Addresses

This weekend, I registered myself online with the US Embassies in Costa Rica and Panama, a process that involves telling them the addresses of the places I will be staying while in the country.  So prompted, I began gathering the addresses of where I'd be.

Addresses in Costa Rica are not as, let's say, numeric as those in the U.S.  For example, the address of the school I'm attending in Flamingo Beach is:

Centro Panamericano de Idiomas - CPI Flamingo
Al frente de la marina en Flamingo
Flamingo, Guanacaste

Translation: "In front of the marina at Flamingo Beach." 

And the address of the campus in Monteverde is:

Centro Panamericano de Idiomas – CPI Monteverde
25 metros antes de llegar a la bomba
Monteverde, Puntarenas

Translation:  "25 meters before arriving at the gas station."  Hmm, does it depend on which direction you are coming from?!  And what street are we talking about?  I guess there's only one gas station.

When I am in Guanacaste, I am hoping to go visit the family my friend Laura lived with when she lived in Costa Rica; they live in a nearby town.  Said town, Laura tells me, has only one street.  Thus, the family's address is simply their name, and the town.  "Anyone in the town will be able to tell you where their house is," Laura says.  How great!

Perhaps my favorite address is the one of the WIDECAST (turtle conservation organization) office in San Jose:
Tibas, 200 metros norte y 25 metros oeste de la Municipalidad de Tibas, casa a mana izqierda, con rotulos de tortugas

Translation: "200 meters north and 25 meters west of the municipality of Tibas, on the left side, with signs of turtles" :)

I now understand why the word for 'address' in Spanish is "dirección"!