Friday, November 9, 2007

Signs of the Times

On the same page of my newspaper which devotes less than half a column to the protests and killing in Venezuela is a complete half-page above the fold article on...Costa Rican house numbers. To those of us that have been to Costa Rica, this is not as frivolous as it seems.

Bad enough you have to address letters, "the blue house 200 meters from the former home of the President," which house is no longer extant, by the way. As one mailman characterizes it,
"You've got to be a mind reader...a historian and a detective to do this job." When you actually go there, forget renting a car. On foot, my husband and my daughter were lost for hours one Christmas eve in the environs of the capital, this after his boast to our hosts that he had been all around the world and never gotten lost. Famous last words.

It's no surprise then that the government has decided to number houses, name streets, etc...
Still, it will be a bittersweet thing for the Ticos who will get their mail but lose some of their quirkiness. The original article is from the LA Times. Read it here.

No comments: