Searching for an address in and around San Jose and its suburbs can be an exercise in frustration; few buildings have street numbers and no one pays attention to them when they do. Even worse, many streets have no names, or at least no street names posted on the corners. Suppose you are looking for the Garcia residence, whose address is listed as: "From Caballo Blan?co 250 mts. West, 300 South." In order to understand where this house is located, you need to know the location of a store called Caballo Blanco, then go two-and-a-half blocks (250 meters) to the west and then three blocks south (300 meters). At that point you need to ask someone which house belongs to the Garcia family.

This confusion isn't restricted to residences; businesses use the same system. On maps, advertisements and business cards, the word calle is often abbreviated as "c," avenidaas "a" and central as "ctl." The distance from a point is given in meters (abbreviated with an "m"), although sometimes people give it in varas instead of meters, both meaning a long pace or step about a yard long. A vara is technically a bit shorter than a meter, being just under our yard.
The address of the Hotel Presidents would be "c ctl, av 7-9," which translates "on Calle Central between Avenidas 7 and 9." The address of the bus terminal for Alajuela is "a 2, c 12-14," meaning "facing Avenida 2, between Calles 12 and 14." Directions and addresses can be vague to the point of impossible. This is particularly true away from the orderly grid of north-south, east-west streets. An address might be described as, "From the gasoline station, go 100 meters north and 75 varas to the east." Which gasoline station? My favorite address is on a real estate agent's business card. It says, "50 away?.?

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