Costa Rican Addresses

Its amazing what you can learn from everyday information. Take addresses for instance. Here´s the address where I live in Costa Rica:

Bar los ranchitos, 25 metros al norte, casa blanca, verjas verdes canoa azul

That translates to:Go 25 meters north of Los Ranchitos bar and look for the white house with green and blue trim.

Here´s the address for the language institute where I study:

100 metros este y 100 metros norte de la escuela Cacicue Nicoa, Barrio El Carmen.

Which translates to:In El Carmen Neighborhood, find the Cacicue Nicoa school, from there go 100 meters East and then 100 meters North.

I was looking for a phone yesterday, a friend told me, "Go 50 meters that way and and then 20 meters that way and you´ll find a phone." So I followed their directions and found nothing. I asked a guy walking by where the phone was and he said, "Oh, they just removed it. Look, just go 100 meters North and 100 meters West and there´s another phone there." I told him thanks and headed off. No phone anywhere near there. Then it started raining, so I decided to hold off making any calls for a while.

In my job back here in Gringolandia, I spend all day looking for accurate addresses so I can correctly dispatch mechanics and wreckers to help my customers. I actually get a little impatient if someone is vague with me. It´s such a different mindset. Most places in the U.S. have an exact address with a nine digit zip code that I can look up on Microsoft Map-Point. I can go to google earth and get a aerial photo and also find the closest Taco Bell to that address by using Super Pages.

So who´s right? It´s obvious that Ticos aren´t into incredibly exact addresses. There aren´t even street signs at the corners. No numbers on the houses. It´s all so sloppy to my uptight North American mind.

Of course, everybody here knows where everything is. They know everybody. They don´t have any problems getting around. I think the real difference is that exact addresses are just part of a North American mindset that makes being anonymous so much easier. You don´t have to be a local to find something in North America, you can look it up on the computer. You don´t have to ask for directions, or get to know people or even get involved.

It might be easier to find things in the U.S., but at what price? I think I kind of prefer the friendly, unstressed, vagueness.

Pura Vida...

Juanito

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