bus line realizes La Fortuna should have it's own STOP.'
Obviously, you know where this is going. In the end J-lo ended up being full of shit. Miss Lopez telling me the bus stopped close to La Fortuna would be like an airline telling you the flight can get you to Maine from Florida,,, but then conveniently forgetting to mention you would have to get a connection in California because that is where the plane is actually going. WHOOPS! Needless to say, we almost missed our 'regular' bus and believe me, you don't want to be stuck overnight at the border. Think we got our money back? Nope (and we tried). Didn't have time to argue, we had to complete our crossing and if it's busy, it can take awhile, so no REAL time to argue or at least punch these ladies in the throat and run.
Moral of the story. Ask the driver before boarding where in the hell the bus is going, which is exactly how we found out Jennifer Lopez was talking shit.
Dear Central Line, you need to make this RIGHT and if and when you do, I'll post it. Unfortunately, I can't help but doubt you will since this isn't the United States, here it seems the customer is rarely right. Sorry, just going from my experience... but I would LOVE for you to prove me wrong. pura vida.This video about crossing the border at Penas Blancas was done quite awhile ago but it still accurate. Check it out.
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