This Street Thing ...5/9/2016

Pura Vida! 

Usually street names play a huge role in helping people get around a city, they give us a sense of direction in the most simplest way possible, at least if we have a GPS. Well, guess what? Costa Rica doesn't play the name game if you catch my drift. 

Ok, I lied, they play the name game slightly. The major streets have names. Avenue 0 is the central street and then all of the streets parallel to it are also Avenues however they have different ascending numbers. Streets north of Avenue 0 are odd avenues and streets south of Avenue 0 are even Avenues. So, the second street south of Avenue 0 would be Avenue 2. The streets perpendicular to Avenues are called Calles which literally translates to "streets". Calles follow the same rule as Avenues except for the fact that odd Calles are now east of  Calle 0 and even Calles are west. Avenue 0 is just a block or two away from the National Theatre of Costa Rica. While these names do exist, Costa Rica lacks in entirety street addresses. A persons address in Costa Rica is directly related to what they are located around. There are no numbers and street names. For example, an address here could be 

20 meters North of Soda Barrito

Right at Old University

Walk 2 blocks

I can only assume that Ticos ( nickname for Costa Ricans) are used to the lack of street addresses. I personally think it forces them to go out more and get to know their city, especially if their job consists of making deliveries to restaurants. Ticos should only take delivery jobs if they know there way around because they've grown up knowing the way their street addresses are set up. In that sense I don't think street signs matter as much as people may think it does. At the end of the day you're going to get to where you need to be so long as you have a sense of direction, now I can't say how much time it would take for both, but as far as I've seen, there doesn't really seem to be a difference. Ticos are accustomed to the way their streets are set up because the streets belong to them. Of course a foreigner isn't going to have the same experience, but it isn't anything too much to be worried about.

The idea of no street addresses to a foreigner  could be overwhelming depending on what country they are coming from, but to me I'm feeling alright about the whole situation. My parents weren't too big on the whole GPS thing when I was younger. It was all about following behind friends cars when going to a destination we weren't sure of, or talking your way there, receiving instructions as to what you should do until you reached a pinpoint location and repeating the process until you had reached your destination!  So at the moment I'm not too overwhelmed about the lack of street addresses, but who knows? As I venture out to explore the city more, I'm sure I'll have a couple of moments of confusion, but it'll definitely be an experience I'll grow to appreciate!