Originally Posted by
rex615
This has the potential for a good thread. (Subscribing)
My almost off topic contribution is this: One challenge I find in Latin America is that beyond the language barrier, there is a cultural issue with directions.
IME Americans tend to be the best at giving directions. They tell you "go 5 miles north, then turn right at the church, if you get to the bridge, you went too far.". Most are however skeptical you can ride 5 miles on a bicycle and have very little sense of terrain.
Latins tend to start "do you know where the blue church is?" They also tend to mention a lot of landmarks you will pass on they way, none of which require any action. Then when i pass the big mango tree, i remember something was said about a tree, was I supposed to turn here?
Many addresses in Costa Rica include nearby landmarks. "Next to the green church" or "diagonal from Pulperia Chepe". Some actually use the word "antiguo" which means it is no longer there. "Next to the former School".
I don't think this is necessarily a cultural difference. Certainly in Spain or Argentina, for example, you'll may get directions more like the ones you are accustomed to (but I haven't been far off the beaten track in either country and things do work differently in rural areas). Costa Rica is different but then people tend to navigate by the use of landmarks since street names and numbers tend to be chaotic to non-existent (at least they were when I was there last).
That's not terribly different by the way from navigating in Boston (at least before GPS units became common). Street signage is pretty chaotic, the streets typically do not have uniform names (they often change the name of a street after a block or two), and they are laid out along paths that people created long before the automobile showed up. When I first moved to Boston (pre GPS days,
, I was totally at sea driving a car. Public transportation is better than driving esp. in Boston but sometimes you have to drive. You can't really navigate, as I said, by means of signage. Finally the light bulb went off and I started driving by using landmarks and that got me oriented.
As late as the turn of the century, that's how we gave directions in the US as well (by using landmarks). There's Ken Burns documentary called "Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip" narrated by Tom Hanks. It's about a vermont doctor who was the first person to drive across the US in 1903 along with his dog naturally,
.
Horatio's Drive . About the Film | PBS
It's a lot of fun and a great social history of the US. At the beginning of the film, they talk about how directions were given in the US. It is a lot like you described Costa Rica.