Yellow Fever Vaccine

For the past couple of months, I've known that I should get the yellow fever vaccine. I knew it was necessary to enter Panama from Colombia, but I just found out a few days ago that it's necessary to travel from Colombia to Costa Rica as well. For some reason you don't need to have the vaccine if you're coming from the US, which is why in all of the emails to the guides in Costa Rica for the summer, there was no mention of getting vaccinated. I found out the news when my boss in Costa Rica frantically emailed me in all caps letting me know that I needed to go to the Red Cross ASAP to get the shot and that I needed them to put May 16th as the date of the vaccination. Why? Because to enter Costa Rica you need to have had the vaccination at least 10 days prior to your arrival or they won't let you into the country. Well it was already Thursday when she emailed me this, leaving only 8 days before my departure for Costa Rica yikes!

So I enlisted Giovanni's help and we found out we could go to the city's health clinic near the house where they will do it for free. We got there at 2:15 p.m. where they told us that they only did vaccinations from 9-2 Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Argh. So we set off for the Red Cross, which was in another part of town. We got there and they told us it cost 50,000 pesos ($20) which sounded like an exorbitant amount to Giovanni, and frankly having gotten used to living off of just 50,000 pesos a week, sounded extreme to me too. But putting it into American perspective, it really wasn't that bad. First I wanted to make sure that the nurse would write the date I wanted on the yellow fever card that goes with my passport and that I have to present when passing through customs. I was prepared with a story that Giovanni and I had concocted about me not knowing about the job until just recently, and then not knowing about the vaccine rule until it was later than 10 days prior, etc. But that wasn't necessary. The nurse asked me when I was traveling and I explained to her my little problem and when I offered maybe she could possibly put May 17th or 18th please oh please, she said no problem, I'll put May 15th. Phew! She explained to me about three times that if they ask me at the airport that I tell them I got the vaccine May 15th, yes indeed May 15th I got it thank you! And I was ready to break out the tears if need be, but the nurse was very cool and I wondered if maybe this wasn't the first time she had bent the rules a bit. Seriously, Colombian people are so nice!