Today, we took a train to San Jose and were able to explore the city. As you walked around, you were able to see the influence that bananas and coffee had on the city. The market we walked through had bananas hanging everywhere and we got to see the National Theater which was financed by a coffee tax. This was a tax where coffee barons paid the government 20% of a colon for every 100 pounds of coffee exported. As we walked through the National Theater the artwork also had murals of coffee and bananas showing the impact coffee and bananas had in the development of Costa Rica as a country.

Compared to Pittsburgh, San Jose is a completely different city, other than the amount of traffic and people I felt the cities did not have many similarities. The architecture and layout of the city reminded me more of Florence or Rome, since the streets were in a grid-like system and were very narrow. Similar to Florence or Rome, this city had street vendors everywhere and many streets that were designated for walking only. I also feel it was similar to Heredia in the sense that, it had many different parks and green spaces. The city as a whole did not have very many tall buildings and a lot of other bigger buildings were for the government. The main influence I saw that would have related it to Pittsburgh was a building called Case Amarilla. Andrew Carnegie helped donate money to build this and originally it was used as the headquarters for the Central American Court of Justice. As it was being built an earthquake destroyed it and Andrew Carnegie donated once again with the stipulation that, the building was built in a different location with an American architect.

Since Costa Rica’s origins are as an agricultural country there are no street addresses. Therefore many Ticos rely on landmarks and distances to help them find their desired location. This makes addresses very long and can cause difficulty when delivering mail and if you are trying to find someone’s house. Maps also do not work in certain places and are not able to give you directions to a location. Overall I think this system could be improved by assigning places a basic number address that would at least allow tourists and mailmen to find their desired location easier. But until there is a push from Ticos to do this, the current system will stay the same.