What is an address, really? What does it contain? For most of us, it’s just a number and a street name — a practical and short format that guides mail to a specific destination. But in some places, like Costa Rica, addresses are more like giving directions, in a way to combines memory, poetry, and community. Instead of “123 Main Street”, you might be sending a postcard to an address that looks like “100 meters south of the church, across from the old tree”. Sometimes the landmarks are not even there anymore, but their memory still guides postcards and people home.
María Luisa Santos and Carlo Nasisse made a short film, Direcciones, exploring how Costa Rican addresses weave together all these different elements, keeping alive the traces of landmarks that once existed and the stories of the people who lived around them.
For us, who depend on addresses to connect strangers around the globe, it’s a beautiful reminder that behind every line on an address there’s also history, loss, poetry and love for a place.
PS: If you’re interested in the topic, check out this previous video explaining the Japanese addressing system!
44 comments so far
Very interesting. Thank you!
Unbelievable, considering all the online shopping in the future!!
Wow! So interesting!
Very interesting and inspiring, and maybe a little sad (because the new generations, as said in the film, might switch to GPS coordinates). I still wonder how our international postcards can reach their destiny with those poetic but very subjective descriptions.
This was amazing! Thanks so much for sharing this with us! I think this video should be shown during our postal workers training 😊
Thanks for sharing!
Fascinating!
This is so interesting, thanks for sharing,
Costa Rica is very unique.
Wow, so interesting, didn't know!
#Kudos to María Luisa Santos and Carlo Nasisse for making the short film: #Direcciones
#landmarks
... as in the song "Where the Streets Have No Name"
This was so interesting to learn
Wow 😲 that's so cool to know. Now I can't wait to get a Costa Rican address.
This video bought back a flood of memories. I grew up in a small area of Australia that didn't have addresses. We had to give directions to where we lived, when people came to visit. I remember saying, if you get to the tennis court you've gone too far and will need to turn around .......Costa Rica is sooo much bigger, imagine the memories stored in the post offices. Thanks for sharing.
It's fun to think how addresses can be directions even today.
I have an antique concertina postcard that was sent to my grandmother in San Francisco. Not a small town even then, but her address was just her name, "Cor. Clay & Cherry Sts. San Francisco, Cal. USA" It was sent from the Panama Canal Zone and got to her!
This video reminds me of a card I sent years ago either via Postcrossing or a Facebook swap groep to someone in India.
The address had funny additions to the village name. Instead of a street name there was something like "yellow house, behind gas station". It took a while but the card arrived. I guess it really depends on how good the postman/postwoman knows the area.
I watched the Japanese video aswel! very interesting. I'm happy with my "normal" standard address....Yeah...!
This documentary about addresses connecting with history and monuments is amazing! I will share it with friends and colleagues.
Very lovely film.
Something funny: the address to receive mail is the same when someone needs a taxi.
We decided to have a PO Box and the post officers dont have to go to our home some days per week.
This September the postage here increased sooooooo much, i wonder if someone will send many id cards ?????
I love this! Thanks for posting the video. I'm going to use it in my middle school Spanish classes this month when we do numbers / addresses!
So beautiful, thank you!
Thanks for explaining Costa -Rica's address system. It was very interesting & a beautiful tradition.
The part about the fig tree got me choked up.
What a beautiful system.
And the Japanese way is also wonderful — you get to know the history of the block.
I love these dearly. Thank you for sharing!
How amazing to see this! Shows how much there is to learn about amazing aspects of daily life :). Thanks for sharing!
I grew up in a small Swiss village. We always had proper addresses, but when I was a child, the letters also arrived with descriptive address like: "the first house on the left after Farmer Millers hogsty."
I think, nowadays these kind of letters would not arrive, because the letters are sorted centrally, not in the village anymore.
My father and my aunts use names for houses that have a different purpose for over 35 years, but everyone still uses the old name.
Very interesting and inspiring. Thank you for bringing this up!
Excelente documental.
Yo soy costarricense y estas son tres direcciones de mi casa:
Ricardo Martin Sanabria
50 metros oeste de Restaurante Roosters, (4 casa a mano derecha). La Trinidad, Alajuela, Costa Rica.
Ricardo Martin Sanabria
100 metros oeste, 200 sur y 50 oeste de la antigua Plaza Garibaldi, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Ricardo Martin Sanabria
100 metros oeste, 200 sur y 50 oeste de Mutual Alajuela, La Trinidad, Alajuela, Costa Rica.
This is a great film!
Prior to the 1990s my grandparents' California address was just "on Glenburn Star Route" with the name of the nearest random town (in which we never lived), indicating the Star Newspaper delivery route across a huge area of rural land. There was zero reference to a cross-road, building, or other physical marker. When anyone new moved to the area the mail could not reach them because their family name was unknown. Tying an address to a person instead of a location had been an unfriendly way to bar "outsiders", so we were glad to receive an address and thereby open up the mail route to everyone.
Love to learn that. In Brazil in past addresses were a mix among those data as well and slowly turned into official references only. Poetry and people's value are so touching and we just ignore how closer to daily life those could be.
Thanks for sharing this beautiful film that shows the world I've never thougt before.
The message, 'Living with the past.' hit my heart.
Very interesting, thank you for sharing. ❤️
Very interesting.
This reminds me of how some addresses in remote Malaysia use similar system. Usually it's the electric poles as reference😃
I used to live in a country without formal addresses, too. Installing the internet line, etc. was…. interesting. Haha-
Thank you for sharing. It is very interesting ways to navigate.
When I first time went to the pharmacy in my parents-in-law's town, I've been giving the direction - ''At the end of street, near the green shop, you need to turn left''. But there wasn't green or any colored shop, really! Of course, I've asked the way and found the pharmacy, but later I've complained to my mother-in-law. "Oh, honey, I forget, that you aren't from this place. In reality, many years ago, from the beginning of the history of that street, there was a shop, colored in green. Last 5 years it was recolored in white, but we still name it 'green shop'. Now it is not a shop already, but hairdresser".
Not a small town in Belarus...
Was thinking of taking a trip to costa rica this was perfectly time!
It is so fascinating how it works!
It was fun to find our rented house - the address was just "casa mariposa" (butterfly house) 😁 try to put this to Google Maps and you realise how useless it is there 😁
I love this idea. Houses in our neighborhood had names of animals and flowers and sometimes there were beautiful and colourful paintings on the wall which visualised the name. It's amazing 😍
Belinda from Reykjavik, no ID-number.
Hemmo Juutilainen
Wow, this is fascinating. This system trains your brain and connects the people in a neighborhood.
Fifty years ago I also could send a postcard to my aunt in the Netherlands adressed like this: Mrs Ruster, above the hat shop.
Interesting!
brilliant film.....it is reminding me of "The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power" by Dierdre Mask. If any of you have not read this, I highly recommend it!
Just learned - Mail between USA and Costa Rica is halted. I hope it is temporary and opens quickly.
What a beautiful story.
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