directions?

San Jose, the capital and largest city of Costa Rica, home to a third of the country's population, lacks addresses. As in, most parts of the city lack street names. And where there are street names, no one knows them. Which means there are not street numbers. Instead, directions are given like this:

It's 225 meters south of the Mexican Cultural Center and 75 meters east, in the Los Yoses neighborhood. That's the address of my office.

The official MAILING address for my apartment is:

In Spanish:

del Banco Nacional del San Pedro

500 metros al sur, y 100 metros al oeste

Edificio amarillo con dos plantas, apartamento numero 8

San Pedro Montes de Oca, Barrio Roosevelt

San Jose, Costa Rica

In English:

From the National Bank in San Pedro

500 meters south and 100 meters west

Yellow two-story building, apartment 8

In the San Pedro Montes de Oca part of town, Roosevelt neighborhood

San Jose, Costa Rica

as someone who is interested in finding places, this is frustrating. while searching for an apartment I stopped in a restaurant for lunch. not sure where I was, I asked the server what street we were on. She didn't know the name of the street she worked on. very helpful.

but as annoying as san jose is (and there's more), you're never more than a few hours from monkeys.