When we first arrived in San Jose, I was very surprised by what I saw; San Jose is not your typical city. While it still has lots of traffic in the streets (just like Pittsburgh!), the buildings are a bit more spread out and colorful. One major shock to me was the number of parks that we saw. While we have some parks in Pittsburgh, such as Schenley Park and Schenley Plaza, they are not nearly as beautiful as the ones we saw in San Jose. Many of the parks in San Jose had historic statues, mosaics, and/or diverse plant life. I was also very surprised to hear that Andrew Carnegie had donated so much money to build a courthouse in Costa Rica – I never knew he made international donations! And, even after the original structure was destroyed in an earthquake, he donated more money to have one built in San Jose. While the new building, known as “Casa Amarilla,” is actually used for international relations, it is still an important historic landmark, like many of Carnegie’s buildings in the U.S.

One of the major influences of the coffee and banana trade on San Jose is the railroad that runs through the city. It was originally built for an easier way to transport coffee and bananas, since the oxcarts took days to do so. Although today it is solely used for public transportation, it is still an important cultural and historical aspect of the city. Additionally, to build the railroads, they hired workers from Jamaica because they were able to handle the hot climate of Costa Rica, unlike workers from other countries. Hiring these foreign workers introduced a new, unique culture to Costa Rica.

Another aspect of San Jose is the use of relative addressing rather than specific house numbers. While it may work fine for the locals, I think this is inhibiting some of the country’s progress and financial success. With tourism as such an important industry in Costa Rica, many tourists may have trouble finding the places they want to visit without specific addresses and will thus spend less money and be less satisfied with their experience as a whole.