San Jose

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San Jose (or Chepe as it´s called by Costa Ricans) is the capital of Costa Rica. It´s inhabited by around 900.000 inhabitants. Thanks to its unusual architecture and the landscapes it´s called the most beautiful capital in Central America. It´s situated in Meseta Central at the level of 1.140 metres. It´s main administrative and cultural centre of the country.

History

It was set up on 21th of May 1737 as Villa Nueva Boca del Monte. That was the third town in the world that installed public electric lighting and one of the first with the telephones.

Streets

San Jose is laid out on a grid: avenidas (avenues) run east and west; calles (streets), north and south. Avenidas north of the Avenida Central have odd numbers, and those to the south have even ones. On the western end of the city, Avenida Central becomes Paseo Colón; on the eastern end, it's an equally busy, though nameless, four-lane boulevard. Calles to the east of Calle Central have odd numbers; those to the west are even.

Adresses

Costa Ricans do not use street addresses. Instead, Ticos use an archaic system ofdirections that makes perfect sense to them, but tends to confuse foreigners. A typical Tico address could be 200 m north and 50 m east of the Correos (Post Office). The key to interpreting such directions is to keep track of east and west, and remember that a city block is 100 m (330 ft) long.