This all started back in 2001 when I got my passport renewed. While packing for a trip my passport was lying on the bed and so was my dog. There's his picture to the left of the page. Only problem was the passport was in his mouth. He immediately gave it up after being scolded. He managed to chew through one corner of it in the meantime though. I was very nervous knowing that I had to use it the next day. I went to the airport the following day and had no problems as a matter of fact security laughed with me asking if my dog ate my passport. Since then I have traveled to St. Thomas, Jamaica, Cabo, Cancun, Dominican Republic, Puerto Vallarta and The Bahamas without giving a second thought to having a problem for what my dog had done. I have laughed with immigration at several locations about my dog and his choice of chew toys. Never once had anyone suggested that it be replaced. I had no idea it would become an issue in Costa Rica but boy it sure did. I am not mentioning real names of people even though most everyone was helpful to me. 
    Here is my story about that trip to Costa Rica and decided to write about it and post it since so many have heard the story and I wasn’t quite sure what they had heard. I also wanted to tell my story to possibly prevent the same thing from happening to you. The company I work for offers an incentive trip to the sales staff nationwide. We have 3 sales positions that are eligible. My particular job is private events / catering. We schedule weddings, luncheons, meetings an all types of events. In order to qualify for the trip you must meet your sales plan at the end of the year. Typically about 100 people qualify each year from different entities across the country. In 2007 the reward for achieving the sales plan was a trip to Costa Rica which would be scheduled in March of 2008. Our entity began thinking back in September of 2007 that it looked like it was possible to qualify for the trip by the end of the year. Thanks to a lot of hard work, teamwork and a great staff working with me the sales plan was met and exceeded. In early 2008 the announcements were made and the travel department made all the necessary arrangements. 
    It is very exciting to know that your hard work will pay off and you will be getting a reward like a free trip. We stay at all inclusive resorts where you can order food and drinks 24 hours a day at no additional charge. We also get a credit that can be used for spa treatments, excursion day trips or maybe a few souvenirs to take home. We are always treated to a welcome reception, awards dinner, regional celebration and a farewell activity. The corporate team works hard to see that we get the feeling of appreciation for our contribution to the overall success of the company. 
    The dates were set and all was going well. I had finished my light shopping, packed my bags, rescheduled appointments, made sure things at home were in order, made sure my son had what he needed, worked extra hard at my job to ensure the events were detailed for while I would be gone and soon I would be relaxing and enjoying my time away.    
     I got up that morning at 4am to catch the first leg of my flight to Miami. To my surprise since it is so unlike me, I was way early to the airport. I had checked in, showed my passport, checked my bags, made it through security and was good to go. I had about and extra 40 minutes to which is not normal for me, so I just chilled for a bit at the airport. First flight was on time and all is going well. We arrived at Miami and I had roughly 2 hours before my connecting flight. Grabbed a bottled water and a danish because I know an abundance of food awaits me at my destination. Better eat light. There is a short flight ahead of me, just under 3 hours. A few pretzels on the plane and some skittles candy to pass the time. Just a short time now and I will be napping in a beautiful resort waiting for room service to bring over some lunch. Arrival time is about 3pm my time and 1 pm local time and we do not have to be anywhere for about 4 hours so I will have time to refresh myself real soon. 
    Captain wants us to stay in our seats. The gentleman a seat away from me (let’s call him Sam) notices my travel and agenda brochure for our group and asks if I am part of the same group as he is. We are both part of the same trip. We start a conversation about the places we work, both in the same field though different properties located about 1000 miles apart. As we chat about what it took to qualify last year and how we are trying to duplicate the same success this year I see land emerging below the plane. We are looking forward to landing soon and being whisked away from the airport by pre arranged transportation and entering into a stress free zone in a beach side land of luxury with attentive service, sparkling pools and fantastic weather. What more could you ask for. Our company gives the trip for free, just do your job well and you can go. 
    After landing we gather our things and head down the steps off the plane. The airport is fairly small and for the most part open air. We can see the bus drivers holding signs with our company name that welcome us and indicate that they are our transportation. They are waiting just ahead. 
