Costa Rica - Day Eight

On the eighth day of our incredible trip, we left beautiful Arenal Springs hotel. It really was a nice hotel and a needed improvement from the sparse Buena Vista Lodge. Buena Vista lodge had no tv, extremely remote, lots of wildlife, lots of insects, but very beautiful vs. Arenal Springs hotel with a tv, variety of food, chocolate in the gift shop, towns nearby, AND very beautiful. Both are beautiful but you can tell my preference... did you catch the chocolate in the gift shop part? hmmm mmmm

















So, our travels from Arenal back to San Jose brought us through the lovely town, of Grecia. What's unique about Grecia is that they have a gorgeous, red, metal church. Yes, the church is metal, it's made of steel. There's a long story behind this church and I don't remember all of the particulars but basically it's a prefabricated church that was made in Germany, I think, and was shipped to a destination other than Costa Rica. By a series of mistakes it ended up in Costa Rica and in the town of Grecia. It's really a beautiful church and it really is made of steel.


















Here's me preparing to enter this unusual church.


















Sorry for the fuzzy picture, I am just using a basic digital camera after all. Oh, I didn't use the flash in the church out of respect for the worshippers and was very discreet only taking pictures in the back. :-)

My handsome husband being dragged into yet another church. :-)

This was behind the church and I thought it was interesting ... so I took a picture. Simple as that.

After touring the red, steel church in Grecia we hopped back on the bus and traveled to another lovely little town. I don't know the name of this town but we stopped at the central park for a tour of the amazing grounds. Throughout the entire park the bushes are shaped and sculpted in incredible shapes.

Cool, huh? Wish I had taken more pictures. There were so many cool shapes.

These archways lead to the church. My understanding is that couples preparing to marry in the church travel through the archway up to the church steps where they are met by the preacher and ushered into the church to be married.

Here's the inside of the church. The light through the stained glass windows was just beautiful. It made a beautiful pinkish, purplish glow.

This is the outside of the church. The interesting thing about this shot is the poster behind the angel holding the fish. I took the picture because I thought the angel holding the fish was interesting but my brother-in-law, Jared, pointed out to me that the poster behind the angel holding the fish (you can tell I think the angel holding the fish is interesting) is actually a painting done by LDS artist Greg Olsen. Interesting!

Here's the view of the town from behind the angel holding the fish. :-)

Cute town, huh? This is typical of most towns we drove through in Costa Rica, very quaint.

A final picture of the cute town with no name. We thought this plant was interesting and just had to snap a photo.

Our next stop was the town of Sarchi. This town is known for many things and one of them is their crafts and artists. They have a unique style of painting and detail done on the wood oxcarts and furniture.

Here's a sample of some of the artwork done on some cute wood chairs.

















The national symbol of labor in Costa Rica is the oxcart. Here's a large oxcart wheel painted in their unique style of painting. The detail and colors are just beautiful.

















Here's an oxcart that was pulled by prehistoric, giant sized oxen back in 5,000 B.C. Just kidding.... just a giant sized oxcart on display for silly tourista's like me to take pictures of and put on their blog.


















One of the roads in the lovely town of Sarchi.


















Todd and I checking out all the little shops in town and enjoying the artwork on the furniture and buildings. After Sarchi, we then made it to our final destination, San Jose. We will now spend two last nights in San Jose before flying home.