Today, we went on a walking tour of San José! Among other sights, we saw the Central Park, the National Museum of Costa Rica, and the National Theater. Throughout our tour, I noticed a few sights reflecting the influence of Costa Rica’s successful coffee and banana industries. The most obvious was a sign marking the location of Costa Rica’s first coffee plantation, as shown in the image to the right. Similarly, the Museo Nacional de Costa Rica had a section designated to telling the history of Costa Rica’s agriculture with coffee and bananas. The agriculture industry also funded many of the capital’s buildings, as exemplified by the Teatro Nacional. As one of the oldest and most recognizable buildings in San José, the Teatro Nacional was built with the money from banana and coffee exports. This support is acknowledged in the theater’s ceiling murals, which display imagery of coffee bushes and bananas with Costa Rican communities (shown below).

San José felt completely different from Pittsburgh. Although both are city environments, San José is more incorporated with nature and is much more open to tourists. Many of the shops we passed primarily sold souvenirs of Costa Rica, which would be of very little value for most Costa Rican citizens. Despite these differences, San José and Pittsburgh have an unlikely bond: Andrew Carnegie. As an industrialist in the 19th century, Carnegie played a large role in funding schools and institutions in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (This is seen in Carnegie Mellon University and the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh). In San José, Carnegie’s funding contributed to the development of the International Court of Justice for Central America and its resident building, the Casa Amarilla (shown on the right).

Another interesting element of San José is its lack of street addresses. Street names are relatively new in Costa Rica, and most addresses are expressed in terms of nearby monuments. While very different from what I’m used to, I think this system works for San José. Costa Rica’s most profitable industry is in tourism, so many of its areas are considered in terms of distance from nearby monuments and tourist attractions. However, this system likely does not work as well for non-commercial functions. While stores are likely to have signs or posters identifying their exact location, families are unlikely to have such markers. As a result, visitors and delivery systems are more likely to struggle identifying homes. This contrast has contributed to the Ticos’ reliance on markets and shopping malls, as online shopping and delivery is less popular.