Border Run 2: The Final Chapter

Our second full day at the Poás Lodge began with breakfast, of course.  But this time it was prepared by Jimmie.  Stephan left early to take Dave and Gina to the airport.  
Note to Stephan:  Jimmie can cook, so don't let him make you think he can't.

Today we were heading down into the valley directly below the lodge.  All the cool little towns we could see from the comfort of our room were on the agenda for the day - Grecia, Sarchi, and Zarcero.  Each town is known for a specialty thing or two, so we had a full plate of adventure planned.

I've mentioned before how Central America isn't big on signage.  There are very few road signs on the main roads or highways, or the byways and country roads that meander from town to town.  And once you get into a town, there are seldom street signs or 'Welcome to (insert town name here)!' to tell visitors they've arrived at an intended destination.  Driving from town to town, one may encounter many small villages that are not on any map.  'Is this the town we were looking for?'  'Maybe - not sure - I don't know.'

The most effective way we've found to navigate a town, regardless of size, is to drive around until we find the parque central and work from there.  This is where most every town starts numbering their calles (streets) and avenidas (avenues).  Once one finds the park, the rest usually falls into place.  

What I am trying to say is that we got lost - a lot.  

We own an awesome map of Costa Rica, one that shows all the roads and has insets for each region.  Yeah, except we inadvertently forgot to bring it on this trip.  In fact, you can see by the Garmin map link that, by days end, we logged over 100 miles, probably a quarter of which was backtracking to get unlost.  Or is it dislost?  Hmmm…

We had a great day, however.  One thing we've learned being down here is to rely on one another when things are going... not according to plan.  Laugh it off, make self-deprecating 'stoopid turists' jokes and carry on.  It gets tense once in a while but for the most part, it's all good.  Our only requirement was to be back to the lodge before dark.

The first place we hit was Grecia.  This is a neat little town with one very unique and historical attraction.  The unrivaled star of Grecia is the church.  Check it out:

Beautiful stone and stucco construction, nice symmetry and a clock in the tower that actually works!  Yes, all true - except for the 'stone and stucco' part.  You see, this church is unique in that it's made of… metal.

The Iglesia de la Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes was pre-fabbed in Belgium and shipped over in the 1890's.  We knew it was metal but we didn't really notice it until we got up close.  It's funny to rap on the side and hear it clang.  The priest conducting mass at the time didn't think it was very funny but... whatever.

Just outside of Grecia is the Puente de Piedra, a natural stone bridge.  The link provided is to another blog with some great pictures and the legend of how the bridge was built.  We pulled over and tried to get some photos but it was so overgrown from every direction that we couldn't get any decent shots without taking a machete to the brush.

I did get this awesome picture of the sign, however.

After driving for quite a ways, realizing it was the wrong direction, then backtracking to get on the correct road, we made for the town of Sarchi.  This bustling town is home to a couple of stellar attractions:  hand-made furniture and painted oxcarts.  Sarchi's proximity to the metropolitan area brings in locals and tourists alike to check out the expertly crafted wooden furniture made by local artists.  Want a beautiful four post, kingsize canopy bed?  They have them.  In the market for a dining room set that features a 16 foot long table with enough matching chairs to seat the entire extended family?  No problem.  

As we drove through town, there were countless signs for Toad Hall stores selling muebles (furniture).  Amazing stuff, beautiful pieces of art, really, doubling as furniture.  There are so many stores it made us wonder how they do enough business to make it work.  Kinda like mattress stores in the US.  As we've said, CR is expensive, so prices on the pieces we saw were plenty steep.  Of course, this particular furniture would last a lifetime and could be considered an investment.

Sarchi is also know for it's long and fabled history of carretas (oxcarts).  Back in the mid-1800's when coffee farming was just getting started, the only means of moving handpicked coffee beans from the fields and over the mountains to the coast for export was to transport them in these sturdy carts drawn by a team of oxen.  People painted them in elaborate colors and designs as a status symbol, a way to communicate their family's success.  The carts are typically 4-6 feet long, 3-4 feet wide, but on display in the parque central is the 'World's Largest Oxcart'.  In yer face, Cawker City, Kansas, USA.  

