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Rico's Costa Rica!
The opinions expressed here are his own and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of insidecostarica.com.

Write Rico at: rico@insidecostarica.com
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Sunday 15 December 2002 · Index

Getting in and around San Jose

One of the most common complaints made by visitors and long term tourists alike is the lack of road signs and street markings. It's true that anyone used to the North American or European way or marking streets with names and each house or building with a number, might find themselves rather confused in the hustle and bustle of the city with almost no signs at all, and where one existed, it is not readable or makes any sense.

In San Jose and for the most part, the rest of the country, directions are based on landmarks and distances from such and such. That is, you will be told to walk a certain distance past a particular landmark. Distances are usually given in blocks that are supposed to be 100 meters. But don't take out your tape measure. 100 meters usually refers to a city block. A half block thus is 50 meters and so on.

A typical direction could look like this; ' del parque Central, cien metros al sur y doscientos al oeste, el porton verde con rejas negras'. (From Central Park, 100m south and 200m west, the house with the green door and black fence.) If by chance the door or the fence is re-painted a different color, you are in serious confusion - that is if you know where the parque Central is in the first place!

This may seem overwhelming for the uninitiated or if you are not accustomed to carrying a compass, again if you know where north and south to begin with. San Jose and most small communities are organized in the grid system, a way that is quite easy to know in which direction to walk. All roads are divided into even and odd numbers, Streets or "Calles"usually running North and South and Avenues or "Avenidas" East and West.

In San Jose, if you were to stand at the very center of town at Calle 0 and Avenida 0, you now have a guide to which way to walk to your direction. Walking East from your central point, you will cross 1st, 3rd, 5th and so on, the same way South would take you to 2nd, 4th, 6th and so on. So, if you you happen to be at Calle 5 (5th Street) and Avenida 26 (26th Avenue) you would be standing in the NorthWest quadrant of the city.

It may sound confusing at first, but you will soon get the hang of it. It's one of those many idiosincracies of Costa Rica and which make it a special place. And if you really need help, just ask any of the locals, even if your Spanish is not that good.

A word of advice though, ask three different people each at various points of your journey, turning and changing your heading based on the most common direction given. If each is different and this can happen, take the route that seems most logical to you and if all else fails, take a taxi, but with all the one way streets in the downtown core, you have have traveled a twisting and turning route only to find out you were just around the corner from your final destination.

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