This was a day of big accomplishments. First we found the post office. Then we actually rented a PO Box. If you think that's no big deal come on down to Costa Rica for a while and you might leave with a deeper appreciation for how complicated a simpler life can be.
The whole idea of doing so started two weeks ago when we asked a friend if Palmares has a post office (correos). He responded in the affirmative but said he would have to show us where it is because it's hard to find.
You may be asking just how hard can finding the post office be? But, when you consider that in more than one month we've never seen one single street sign -- anywhere in Palmares -- you realize that trying to explain the exact location of anything could get a little hairy. To make matters even more complicated, not only are there no street signs, there are no street numbers -- anywhere!
Instead, addresses are given in relationship to landmarks. For example, a store might have an address that reads: 50 meters south and 25 meters east of central park. Believe it or not, that is useful information to someone who knows the lay of the land. And even newcomers like us can figure some of these things out, but there's a catch. Always there's a catch, right? Sometimes the landmark doesn't exist anymore! It could be a school that was torn down ten years ago, but why change the address? Everybody knows where it is.
So we set out today on a mission to find the Post Office and save our friend the bother of having to show us where it is located, knowing that the address of Central between Calle 6 and Calle 8 that we had found on the Internet wasn't going to help us one bit!
We hiked to town and started asking around. That was our first mistake. If you ask a question in Spanish you'll get an answer in Spanish! So we listen for bits and pieces of words we might recognize and watch the body language. Usually the hand motions will give us a clue that will get us going in the right direction. In this case, we caught "banco" and the hand signal that told us we should turn right. That would put us in front of the Banco de Costa Rica. Good! We were off.
When we reach BCR, there were two people standing in front awaiting their turn at the ATM machine. I approached with my best espanol:
"Pardon. Donde esta la officina de correos?" They chatted between themselves for a few sentences then the man responded in perfect English.
"Palmares doesn't have a post office."
"They don't?" I asked.
"No. We've lived here all our lives and we've never seen a post office. The only post office is in San Jose."
Of course, we knew differently, since our friend had told us there was, indeed, a post office in Palmares. But we also had seen one in Alajuela. So we thanked them politely and continued on.
A block further down the road, we asked a taxi driver, who declared his inability to speak English. He pointed in the direction we were walking and managed two important words in English, "Two blocks."
Onward.
Two blocks later, we found a little blue building with a sign that read, "Correos. Post Office." Eureka.Once inside, we were greeted by a postal employee who also claimed to speak no English, but managed to convey to us that, yes, there were post office boxes available, but that we would need a copy of mi esposa's passport to rent one.
Off to the libreria. (Remember the book store is really an office supply store and usually also provides copy and fax service, as well.)
Back with the copies, I completed the application with a little tutoring from the postal worker and mi esposa paid 9,550 colones (almost $20), at which point we were told that we could come back tomorrow to pick up the key. Why tomorrow and not today? We didn't ask her, so don't ask me. The answer would have been in espanol anyway. Suffice it to say that this is the way things work in Costa Rica.
The important thing is that we now have a real "American style" address, not just 75 meters west of..., which of course, is the address the mail carrier, taxi driver, electric company, etc., will use to do business with us.
Like I said, a simple life can be awfully complicated.
Pura Vida
Post script:
If you're still wondering why the two locals claimed no knowledge of the little blue officina de correos, the answer is really quite basic. Most people live their entire lives here without ever needing to use the services of the local post office. Consequently they have no idea it even exists.
