No one got the post cards I sent!
 

Well I was warned here on fodor's regarding the mail being unreliable in CR and they weren't kidding. I mailed them out April 07 had them stamped and mailed by the Hotel and not one reached the US. I wrote out 15 cards. So if your thinking of sending postcards/letters think again.

Theresa in Detroit.

That stinks - well, now I'm glad I didn't bother - LOL! I got the impression their mail was unreliable when the owners of one of the hotels where we stayed asked us to mail some bills for her from the U.S. She didn't even know us - tells you how bad it must be!

Don't count on your hotel to mail them, rather take them to a post office yourself.

Bummer! My guess is the hotel didn't put sufficient postage on the cards. I've learned that many locals in CA don't mail to the states and are shocked at how much higher the rate is than for local stuff. I'm not sure about CR but in Honduras and Guatemala it's around a buck each for postcards as I recall.

I tried to mail my postcards from Nebaj, Guatemala (way off the "beaten path") and the post office took more than a day to figure out the rate. They eventually figured correctly but didn't have the right denominations of stamps to add up to fit in the space I had. I ended up mailing them from Panajachel where the post office had stamps specific for that purpose. I beat the darned things home, though!

Mine were received within a decent time frame, but I do remember the postage being shockingly expensive. Having said that I don't remember exactly what it cost.

I've had the same happen to friends visiting Mexico, when they left things at the hotel front desk. My guess was they never even made it to the post office.

Mine always arrive (eventually) but I go to the post office, purchase the stamps, and put them on myself right there.

Not saying this is what happened, but I've heard of cases of hotels steaming stamps off and reusing or reselling them. I agree with what's been said here: I always take postcards to a main post office in a major city and mail them myself.

The postcards I mailed from Guatemala this spring arrived in a very timely fashion, but I sent them from Guatemala City, Antigua, Panajachel and Quetzaltenango. Hopefulist, I can see why you ultimately didn't bother trying to do it from Nebaj. :)