www.CostaRicaTicas.com

are the power outlets in CR the same as the US? If not, what conversion is required? I read somewhere that they are the same....but when I visited 5yr ago remember differently.

Yes 110v same as home.rbc100

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In Search of Fine Kittens,
Please... Bring back the Muff

Just went back and saw was your first post.Welcome to the site.lots of answers here as well as all over the board but quite a lot to read.check out the search feature as well.It could help you on specifics.rbc100

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In Search of Fine Kittens,
Please... Bring back the Muff

Thanks for the info. I have been on here in the past and read about the Sportsmans Lodge, among other hotels. The sportsmans is booked up the only night I will be in SJ. I have heard alot about the Del Ray. Is this a safe bet for 1 night stay? or do you have a better suggestion?

I assume it is your first time in San Jose let me know if not.When are you there.Morazon is always a possibility but reservations aren't dependable.Europa is anouther but out of the gulch a ways .Del Rey is fine except $12 chica fees to take a girl upstairs for sure convient.I know numerous places but may not be for first timer.Truthfully ,Del Rey may be best bet if you are only in town one night.It is ground zero for many Gringo's.rbc100

RBC: I'm just bored right now, so I thought I'd be picky. Anyway, I would have said the Europa falls within what I think of as "the Gulch." Had to stay there once when the Morazan amazingly lost my reservation. If I recall correctly, its about two blocks in the direction away from the DR to the north, then about 3 more blocks toward the direction of the Holiday Inn. I don't know my north/south/east/west stuff there; its all in relation to buildings.

At any rate: What do you guys use as a definition of the boundaries of "the Gulch?"

Being the (self-appointed) resident monger geographer, I'll take this question of Gulch Boundaries. It just so happens that a search of those 2 terms turned up only 2 posts, your last post and a detailed (is there any other type) post by yours truly. http://www.costaricaticas.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=47746&highlight=gulch+boundaries#47746

First as to your sense of direction, I can only say its a good thing you're not the one doing the map . You got the 2 blocks north part right (actually a little less), but the Europa is actually 5 blocks west of the DR at Calle Central Avenida 5/7.

Now as to whether that would be considered to be in the Gulch. Personally I would consider it to be on the fringe of the Gulch, but I hold a looser definition of the Gulch than most people. So, when I saw your post, I decided to look it up. I used "The Costa Rica Handbook" by MoonGuides as my authoritative source. According to that book the Gulch is a 4 square block area between Avenida Central/3 and Calle 5/9. Going by that definition the Hotel Europa is about 4 blocks outside the Gulch. Actually going by that strict definition the HDR/BM (and for that matter the Prez too) is actually technically on the fringe of the Gulch.

Don't be too disheartened though. Given all the places of interest outside the Gulch (arguably of greater interest to Vets seeking to get away from the newbie gouging chica pros at the BM), not staying there is not the worst thing in the world.

The boundaries of the Gulch are only in your mind.


I was thinking of doing at least one night at the HDR (Hotel Del Rey), just to say I've done it. From everything I've read here, it's a mind-blowing, must-do experience for a C.R. newbie monger.

The cool thing about the HDR is that it's all right there, 24 hours a day. You wake up horny at 4:20 a.m., no problem. Pop a breath mint, comb your hair and take the elevator down to the meat market (the Blue Marlin). Oh, don't forget to put on your pants before pushing that "down" button. There are a number of adequate restaurants nearby, although the HDR's restaurant has moved across the street. They say in real estate, it's "location, location, location.." and this is the main selling point for the HDR.

Personally, I don't like the 4200 colones chica fee. I think it's a ripoff. Furthermore, from what I saw and have been told, the rooms at the HDR are pretty crappy for the price, when compared to the Presidente a mere block away, which charges no chica fees and which has recently remodeled and renovated many of the rooms.

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Pura Vulva! Wandering through the dark, I am El Ciego.

