A friend asked me to post the following information based on her experience
taking her dog to Costa Rica.  Hope it's not too far off topic!
 
        --Vesna Kovach
 
I've taken Dagger to CR three times (1990, '92, '93).  At that time,
you had to:
 
     -Request some paperwork from the CR consulate here in the US
     -Have your local vet sign a generic health certificate
     -Have your state's chief veterinarian sign the certificate
     -Have the vet in CR sign the health certificate
     -Send it back to the CR consulate with about $40.
 
The catch was that the two US vets have to sign it within 10 days of your
leaving-- yet the mail still has to go all the way to Costa Rica, then
back to you, then to the consulate in New York City!
 
So I had to have the vets postdate it, plus sent money for the CR vet to
FedEx it back to me.  Nobody seemed to notice the "problem" with the date.
You MUST have the completed paperwork with the final consulate stamp when
you arrive at the airport to board your plane to CR.
 
When you leave CR to come back to the US, any local CR vet can fill out a
generic health certificate which you then send to the main CR vet in the
capital with about $10.  Again, do this within 10 days of departure.
 
Also, note that the animal is not a CR citizen, just a pet traveling with
a US citizen.  There is NO import duty on bringing a personal pet with you
to CR.
 
Sharon Savage
K-9 Behavioral Solutions
Madison, WI
http://pages.whowhere.lycos.com/news/k9shrink/
[Posted in FML issue 2714]