www.CostaRicaTicas.com

On my last return trip to Costa Rica I found a piece of paper placed in my passport at immigration. It said the following
" Keep your passport secure! Within Costa Rica,tourists may carry a copy of the biographical data page of the passport and the page with the immigration stampwith them.Leave the original passport in your hotel safe.."
We can assume that this is the current stance of the immigration dept. assuming the local police have read it.

VB;
Just returned from one of my 72 hour trips out of the country and the first thing I did was get a color photocopy of the pages you mentioned; the picture page, the signature page and the page showing my latest entry into the country. I'm set till Nov. 18! But no note in my pp - I just always do this.
LVSteve

_________________
Just an old horney, fat gambler.

Here's something Ye Old Man turned me onto a couple weeks ago.

Just diagonally from the Hotel Presidente is a little shop that makes copies.
They have a yellow sign that hangs under the overhang above the doors that says "COPIES".

Just go down the little hall and there is a shop that just opens the top half of the door. They will make a COLOR copy of your passport with the signature page on the back, reduce it to wallet-sized and laminate it for 300 COLONES!

It looks just like the real thing only in miniature.

I now carry that and get my boarding pass stamped when I enter the country to show the flight and time of arrival.