BUSES: Contact the Tourism office at Plaza de la Cultura for the current times and locations of bus stations. Check to see if you need to buy your tickets ahead of time. Some companies use reserved seating.

TAXIS: If you have to call a taxi to pick you up, use Coopeguaria, Tel. 226-1366. They are more dependable than the others and use their meters. However, it is often more expedient to walk to the nearest main street and hail a taxi. At night there are often taxis parked in front of the Lavanderia Margarita. You do not have to tip the driver although this is slowly changing; just pay what is on the meter ("la maria"). Note: The maria has a decimal point and it starts at 240 colones ($ .62), not 2400. A trip to the airport is a flat rate of @8000 colones. From 10:00 pm to 5:00 am, the price increases 20%.

TAXIS (PIRATE): Many of the taxis on the San Jose roads are known as "pirates" because they are not officially licensed nor approved by governmental authorities. Official taxis will have license plates starting with SJP. We recommend that you not use the pirate taxis. Should there be an accident, you might not have any recourse if you are hurt.

MAPS: There is a really good map of San Jose available for free at the Tourism office in the basement of Plaza de la Cultura. Get a few and share them with your friends. The better map of San Jose, including all the suburbs can be obtained at Jiminez & Tanzi, Ltda., Calle 1 (Ave. 5 & 7). Look for a heading in red letters with yellow background saying, "Ciudad de San Jose - Downtown San Jose".