Navigating a City Without Street Addresses | Direcciones | The New Yorker Documentary

In Costa Rica, a centralized system for street addresses does not exist, so people use landmarks as reference points in giving out directions. A short documentary by María Luisa Santos and Carlo Nasisse attempts to figure out why.


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[rstephens]

This is one of the most beautiful short films I’ve seen in years. Hauntingly exquisite.

[anagg]

Ya nos acostumbramos a dar y entender nuestras direcciones a través de puntos de referencia, amo mi país con todo y sus direcciones extrañas ❤️❤️❤️

[susanafernandez]

I was born in Costa Rica in 1979 and internet started at the end of the 90’s. So during 20 yrs (when I was a kid and teenager), the most common thing to do if you were lost was to stop the car and ask whoever was walking down the street for directions or to tell you where is the reference point you were looking for .

Everybody did that, because we had no regular maps and no internet so that was the only one way to find your destination . Just ask the people in the street .

My dad had a common expression “preguntando se llega a Roma”, which means “by asking you get to Rome” .

[especubillos]

uno de los short films más hermosos que he visto en mi vida, estoy emocionada hasta las lágrimas, de verdad que precioso, que mágico.

[sammajor]

A beautiful city, in a beautiful country, populated by beautiful people.
Pura Vida!

[emiliazamora]

Me encantó.. Ojalá no perdamos esa manera de hacerlo, es muy bonito y nos lleva a contar de esos lugares que ya no existen, pero continúan en nuestra memoria.

[rrrrobyyyy]

Wow, que interesante. Yo soy panameno, y yo se que muchas ciudades de Panama tienen nombres de calle, pero muchos puebles del interior no. La ultima vez que fui a Panama a la provincia de mi abuela, como adulto me percate de las direcciones que me daban, "despues del arbol ese, tomo a la derecha y cuando veas a las sen~oras Luiz vendiendo boletos de loteria, ya estas alla". Yo quede impresionado de como ese pueblo funcionaba de esa manera. Y las cantidades de perdidas que me di fueron frustrantes y chistosas.

[alcastro]

Es increíble, hermoso y único como damos las direcciones en Costa Rica 🇨🇷!

[vanesaayala]

Muy buen documental, muy emotivo. ¡Gracias!

[thesoundoffreedom]

Muy cute este documental, demasiado lindo trabajo de ambos!

[fernandamoralescabalceta]

En español no tenemos una palabra específica para expresar esa nostalgia por algo que se perdió o ya no existe, porque nuestra historia se rige por la nostalgia y la memoria, no olvidamos, llevamos con nosotros todo.

[gabrielartecr]

Por algo el monumento de León Cortés se asemeja mucho a un obelisco

[johnfranco-arboine]

Yo tengo un sistema bien practico y logico que si funciona para enumerar calles, avenidas, autopistas, carreteras, rutas, callejones, trillos, costas, cauces, sendas, etc.

[CUMBICA]

LOL That's pretty much Japan. Just blocks and sections numbered. When I arrived here pre GPS in the mid 1990s it was just unbelievable how a taxi couldn't find the address I indicated so he would drop me around the block. And I would go asking people do you know this address? Well eventually you get used to. No wonder Japan was the first country in the world to commercialize navigation systems for cars.

[athensattila]

One is welcome to frame this as poetic and think it's charming, but this is truly a failure of basic infrastructure and hopelessly outdated. I'm traveling in Costa Rica now and I can tell you the lack of addresses is ridiculous.

[jcrm]

Andrés es fenomenal y las historias que tenemos todos los ticos también, pero esto en realidad es una completa vergüenza.

[carlossoto]

Que estamos haciendo aquí? Haciendo de lo anormal normal? Ay mae!

[andrewc]

One could say it's charming and sentimental, but the reality is that it costs lives and money. Ambulances and police don't know where to go in an emergency. Hundreds of millions of dollars lost to people wandering around not being able to find places, not to mention all the pollution that produces.

[elcanorte]

Darle romance a algo ilogico es ineficiente y anti-futuro. Romanticizing illogical behavior is inefficient and has no future. IMO

[carolinaaraya]

Muy fresa si la muchacha. Dice que las direcciones le dan ansiedad. Por favor. Tantas generaciones sobreviviendo a ello