Hotels I've been in all have outlets like in el norte, but some homes do not. I know some people who kept clippers to alter plugs on their gadgets to fit their household outlets. There were also some converter in between plugs.

As far as direction goes, Calles go North-South and Avenidas go East-West. I always remember that the airport is North and align myself that way, but you need to know the map. Amon is North of the gulch.

To amplify what V.L. just wrote:

Calles run north-south. Odd-numbered calles are east of calle Central, even calles are to the west.

Avenidas run east-west. Avenidas north of Avenida Central are odd-numbered, the avenidas to the south are even-numbered.

All cities of any size, including Heredia, Cartago, Alajuela, San isidro del General, Quepos and Puntarenas use the identical grid system as described above. As often as not, the central landmark in each city will be a soccer field, a bus station or both.

Avenida Central in San Jose is kind of a special case, in that a small length of it, running past the Hotel Presidente for instance, is a pedestrian mall. To the west, Av. Central becomes Paseo Colon, which runs west toward the Sabana district. And, from downtown, it runs east as Avenida Central toward San Pedro and the University

All of the above information is nearly useless. Cab drivers, despite the fact that they are required to take a street geography test to get their cab licenses, are clueless about street numbering. Building and house numbers are extremely rare, although when they are used, they are quite logical. Also, most streets are not even marked with street signs. Most ticos use landmarks. Hopefully, the landmark is still standing, but it is not unusal for locals to use a landmark that everybody knows, but which is no longer there! (i.e. "The location is 100 meters east of the old tree near the church of San Mongero..." even though the church was demolished in 1938 and the tree hasn't been there since the 1980's. These factors make it difficult at times for visitors to find desired destinations.

Prolijo's interactive map is a huge help here, because many locales are displayed in pop-up images; you can actually see with your eyes what you're looking for. Maps can be of great help to the cabbies as well...so print the printable versions of these maps and carry them with you in San Jose.



Back to electricithy: It is true that many Costa Rican homes and even some smaller apartments have the old style outlets, originally used in the U.S. around 1920. These outlets may accept two rounded pins, three flat blades oriented horizontally in a point-down triangle, or some other configuration rather than the flat blade plugs we are accustomed to. Standardization of Western Hemisphere electrical connections happened in the mid 1950's for most of north and central America.

Any hardware store in San Jose, as well as the local RadioShack will sell outlet adaptors for very little money; please don't snip and strip electrical cords, unless you're fond of that 110 volt tingle... And please be careful not to attempt to connect your electrical consumer goods to a 220 volt outlet.

If you're staying in any hotel in or near the Gulch, no worries. Your 100 volt U.S. razor etc. will plug in just fine, as will the power supply for your laptop and/or your Prelude 3 vibrator.

Hope this all helps.

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Pura Vulva! Wandering through the dark, I am El Ciego.

Veelee wrote:



Not to be picky, and if that works for you great, but it might confuse a newbie. The airport is west northwest of San Jose.

El Ciego wrote:



Thanks for the info. I did not know the BM had tighten the dress code and now actually is requiring you to wear pants.

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Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

Ding Dong,

I didn't say there was a dress code, but if you had legs that look like mine, you'd be damn sure to remember to wear pants.



I don't have the sexy leg thing going, unlike RBC100 and Gopher...them thar Texas boys have mighty fine legs, or so they tell me.

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Pura Vulva! Wandering through the dark, I am El Ciego.

I’m sure many of you will call this nitpicking but I’d like to amplify and make a few minor corrections to some of El C’s geographical comments. None of this is meant to take anything away from El C’s post which accurately described the “quaint” Tico way of finding their way around or giving directions. I actually admire El C’s apparent navigational skills, which seem to exist either in spite of or because of his blindness.