    First stop, immigration. Sam & I go into 2 different lines with barely a wait. My turn, Here’s my passport, where’s lunch and a place to relax? The immigration official asks for another ID which I provide. He gets up and walks away. So, I am thinking that wasn’t very nice. Sam has just past through and is waiting for me just a few feet away. This guy was gone for what may have been 10 minutes. I can’t see him, where did he go? Then I start wondering what’s the hold up? Why hasn’t he returned? Then I spot him talking with what appears to be another official. She is looking at my ID and shaking her head no. 
    What? I see the two of them walk to another female dressed in a gray shirt and all three head towards me. Oh, now this doesn’t look good. Once they get to me one of them says “your passport is no good, it has been mutilated.” Mutilated? I have used that passport for years, the very corner was chewed by my dog in 2001, there is no problem with my passport, all the information is untouched and intact. The lady in the gray shirt walks me away from immigration and tells me that I have to get my bags and return to the states. “Can I at least use the restroom?” I thought let me take a moment to collect my thoughts on this. She replies that I can use the restroom after I get my bags and return to the departure side of the airport. I am frantically trying to get a cell signal at this point and try to make contact with our travel department who is waiting for us all at the hotel. People from our group arrive all day to the resort and someone from travel is coordinating all those bus trips along with any travel issues that arise. For future reference, a cell signal is hard to come by in Costa Rica at the airport. This lady in gray who I will call Alice (Airline lady in charge of everything) could see I am not getting a cell signal. 
    At this point I actually thought she was with immigration not the airline. I BEG her to let me use a phone - she points outside the airport where I had just come in from and says I can use that phone. I lean on a desk to try to rummage through my bags and come up with a phone number, meanwhile she is asking me for my documents back, I pretend I cannot find them and keep looking for travel’s phone info. She finally agrees to call the resort for me and let me try to locate someone. I get the resort on the phone and tell them it is an emergency that I talk to Misty. She is our travel coordinator. So Misty gets on the phone and I try to tell her what’s happening as she is trying to keep me calm while Alice stands watch over me. I start crying. I asked Alice if I can talk to immigration. She said no. I said I want to talk to them. She said they will not change their minds, it’s final. 
    So here I am in the airport at immigration, Sam is standing by, Alice is watching over me, I am on the house phone in the middle of the airport and people are looking at me, by now I am crying and can’t believe what she is saying. Misty is trying to help, she is sending someone in to try and find me and see if they can assist me in any way. Alice is saying “No one can help you, you have to get on the same plane and go right back to Miami.” I plead with her to put me on the next flight so I can at least have some time to talk to someone about my passport, I demand “Call the embassy” She declines, “You have not been allowed to enter Costa Rica, No one can help you, you have to leave on that plane and I have spent to much time on this“ She says “It is getting late lady you need to go now” I am pleading with Misty on the phone to tell me what to do. Misty is trying to get someone into the airport to see if they can help and she is doing everything she can. Misty asks me who is telling me that I have to go. She says to look at the persons shirt and see what it says. Then I see that it is an airline employee. Not immigration. Funny how when stressed you fail to notice the details. 
    Alice demands that I hang up the phone which I relay to Misty who says to hand the phone over to Sam. So here is Sam, trying to help someone he just met. He is on the phone with Misty relaying what is going on. (Sam, if you are reading this I am not the mess I appeared to be that day.) Alice walks me over to the baggage area and tells me to get my bags. Now my bags are off the conveyor belt sitting all along off to the side and no bags are left to look through. Just mine sitting there all alone out in the open. I walk the other way and pretend I do not see my own bags that are clearly marked with a special bag tag. After a few minutes of me rambling around the baggage area Alice points at my bags and asks “Are those your bags right there” I look confused “Oh, I’m not sure, let me go over there and look” It was pretty obvious since one of my old bag tags has a photo of me on it. At any rate I claim my bags and she instructs me to the other side of the airport right past that phone where Sam is relaying information. I really do not even know who took my bags at this point but they had been put back on the plane. Misty was trying so hard to get some help for me, but I had no choice but to leave. 
