Taxi System in Costa Rica

For this post, I thought I would share some of our daily life. One of the most important things to learn is the taxi system. This picture shows a taxi here in Costa Rica. This is the normal color of a taxi, and it is very important that the taxi has the yellow triangle you see on the side of this one. That triangle means it is a "legal" taxi.

The most interesting part of the taxi ride is explaining where to go. THERE ARE NO ADDRESSES IN SAN JOSE. If there are no addresses, how do we get where we are going? Let me give you an example. Let's say that I need to get to the kid's school for soccer practice. The first thing I do is call the taxi company and attempt to speak Spanish. I need to tell them my telephone number in espanol, "dos-veinticuatro-veintiseis-sesenta y uno." Then, after the taxi driver arrives, I need to go through the normal greetings, "Hola! Buenos dias! (tardes, noches), Como esta usted?" Then comes the fun part! I need to know what part of town the school is in and the name of where you are going. If the taxista (taxi driver) does not know where you are going, then you need to know some landmark or building that the taxista would know. It is quite interesting sometimes. Here is what I usually say to get to the kid's school, "?Podria llevarme a San Francisco de Dos Rios?" Then, the taxista usually asks where I need to go exactly. So, I would say, "al instituto de lenguas espanol." Most of the taxistas know where it is from there.

Sometimes, there are taxistas that either do not understand me or do not know where I need to go. Improvising and knowing how to say straight, right, or left are very important to everyday life here. I enjoy, sometimes, riding in a taxi because it allows me an opportunity to think on my feet and to try to communicate in Spanish. A lot of taxista's do not speak clearly, and they use a lot of slang and shortened words. So, it really helps to hear different people speak Spanish.

I hope you understand just a part of our daily lives here in Costa Rica. If you have any questions of comments, please click on the comments link at the end of this post. You can also go to our website at: www.mattixfamilynews.com. On our website, you can look at some more photos, email us, and keep checking on our process as we continue to learn Spanish in preparation for moving to Paraguay.

Blessings to you all,

Charley