Addresses in Costa Rica surprise pretty much every newcomer into the country. In this article we look at why churches, soccer fields, and old businesses still matter.
There’s an old adage that used to do the rounds in this part of the world about the old U2 song “Where the Streets Have No Name”. The story went that Bono wrote it after visiting Managua, Nicaragua, and seeing that, well, the streets had no names. Now, while that’s a nice story and all, it’s also untrue. “Where the Streets Have No Name” is actually about Belfast in Northern Ireland. Bono did visit Nicaragua and El Salvador in the mid-1980s and wrote “Bullet the Blue Sky” based on that, but we’re seriously digressing.
Oh, and anyway, the streets of Managua actually do have names. It’s just that nobody ever uses them. It’s the same thing in Costa Rica, which is a long-winded way of getting to the point of this article.
One of the first things foreigners notice after arriving in Costa Rica is that directions sound more like clues in a treasure hunt than a conventional address. Rather than street names and house numbers, people will tell you to turn left at the church, continue past the old mango tree, or look for the blue house next to a business that closed years ago. And that’s what we’re going to talk about today.
Why Addresses in Costa Rica Developed This Way
It’s probably down to smaller populations in Costa Rica that it went this way. For much of the country’s history, there was no need for the structured addressing systems found in North America and Europe that you might be used to.
Towns and villages were built around a central church facing west and a plaza (sometimes doubling as a soccer field). A common trope still bandied around today is that if a town or village doesn’t have a church, a soccer field, and a bar, then it’s not worth its name. But back in the day, communities were smaller, people knew one another, and directions were given relative to places everyone recognized (generally the aforementioned church, bar, or soccer field). No street names or house numbers, just distances from local landmarks.
This doesn’t mean Costa Rica doesn’t have addresses. Just like in Managua, streets DO have names, at least in cities and larger towns. Neighborhoods have official designations and postal/zip codes even exist. It’s just that in real, everyday life, nobody uses them. It’s super common for people to not know the official address of their home or place of work. They can tell you how to get to either place with directions, but not know the address. Call it a quirk that most people know where the church, school, soccer field, or supermarket is but don’t know the name of the road running past them.
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How Modern Costa Rica Makes It Work
For all the quirkiness about Costa Rican addresses, finding places is a lot easier today than it was fifteen or twenty years ago. Smartphones, GPS technology, and navigation apps have transformed how people get around the country.
These days, pretty much everyone just sends a Waze pin or a location through WhatsApp instead of spending ten minutes telling someone how to get somewhere. Google Maps is also useful. Businesses often include map links alongside traditional directions, giving people the best of both worlds. And yet technology hasn’t totally replaced Costa Rica’s landmark-based system. It’s perfectly normal for someone to send you a WhatsApp location alongside a message telling you to head 300 meters west of the supermarket until you see a green house with a black gate underneath a mango tree on the left (don’t know what a mango tree looks like? Figure it out!).
This blend of old and new works well in business, where entrepreneurs in small towns all over the country have launched delivery services with nothing more than a motorbike, a big cube-like bag to wear on their back, and WhatsApp. Larger towns and popular tourist centers have Uber Eats and DiDi, but smaller, more out-of-the-way communities often do it themselves, with local businesses using location pins and local knowledge to get orders where they need to go. As their operations grow, many also use route planning software to help organize deliveries and manage multiple stops more efficiently.
The Costa Rican Art of Giving Directions
Back in the regular world, away from small entrepreneurs, what really catches foreigners off guard isn’t that Costa Ricans use landmarks instead of addresses. It’s more often the landmarks they use. Because, over time, directions end up taking on a life of their own. A business might close or a tree might be cut down, yet the landmark remains part of the local vocabulary for years.
A modern example is a strip mall everyone calls Plaza Rolex in San Rafael de Escazú, west of San José. Ask anyone where Plaza Rolex is and they’ll tell you. It’s what people tell taxi drivers when heading to that part of town. The funny thing is that the strip mall isn’t actually called Plaza Rolex. It’s called Plaza Rose. The name comes from the fact that Costa Rica’s only official Rolex dealer used to be located there years ago. The Rolex store is long gone, but everyone still calls the place Plaza Rolex. In fact, type “Plaza Rolex” into Google Maps and it will take you straight there to what’s actually called Plaza Rose. Go figure.
Outside of shopping plazas in affluent Escazú selling luxury goods, churches are perhaps the most common reference point for directions, but anything will do. It’s not unusual for a single well-known tree or building to serve as the main point of reference for an entire neighborhood.
The system works well once you become familiar with it. A Costa Rican may tell you to head 200 meters south, turn left, continue another 100 meters, and look for the blue gate. And after a while, you’ll find yourself doing exactly the same thing. The official address remains a mystery, but everyone knows where the old bakery used to be.
Will Costa Rica Ever Abandon Landmark-Based Directions?
Probably not. While modern tech makes navigation easier than ever, it hasn’t replaced Costa Rica’s traditional way of giving directions and the the two systems really do work side by side.
For foreigners, the system seems confusing at first, but after a few months, many find themselves doing exactly the same thing as naturally as any true Tico. The official address may exist somewhere on paper, but in Costa Rica, some habits are simply too practical to disappear.
