50 meters west of the Burger King that used to be a church, San Jose, Costa Rica

In Costa Rica, there are very few street signs and addresses are relative to a land mark that may or may not be familiar. For example, an address usually sounds something like "300 meters east of the gym. Brown house in front of the old building". Unfortunately, this system makes it somewhat difficult to locate things.

I can't necessarily speak for the Ticos, but as a foreigner, this makes finding your way around really difficult. It's not easy to meet up at a fellow student's house when the address is based off of land marks that you can't locate. And even if you are able to locate it on your phone and use your GPS, it's not of much use once you get out of range of wifi (since most visiting gringos opt out of expensive data plans). I'd imagine that Ticos that have lived in the area for a while don't have much of a problem with the system. However, if they're new to the area, it may take some time to figure it out.

There are some street signs, and since the streets are laid out in a grid, the system isn't too complicated. However, it doesn't seem to matter. I've yet to hear a Tico give directions or refer to a location with any mention of an actual street name. In my opinion, the Tico-style directions seem to fit in with the positive stereotype of being friendly and talking to people; it certainly provides a reason to connect with and talk to each other. Also, this seems to fit in with the idea of "pura vida", since the same, not-entirely-functional, relaxed system has been in place for many years.

As far as businesses are concerned, I think that they experience similar problems caused by this system. Shipments may be lost or late because the delivery person couldn't find the right address to drop them off. This would result in lost revenue for the business, which is obviously not ideal. I think that this problem may also be growing in scale, seeing that Costa Rica's economy is growing. I can't imagine that the post offices and delivery people (among others) would be able to keep up with the growing number of Tico-style addresses.