Then, it was on to. . .

The actual office itself, the day after our exams. . . There are doctor's offices nearby the Cosevi, but considering there is a 1- to 2-hour wait for your blood type to be figured out, then more time for the physical, we opted to break it into two days. . .

It turned out to be a good thing, as we got to the office at 7:45 a.m. and were promptly shown to a shorter line for foreign applicants. We figured it was going to be smooth sailing, but the 30 or 40 Costa Ricans that were in another line, all moved through before it was time to open up the gate for the rest of us.

Step 1: Climb up the stairs, show our U.S. license with our Costa Rican residency card (three copies of each). A nice fellow looked them over, slapped some stamps on them, gave us back the copies and told us to head back downstairs to wait at window No. 5.

Window No. 5 wasn't moving quickly at all. This was where another fellow asked us if we wanted to get a motorcycle license as well, our address, etc., etc. Then he stamped some more papers, gave us a receipt and sent us off to the Bank of Costa Rica, where we had to pony up 4,000 colones to pay for the license.

This was only about a 5-minute walk, and I unluckily caught the fellow at the bank that does this on a coffee break. About 30 minutes later, I was back at window No. 5, about 10 deep by this time, waiting to return to show that I had paid for my license. . .