    I was starting to wonder how much patience Alice actually had left. I made one last attempt to stall for time. I told Alice that she lied to me, she had told me I could use the restroom and hadn’t. Once in the departure area she agreed that I could use the restroom while she stood outside the stall waiting. I took a deep breath, tried to comprehend what was going on and realized that I couldn’t win this one. I had to go, no choices left. I am not going to get to talk to immigration and smooth this out. I have to board the plane, I’m going right back home. 
    Alice walks me to another employee and that woman escorts me through the baggage screener who finds my bottle of Miami water in my carry on. My escort agreed to let me keep it. I was handed my boarding passes and walked up the steps to the plane with my escort who stood by to be sure I did not cause any problems. The entire plane was full of people who wanted to leave and I was holding everything up, so just imagine the faces when I walked on the plane. As it turned out I had the wrong boarding pass in my hand and someone was in my seat. The steward went back to my escort just outside the captains door and she had to radio back to the gate to find my correct seat assignment. The look on her face was priceless, like a disgusted kindergarten teacher. I couldn’t help but think Oh, I am sorry, did I ruin your day? So I get into my seat and just crumble. 
    What just happened? Am I really going home? How can this be? I have traveled before with this same passport so why does Costa Rica think I did something wrong and turn me away? Why did the US approve my passport to leave the states? What do I do now? Why do I keep crying? 
    As I sit there sobbing the steward comes around with immigration Papers to fill out. Hmmm. Do I really need these? I tell the steward what had happened and we start chatting along with the man next to me. Same stories different countries. They tell me that there is a passport office in Miami and I may be able to get an emergency passport the next day. They tell me the process is about 4 hours. Looks like I can spend the night in Miami, get a new passport and be on my way a day later. 
    The moment the plane lands the guy next to me suggests that I call the travel dept. here in the states which I do. I am sitting on the plane talking and letting them know what is going on and checking on other flights in case I can get that emergency passport. This all seems so ridiculous since my passport had never caused a problem. One part of me wanted to get a new one and go back to Costa Rica just to show them that I am not a criminal, that I can go into their country. Another part of me never wants to see Costa Rica again, not even on a map, not like I really saw any of it the first time. So I am on the phone and she is trying to reach Misty to let her know where I am. We are discussing the possibilities and I look up. Uh oh, I am now the only person on the plane. I tell her I have to go, unlatch my seatbelt, grab a book that the man seated next to me forgot and off I go to immigration. I tell travel that I will call back soon to find out what to do since I have to go through customs and all. 
    I wasn’t sure whether to take my connecting flight or stay in Miami. I start looking for the guy who was sitting next to me. Where did he go? I have his book. After looking unsuccessfully I give up and get in line closest to the departure doorway so I can watch everyone as they leave. Finally I see him. I walk up nd ask if I can hand him his book. The immigration agent declines and asks me for the book which I give him. He thumbs through it like I have contraband in it and then hands it over to the rightful owner. 
    I tell the official about how I was turned away and he can’t believe it. He says my passport information is intact and that it is just the corner. He is stunned and takes my passport to the supervisor. Ok, last time that happened I was denied entry. Oh no, am I going to be living in an airport waiting for papers like Tom Hanks did in that movie? It turns out alright. He returns and says again that he cannot believe that they refused entry to me. He stated that any country can deny you for any reason. We talk for a few minutes and he tells me how sorry he is that I had to go through all that. And had such a bad day. Did I mention I was upset again? 
    I go around the corner to customs to a man seated on a stool. You have to show the paper that immigration has stamped with approval for you. I hold my paper proudly, I have made it back. The man stands up and says “Close the lines down” Then he starts shouting to each of the other 5 agents. Number 5 is your pager going off? Number 4 is your pager going off? Etc. He then looks to me. Now keep in mind that the customs area has come to a screeching halt. He says, “My beeper is going off on you” To which I reply “Is this a joke? Do you have any idea what I have been through? Did the guy up at immigration tell you to do this. He said I was ok, here’s my paper” You have to know that I work with a few practical jokers and am always on guard for tricks. He says sternly “I am beeping on you.” I say “I don’t know what that means” Meanwhile I realize that my bags were not in my possession for a while. Oh no, What is in my bags? He looks at me and ask about my medical history. What? How could that matter? I tell him a few things and while looking in disbelief thinking I am really going to jail now, you guess it, I begin to tear up. Now it has been 14 hours with hardly any food and little sleep the night before, I am supposed to be on a beach somewhere and I am not showing my better side at the moment. He asks if I have had any tests done lately to which I reply that I had a nuclear stress test. He asks when? “I don’t know, In the last couple of weeks.” He says, That’s ok then, you are radioactive from the test, that is what is setting off my beeper. What? Are you even kidding me? Well, it appears that having this type of test within a month of travel will set off the radioactive beepers they carry. After that he shouts an announcement that all is ok “She is radioactive from a medical test, Open the lines back up.” I have to say I was given plenty of room to proceed since nobody wanted to come near me after that announcement. If I had known that this day would be this stressful I could have saved a lot of money and had my Dr. join me to see that my heart can handle stress. 
