Once again, the rural roots of Costa Rican culture show themselves. Streets do not have names in Costa Rica (or anyway, no one uses them), houses don’t have sequential numbers, and all addresses and directions are given based on landmarks, cardinal directions, and “meters,” wherein 100m equals roughly one block. A typical direction, then, would be 200 metros al sur de la Iglesia de San Pedro, 50m oeste, casa amarilla con rejas color cafe, mano derecha. Literally, it’s a description of where the house is: “Two blocks south of the San Pedro Church, half a block west, yellow house with brown bars on the right side of the street.”

Well-known landmarks used to give directions include fast-food restaurants, churches, high schools, and shopping centers. They also include obscure cultural sites (President Oscar Arias’ house), places with no signs (Cuatro Esquinas, in La Uruca), and things that no long exist (the old fig tree in San Pedro, the “Coca-Cola” bus station near where the bottling plant used to be, etc.). So good luck. If you have the directions written down or you can pronounce them, you can usually just give them to a taxi driver and he (or she!) will take you where you need to go. It helps, however, to have a general idea where you’re going so as not to get ripped off.