My room in San José

Some of you might have wondered why I stopped reporting about new countries I am visiting or why my location status on the website never changes. The reason is that after visiting Colombia in October I decided to settle in Costa Rica for the time being. There were different reasons for my change in plans, one of them being my financial situation that still leaves a lot to be desired. I simply have no money to finish my trip at the moment and hope that taking a break and focusing on my work will fix that. Costa Rica is the safest countries in the region and has the highest standard of living. The central valley in which the capital San José is located has a great moderate climate with 20-something degrees Celsius all year round.

My bed

I found a room to rent in a shared flat in a nice and safe area of town, called La Sabana (‘The Bush’). The former president of Costa Rica lives just around the corner. In the streets of this neighborhood there are tiny huts about every 100 meters, occupied by a ‘security guy’ 24h. Those security guys don’t look particularly scary but some have dogs that do. Yes, I am scared of dogs and do not like them at all (except little Igby). Down the road is the National Stadium of Costa Rica. They do seem to use it more for concerts than sport though. The nearby convenient stores (Freshmarket, AmPm) are way expensive.

Kitchen & living room

Nobody at the hairdresser that I found close-by speaks English but I have always been very happy with the haircuts. Figuring out the (very cheap) bus system is rather difficult.
Also rather interesting is the address system in Costa Rica. There are no ZIP codes, the ticos mostly don’t use street names and the houses are not numbered. Instead, they use reference points (some sort of landmark that everyone knows, like a well-known building or even a tree) and then explain how to get to the destination. As an example, this is my address:

“100 meters” is just a rough estimate and usually translates to the American “one block”. Buildings sometimes have names, such as mine. Other times it’s just ‘the big yellow building with the white gate’.

The National Stadium

My room here is not exactly cheap (neither is Costa Rica in general). In fact I pay slightly more than for my room in Heidelberg. But I got my own bathroom with actual hot water (for your information: the general definition of ‘hot water’ in Central America is ‘~3°C warmer than cold water’). My roommate is tico, about my age and also a travel addict. He also has interesting hobbies and business ideas.

The nameless street I live in

The big question is: How long am I going to live here. I do not know. I am just starting to make some friends here and make myself feel fully at home. I don’t have the money to finish my journey right now. But there are other places in Latin America that might be nice to live, too (Bogota? Buenos Aires?). My first priority is to improve my financial situation. After that, we’ll see…