San Jose was a really interesting city to get to walk around today.  Unlike past cities I have visited such as Venice or Rome, San Jose did not feel like it was serving the needs of tourists too much.  Of course, there were things that were geared towards tourists, but it was very much the local’s city.  San Jose arose from the coffee and banana business that dominate the economy of Costa Rica.  Although this might have been what created the need for the economic hub, the city now is home to every kind of business imaginable.  I though this was similar to how Pittsburgh grew from the prosperous steel industry.  Now however, some of the things Pittsburgh is best known for is education and medicine.  

San Jose not really abiding by the modern standard of using house addresses did not pose a problem for me and our group was able to easily navigate to where we needed to go.  We had some help from Google Maps of course.  Speaking only from the perspective of a tourist it is hard to say if this has an impact on the efficiency of their mail or delivery system.  The government of Costa Rica seems very aware of the problems their nation faces.  We learned about how they prioritized the safeguarding of their rainforest and I am sure that they would take action if the addresses were a problem. 

It could also be the case that we only see this as problematic because we were raised in a country where exact street addresses are the norm. To a Tico I do not think they would view this difference as problematic and might even view the way we give addresses as strange. One thing that was clear from our tour was how proud Costa Ricans are of their city. Although they recognize the imperfections and problems, such as the rising burden to support the poor that is being put on the middle class, they are proud to call San Jose their capital city.

John Boyle