When I got off the bus at San Jose, the view of the city was not what I was expecting. Probably due to the fact that everyone talks about San Jose being a large city within Costa Rica, so I thought it would look similar to my home city, Pittsburgh. While there are many differences between the cities, there are also some similarities. 

The first difference I noticed was, of course, the appearance of the city. I was expecting much more modern architecture in San Jose consisting of many sky scrapers, high end restaurants and stores as in Pittsburgh. However, I was pleasantly surprised that San Jose still contains that old time feel. They are able to preserve their history due to the law that after one hundred years the government is in control of preserving the building. There is some modernization in San Jose, but not nearly as much as in Pittsburgh over the past decade. Another difference was the dress of the locals. In Costa Rica, I saw many more people dressed casually compared to Pittsburgh where many are dressed professionally. One similarity I noticed in the cities was I saw many people in San Jose wearing scrubs, which of course I see a lot of in Pittsburgh due to UPMC. Some other similarities is the unfortunate situation of the homeless population, the museums containing their area’s history, large crowds, protests, as well as busses and cars zooming throughout the streets. 

I think a big influence on the coffee and banana trade in San Jose was the railroad. Created in 1909, it allowed businesses within the cities to export and import the products from other areas in the country. It is unfortunate they are no longer able to use the railroad and only use it as public transportation. The public transportation hinders the San Jose’s potential greatly. The city is so large and only having the one train station and inconvenient bus stations make people drive to work instead. This leads to unpleasant road congestion and unnecessary danger. I also think the lack of specific addresses hold them back immensely. As a tourist myself, I was unable to find restaurants and stores I was trying to locate because of the lack of street addresses. This caused these locations to lose my business, which I am sure happens constantly.