    Next step, choose to put my bags on the screening table to get my connecting flight or go to exit for Miami. Better choose correctly. I called travel back and decided to take my chances by exiting the area. I start asking question to an agent nearby and he directs me to an information desk. Who kindly makes a call and connects me to the state department who informs me that there is an office locally to renew my passport. They also tell me that one place “Hong Kong” voids their passports by cutting the corner off but almost everywhere else uses a hole punch to void a passport. Maybe Costa Rica was confused and thought the states cut the corner and I was trying to use an invalid passport. He also said that all they had to do was pick up the phone and call my passport number in to the embassy who would have verified that it is valid. 2 minutes of their day, that’s it. 
    I call travel back to check on flights out the next day. Bad news, one flight at 10:30am. The passport office opens at 8:30am and I needed 4 hours to get a new one. Maybe we can hopscotch me around the country and get me in late the next day. It looks like I would have at least 24 hours of travel or 2 nights in Miami in order to do that. Not looking good. 
    I have missed my connecting flight home that was departing at 6:30ish. I decide to give up. If I go through all of this to get back to Costa Rica I would only have one full day there. Not really worth it. Please travel get me on the next flight home. And she did, god bless her. There is a flight out in less than 40 minutes. I have to find the airline ticket counter to check in then get through security and I am home. Yeah, after running through the airport I find the airline counter with masses of people waiting. But, at the first class, roped off area, there is a baggage handler over there. I call him over and ask him to please help me, more tears again, I have to make this flight. He takes my bags, accepts my passport and tells me to run to the gate. 
    Security, oh crap, the lines is weaving in and out I will never make this flight. I show my passport and boarding pass to enter the winding sea of people and ask the officer if there is any way she can get me through this line faster. She tells me to leave this line and go around to first class, no waiting. Then people in the lines start shouting for a doctor, nurse or paramedic. It seems that a man is flat on his back. Close the lines off. I look for a second and wonder if I can help. All I could see was that someone was down and agents were rushing over to assist. I am sure they can do more than I can for him. I leave that area and run to the other side for the first class line. I get through no problem, threw away that old bottle of Miami water and there is a kind women ahead of me. She can see how frantic I am and asks if I am alright and I told her I have to make this flight and that man is lying over there and I don’t know whether to stop to assist or catch my flight. She tells me that they have plenty of people helping. She starts rubbing my back because she can see how shaken I am from the stress of the day and encourages me to get to my gate. I make it to the gate, they are still started boarding. 
    I am starving and need something, anything to eat. Do I have time? I think I do. I run back to a sandwich shop I passed on the way in and only one person is ahead of me. She is trying to get hot water to warm a baby bottle. The cup is too small and they do not have a bigger one. She is arguing that it will overflow, they tell her that is all they have. I am going to miss my plane if she doesn‘t get going. Food or plane, what to do. I am obviously frustrated at this but try to conceal it. The lady turned and looked at me and decided to move along and settle for what they had given her. I asked for a sandwich, any kind, here is my money, take it. The attendant gets my premade sandwich and gives me my change. 
    I run to the gate, present my pass and off I go. I made it back home after a challenging day in Costa Rica. When I made it to my driveway I sat in my car and cried from relief and disbelief of what had happened that day. My family met me outside with a group hug. I learned throughout the day that America is wonderful. People will help you if you ask. I still love my dog too!