All over town, you see the 'painted oxcart' motif, too.  The towns' garbage receptacles, street light poles, business signs, sports fields scoreboards, etc. - all painted in the same style as the carretas.  It is Sarchi's identity, hands down - their version of 'put a bird on it'.

To provide some perspective, the wheels on this cart are taller than me - D

PS - I would hate to clean up after the oxen that pull this baby.

Put a carreta on it!

Like almost all Latin American towns, adjacent to the central park (and here in Sarchi, the ginormous oxcart) is, of course, Sarchi's main church.  Although grand in its own way, this one is not as unique as the church in Grecia.  I include a photo of it only because the clock in this one also works!  Seriously, it is indeed rare to find a functioning clock in any of the old churches down here!  Today we were two for two!

11:13-ish?

After Sarchi, we continued on down the road to Zarcero.  Our last stop for the day, this town is known for a couple of things - its church (of course) and a very unusual parque central.  It's a picturesque town of about 5,000 people, many who have adopted organic farming practices on their fincas - highly unusual for farms in this part of the world.

First, the church.  This amazing brick structure is well known for its unusual color.  In fact, Zarcero is one of the few towns we've visited that actually had a 'welcome' sign as we entered town and the church is featured prominently on the billboard.  I am sad to report that the clock in this church did not work.  Still, two outta three ain't bad.

As we walked around the building, we noticed that the bricks were held in place in a rather strange way.

Rivets?!?!  What the hell?

Tap, tap - clang, clang...

Yes, folks - another metal church, Zarcero's version painted to look like brick.  Unlike Grecia's church of prefabricated panels, fitted and welded piece by piece, this one seemed to be sheet metal laid over an underlying material then riveted and tacked into place.  It's beautifully done.  In fact, we were completely unaware that this church was metal until we got about 3/4 of the way around it and Bex! noticed the rivets!

Here is a link to an article about Zarcero, with some good pictures of the inside of the recently renovated church and its hand-painted ceiling.  The write up also talks about the Dr. Seuss-ian topiary in the parque central.  It was done by Evangelisto Blanco, also known as Señor Scissorhands.  No, seriously - that's his nickname.  It's quite trippy, as you can see.

Dali-eqsue arches abound.

Peek-a-boo!

There was more traditional non-topiary artwork as well, such as this mosaic.

And these snazzy painted trashcans

The grotto behind the church

Artistic shot of the day.

After taking in Zarcero, we grabbed lunch at a roadside comedor just outside of town, then drove back to the lodge.  It was a very long day and we were pretty worn out.  However, I got my second wind when Stephan read my mind about what I was going to have for dinner.

"Burger, with bacon, cheese and a fried egg, right?"  "OMG, how did you do that?!"  "I could just tell."  It was amazing, too.  Jaw-unhinged-to-eat incredible.  That evening, we again enjoyed the fireside visiting with the guys, and Gertie and Don.  The latter two were zeroing in on a house they liked, which was very exciting.  Gertie had pictures on her iPad and it definitely looked like a nice place to live out retirement.

We had more exploration plans for the next day, but we admitted that we had  had enough of being in the car, so decided to enjoy a down day at the lodge instead.  Looking through the windows at the valley was more appealing than looking through the windshield at the roads.  We blogged and caught up on emails, played Parcheesi and unwound.  Bex! won most of the Parcheesi games, utilizing the special 'Fuller family rules' to her benefit at every turn.

We walked down the road a short distance to have lunch at a nearby restaurant.  Cloudy and windy, but with no rain, the walk seemed like a good idea.  We had our rain jackets but only to buffer the wind.  Not 50 meters from the lodge, the sky opened up and we were pretty drenched by the time we got to the restaurant!  The wind was blowing the rain sideways!  The weather was much more cooperative for the walk back.

