Cab Service in Costa Rica
Here in Costa Rica the cabs are red, other places in the world they are yellow, black, etc; here, they are red, remember that; because there are a lot of pirate cabs that are guys driving any car and stopping around for anyone, specially tourists. Now there's one exception to this rule, and that's some orange cabs you'll find outside the airport, (Juan Santa Maria). Anyhow remember EVERYWHERE red, and outside the airport orange Other than that it's a pirate, and if you ride there you'll risk it.
After you find the red cab, you have to look for something else, they have to have a yellow triangle on the front door, there's no way to miss that, a HUGE red Triangle On both front doors. That Triangle contains some information, the taxi number, and it makes the taxi legit, if you have a friend that's going to ride a taxi you can write that identification number, just in case something happens.
Now, the third thing to identify a real taxi is the license plate, it most contain a T, anywhere, but it most contain a T, a cab license plate here is like this, the initials of the province for example SJ (San Jose) and a T on the front that stands for Taxi so license plate TSJ 0000 is a valid taxi, now here we have 7 provinces that are:
San Jose, Alajuela, Heredia, Cartago, Puntarenas, Guanacaste, Limon.
So the taxis go like this:
TSJ, TA, TH, TC, TP, TG, TL
So TA1000 is a valid license plate for a taxi form Alajuela.
Now remember to identify a Real Taxi in Costa Rica you need to remember:
1. Color (red or orange)
2. Huge Yellow Triangle on front doors
3. License Plate (remember the T in there)
4. Write down the Number (just in case)
5. Call a cab company
Now that you are aware on how to find a real, legitimate taxi, the next step is to keep anyone from ripping you off, that's easy, first of all normally tourists stop the cab and ask them: "How much do you charge me to take me to XX place" that's not the way to go, all taxis here must have what we call a "Maria” that’s a machine that tells you the exact amount that it will cost you for the ride.
So, they way to go, is to stop a cab, ask the driver: "Can you take me to XX place" if he agrees, don't talk about money, just get in and ask for the "Maria" if the cabbie does not want to put the maria, for you, then get out, ask him to stop, NO MARIA, NO RIDE.
Because, that's your protection, so be aware of that, and also, have an Idea, if you can of how many kilometres are from where you ride on to where you are going, just an Idea, And based on that you can calculate the fare, the first Km. costs about 330 colones, every additional km costs about 250, so if you have a 5km ride, think like this 330+(4x250) = 1330 colones (approximately) that means, first km 330 colones plus 4 additional kilometres 250 colones each.
Now, there's not much you can do if the cab goes around everywhere, but if you think the price is unfair, well write down the number and after that you can report him/her.
Last, if you want to go to a place that is very far, or outside a province, you can work out a price with the cab driver, or the company, people use to do that, call and ask.
Important to Know 
