Order?

If it has been a while since you have visited the bustling mountain community of Puriscal, Costa Rica, watch out. MOPT has gone and livened the place up with some official street signs and rather loud paint. All of the two way streets are one way now, one street that was previously a one way is now a two way and the flow of the previous one ways are now going in the opposite direction. Got it? There is also something fishy going on with the parking which I have not entirely figured out yet. I will say, judging by the amount of yellow paint, it doesn't seem as if more has been made available. "sigh." Do be on the look out for a big sign reading "con boleta", parking with a ticket will be required, or is, or something like that.

I have been oblivious to the plan in the midst of watching the process. First, while enjoying some ice cream with my girls, we watched curiously from the heladeria as a couple of guys in reflective vests messed around with some string, "shrug". Next, to my horror, while driving in the rain and fog, I happened to notice white lines painted all over the roads. Lanes, in Puriscal? Absurd! Who are we kidding here? It was not only the fact that the road that I wanted to turn down was closed, but the mere suggestion of order that annoyed me. Traffic in Puriscal is like a gelatinous blob. It wiggles its way through the crowded streets, past double parked cars, cowboys on horses, delivery vans and stray dogs. I don't see how there is possibly any room for the order of lanes in this town.

The busy work did not stop with lanes, of course, the entire flow of traffic has been flipped, and lots of street parking eliminated. Everyone is going nuts trying to shut off the impulse to turn where we have always turned, to park where we have always parked. The "traficos" are "muy contentos" because they are busy writing up tickets and having a jolly good time sounding their sirens at violators. At first, I thought maybe there had been an improvement, but too congested doesn't change simply by asking folks to drive South instead of North. The only real improvement I can see is a hint at pedestrian right of way. In the painting frenzy, they kindly included a few crosswalks at intersections, and I have actually noticed quite a few people stopping in acknowledgement of the right of way. I still caution that walking in Costa Rica is at your own risk. As far as I know, however, horses are still allowed to trot down the streets, and so remains the heart of the culture of this growing rural town.