While it is true that practically every town has a soccer field and a bus station (or bus stop), they're not always in the center of town. In smaller towns, the soccer field often doubles as the central park and the bus drops off in front of it. In larger towns, the soccer field and bus station are usually located elsewhere. What is universal, or nearly so, is a central park and a CHURCH. The church is often located to the east of the central park with Calle Central running in between. However, even that (or the grid system that El C described) is not universal. It does apply to SJ, Alajuela, Heredia, Liberia and many other cities.

In Cartago, there are no Calle Central and Avenida Central, though there is a central park and the RUINS of a cathedral around where they would be. The main cathedral in Cartago (which also happens to be the religious center of the entire country) is actually some blocks to the east. The other unique thing about Cartago is that the odd-numbered avenidas and calles run to the south and west rather than in the traditional directions.

Puntarenas has a central park and church, an Avenida and Calle Central, and the few avenidas it has run the same as in SJ, but the calles run like in Cartago. Limon doesn’t have any central park or centrally located church, nor any central avenida or calle and its avenidas and calles are consecutively numbered going away from the ocean.

I realize none of this has anything to do with electric currents, but I hope at least some of you found this little piece of trivia interesting.

Leave it to Prolijo to come up with the correct information!

Thanks for the corrections. BTW, the above information I posted comes almost directly quoted from two different travel sites, so I'll have to PM Prolijo so that he can correct these errors in both Let's Go! Costa Rica and Frommer's. And I'm not joking; I believe Prolijo over these other resources.

By the way, it is considered tradition for Catholic church main entrances to face west. Of course, this is not universal.

Quepos is set up exactly as I described, with the central focus of the town being the bus terminal on one side of the street, and a supermercado and pharmacia opposite. The grid system, calles and avenidas run the same. Notice that I didn't mention Limon in my original post, as I understand the differences, but the mention of cartago was certainly an error on my part.

Yes Prolijo, it is because of my blindness that I have made myself acutely aware of city layout and orientation. I try to build a map in mhy head months before visiting a locale; if you want great walking directions, ask a blind person. Small details that you might miss will be made clear to you and may even help your navigation. This is one reason I asked for the document files associated with your map; perhaps I'll simply use them, but I might be able to expand upon the information therein.

Again, thanks for the corrections to my errata. You're a prince...and not the skinny black guy with the purple G-string, either.

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Pura Vulva! Wandering through the dark, I am El Ciego.

Thanks for the kind words and I promise your faith is not misplaced.

Actually your church comments got me thinking. In Quepos, you're indeed correct that there is a market and bus station in the heart of town (if you can call a town not much larger than 4 blocks square a town). However, both the church and the soccer field are in the corner of town near the road going out to Manuel Antonio. Since this is away from the ocean front and to the right side of town, I always thought of this as the NE end of town, however that would place the church on the north side of the soccer field which wouldn't jibe with your info about church orientation. I guess by that point on the coast where you're entering Quepos you must be really travelling in more of a north-south direction rather than an east-west one. As for the avenidas and calles, I'll take your word for it since I never saw any street signs there either.

BTW, Jaco occurred to me as another example of where Frommer's and Let's Go's generalizations don't hold. As far as Avenidas are concerned I think there is only one (not counting the S. Coastal Hwy which unlike highways in most other towns bypasses the town itself) and I don't think they call it Avenida Central. There is a Calle Central which leads naturally enough to the Central Disco but the other streets all have names not numbers. And the grid (more like "comb"-structure) doesn't flow N-S & E-W but follows the beach which runs diagonally from the NW to the SE. Finally, if there's a church or soccer field anywhere, I don't remember it. At least its not near the Calle Central, which is DEFINITELY unusual for towns in CR. I won't bother asking any of YOU guys where the church in Jaco is as I'm sure you usually have OTHER things on your mind when you are there.

I hate to blow holes in the generalization, because for the most part I think it actually holds up pretty well. The church and soccer field thing holds up best and it always amazes me how a town with little else will nearly always have both of those. The grid system applies less often but does seem to apply more in larger towns. I'm not sure if many smaller towns even bother to name or number their streets.