Posted: November 13th, 2009    By: Devin Walker   

I’m off to Costa Rica for Vacation.  In a few hours I will be living the pura vida.  I’m going to do my best to keep posting as my vacation goes on, we’ll see how I do.  Here we go!

November 14th, 2009 (6:41 pst):  It’s been more than 10 years since I’ve really traveled out of the country.  By really I mean to some place other than Mexico or Canada.  About a month and a half ago I booked a plane ticket to Costa Rica to visit one of my good friends from college that has been living down there and to this point it’s been a major struggle to get my U.S. Passport renewed.  Let me explain what I’ve been through in a second.  First, make sure you give yourself more than 6-8 weeks if you do not have a passport and are booking your vacation out of the country.   This is due to the U.S. Department of State’s backlog of passport requests and I’m sure a million other reasons.  

 Check out Costa Rica on the Map!
Ok, now on to the passport story.  About three weeks ago (Oct. 20th or so) I realized that my passport was long expired.  Of course, I went on the Internet and printed the necessary forms, looked up the local passport ”Acceptance Facility” and got in my car to drive down there.  Luckily, it wasn’t that far since I had to make the trip a few more times.  The key to getting a passport is bringing all the necessary documents such as  your birth certificate and driver’s license.   These items I did not have and since my passport was issued to me before I was the age of 16 there was nothing I could do.  I had to drive to to the San Diego County Clerk and get my birth certificate printed for about $20.  After I did this I went back to the passport office and sent off my passport.  But wait, check the total cost breakdown:
 
  • Passport Renewal $60
  • Passport ID Card $25
  • Expedite Fee $60 (gets you your passport in 2-3 weeks rather than the normal 6-8)
  • Overnight mail both ways $10Money Order (apparently only payment accepted by the post office)

Total: ~$200 give or take

US PassportPassport Card

Three weeks later, the week of my trip, I am waiting anxiously for my passport to come in the mail and decide it’s time to call and see what’s up.  I mean, I can’t NOT go on this vacation.  It would be a pain to lose the money, but more importantly the experience.  I know that my girlfriend wouldn’t mind all that much though. ;-)   So I look up the phone number and there’s only “hotline” to call for the entire country.  After calling the “Passport Hotline” numerous times and getting nothing but the “please check the number you dialed and try again” message I finally gave up for the day (later I realized it was Veterans Day).  

It’s not two days before my trip, and still I have no passport.  I call the “passport hotline” again and this time someone anwsers.  Amazingly, the person actually knew what they were doing and scheduled me an emergency appointment for the the next day at the regional passport agency… in Los Angeles.  So here’s the wrap up: today my girlfriend comes with me to the appointment to get the passport, they explain to me the hold up was because of a discrepency about my birthday.  It was off by a day on my passport so they apparently needed to see my birth certificate to clarify the actual date.  So now I find myself sitting in Coffee Bean near UCLA writing this awful post. 

Hope no one reads it…

7:25pm: On the brightside I am charging my camera battery right now and will be taking lots of photos through out this trip.  I will load them up as I can, who knows what the internet will be like down there.

7:28pm:  I am really excited for this trip, but with only three hours of sleep last night it’s kind of hard to get hyped right now.  Still, pretty pumped.

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