Correos de Costa Rica (Central Post Office)

Correos de Costa Rica (Central Post Office) Review

The handsome, carved tan exterior of the post office, dating from 1917, is hard to miss among the bland buildings surrounding it. From the balcony you can see the loading of apartados (post-office boxes) going on below: Costa Ricans covet these hard-to-get boxes, as the city's lack of street addresses makes mail delivery a challenge.

Museo Filatélico. Collectors should stop at the second-floor Museo Filatélico for its display of historic stamps. Early-20th-century telegraphs and telephones are also on display. The museum is open weekdays 8 to noon and 1 to 5; admission is the purchase (downstairs at one of the post-office windows) of a prepaid postcard sufficient for mailing to North America. Also of interest to philatelists is the office to the left as you face the stamp windows; it sells first-day issues. 2223-9766.