The mail system in Costa Rica

Many have asked us if they can send us things by snail mail. It is possible and we are told it should arrive to us within 2-3 weeks; although after two weeks we are still waiting for something from Tim's parents. It isn't a good idea to send anything valuable or brand new as we may never see it. The school we attend has a post office box in Turrialba that is checked every week. The address is: Christian Immersion Spanish Academy (CISA), 28-7150, Turrialba, Costa Rica.

We live in a house with no address. There is no house number and the three roads that intersect at our house do not have names. The only way to have a mailing address is to have a post office box in a town of relatively substantial size.

It's fun to read addresses on labels of products made in Costa Rica. If it does not list a post office box, it will say so many meters from some well known factory or public school, or other such building.

We have an important document to send to our lawyer in San Jose. It is needed to complete our visa paperwork. To send it to her office, we take it to the bus station in Turrialba where it is addressed to her courier. The bus takes it to San Jose where her courier will pick it up and deliver it to her office. We already used this method once and it worked great! The bus company provides a tracking number so we can make sure the delivery arrives.

One last thing. Laura sent a card to her class in the States and it cost less to mail it from here than to mail it within the same town in the US! Now that I know this we'll have to try snail mail more often!

Cindy