Early this week we headed out of San Jose for the hills of Heredia, Grecia and Sarchi. San Jose is extremely busy, polluted and dirty. Definitely not a place one would want to live in.
Monday we met up with Jane & Bob who have lived in CR for close to 40 years. They live in a remote house in the woods and live off their land. They had an extremely beautiful garden! We got their contact info through someone else, and yet they opened up their home to us and were most gracious. They take care of their two lovely grand children 5 days a week. We dropped in late morning for cafe & delicious pastries. I have to say that the coffee is delicious in this country, which is the Costa Rica's main export.
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| Jane said when you get to the goat house, turn right! |
They shared a lot of very helpful information with us regarding different areas in that province. Suggested a new town we had not thought of for lunch and gave us another contact in Atenas which is a town we were planning on visiting in the next few weeks. After leaving their home we drove up the mountain to look at some of the at available communities they spoke of. Later ended up in Santa Barbara for lunch at the "El Banco de Los Moriscos", where we enjoyed some of the best seafood lunches!
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| El Banco de Los Moriscos |
Driving in CR can be quite challenging. Most of the time there are no street names. A map is not always helpful and a GPS or Google maps is a must.
Tuesday we drove to Grecia & Sarchi. We found Grecia to be so much cleaner then anything we had seen previously. One of the oldest churches in CR is in Grecia, "Iglesia de la Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes". It is made entirely of pre-fabricated steel plates painted red and was imported from the manufacturer in Belgium in the late 19th century.
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| Cemetery with beautiful grave stone |
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| Steel Plate church in Grecia |
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| Inside church |
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| Grecia square park across from church |
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| My sweetie |
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| Other side of square park with recycling |
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| In the park at Grecia |
After walking around a bit and browsing artisan shops we went to a recommended restaurant for a typical Tico lunch, "El Rancho de Nelson". This is where I had the best Tico food since we have arrived for only $6.00!!! We tried to order ice tea but got some yummy orange flavored slush which was pretty good! We had received this recommendation from Jason, who is a journalist for International Living CR Insider and moved here from FLORIDA in 2012. He currently lives with his family on the pacific coast in Tamarindo, where we will visit later this month and meet up with him.
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| Unique welded bar stools |
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| El rancho de Nelson |
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Avocado,chicken & rice,beans, potatoes,egg,small pasta
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As you leave Grecia and drive up the mountains you pass through some of the largest coffee and sugar cane plantations. We wanted to visit the famous Ox Cart Factory in Sarchi. Sugar cane and coffee business gave birth to the oxcart. When we arrived there we found out they no longer make the oxcart for use in the fields but rather home decor and furniture. You will find beautifully painted oxcarts for decoration as well as very beautiful furniture. As a matter of fact I counted 11 furniture stores in the little town of Sarchi. The factory is mainly a souvenir factory. It was still a pleasure to see the artisan beautiful work!
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| Great furniture! |
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| Beautiful bar |
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| Would make a nice addition to a patio |
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| In one of the rooms of the workshop |
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| Also hand painted umbrellas |
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| So very colorfull |
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Changes through the years
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