We were looking forward to dinner this evening!  There were other guests at the lodge but they had been informed that the restaurant was closed for dinner this particular evening.  Stephan was making wiener schnitzel and serving family style.  Now, Gertie is from Germany - in fact, she and Don still visit regularly, as do the boys.  We were told that Gertie makes a mean wiener schnitzel but that Stephan's version out-schnitzels Gertie's.  All we can say is that it was delicious.  Made not with true veal (cruel!) but with meat from a young cow nonetheless, it was tender, breaded, and fried to perfection.  It was an amazing evening with our Costa Rican family and we topped it off with some wonderful scratch made brownies that were served with whipped cream and a little vanilla ice cream.  Heavenly.

Alas, the next day we said our goodbyes and headed down the hill to San Jose.  Once again, we'd like say how grateful we are to Jimmie and Stephan.  The hospitality they showed us made us feel like part of the family.  It was a pleasure to get to know Don and Gertie, as well.  Fine people, all of them - and if you're ever in the area, pay them a visit.  You won't be sorry.

After driving small country back roads during the course of our week, driving into San Jose was a little nerve-racking.  We are happy to report that we got the car fueled up and dropped off at the Alamo office without incident!  (Because getting lost doesn't count as 'an incident')  We saw our car rental buddy, Diego, and we talked about where we'd been this time around.  From there, we hefted backpacks and walked down the Paseo Colón to our hotel.  As it turns out, this is our new favorite place to stay in SJ!  

The Hostel Casa Colon is the perfect location and a very nice place to be.  Yes, it's a hostel and they do have more typical hostel-y rooms.  We opted for a private room with bath, and it was very comfortable.  The building itself is unique looking, with a turret rising up 2+ floors that includes the entry to the premises and houses the wide, spiral staircase to the upper floors.  It was too early to check in but they stored our bags for us so we could run a couple of errands.  First, we walked the three blocks toward the Tica Bus station, just so we knew where it was for our early departure the next day.  We enjoyed lunch near the square the cathedral is on, sitting at the window on the second floor so we could watch the hustle and bustle of the city and the endless stream of people heading in every which direction.  Then we hit the grocery store for road snacks and a few items we have only found in the city - crushed red pepper flakes and earl grey tea, mostly.

Our errands complete yet still too early to check in, we bought sodas and strolled through Sabana Park.  Finally, we got our room, fired up the AC, the TV, and the wifi to while away the afternoon.  This hostel's location is primo because it's located close to the bus station, as mentioned.  It's also perfect because it's close to our fave little Italian restaurant, The Corner Pizzeria.  We found this place during our last visit and it will be on the short list any time we're in San Jose.  Situated in an old home a block off the busy main drag, the subtle lighting and casual atmosphere here, coupled with great wine, delicious salads and amazing, thin crust pizzas = a perfect 'last night of vacation' date with my wife.

We had opted for the early bus heading north out of San Jose, in hopes of getting all the way back to Merida in one day.  We went downstairs for the included breakfast and - no one was around.  They start serving at 6 AM, which was perfect for us.  Where oh where was the… ah, there she is!  We woke the cook up, who was sleeping on the couch in the lobby, and she sheepishly went to work on our food.  After breakfast, we checked out - by which we mean we left the keys on the reception counter since no one was around - and walked to the bus station.

We know the routine by now:  we got in one line to pay our exit taxes, then took that receipt to the counter so they could check our passports and tickets, got our customs forms for the border crossing, then we waited for boarding.  Like last time, the bus trip north seemed like it went really fast.  We got through the Costa Rica side quickly, then through the Nicaragua bag inspection lickety-split.  Then... it all slowed to a crawl, waiting for the passports to be processed to enter Nicaragua.  Maybe they were scrutinizing a certain someones passport again!?  Oy.  We waited and waited for quite a while, and finally were on our way.

Again, the short drive from Peñas Blancas to Rivas flew by and, the next thing we knew, we were being assaulted by all the taxi and pedicab drivers wanting to take us to wherever we were going!  Good lord, it was chaotic!  To make matters worse, it was a national holiday so our plan to hit the liberia for printer paper was thwarted.  Drats!  We held off the damn drivers long enough to discuss our options.  We really needed paper, so one option was to stay the night in Rivas and hope we could find a liberia open on Sunday.  Instead, we decided to still get home today, so we culled one driver from the herd and had him bring us to the port so we could catch the ferry home.

We had arranged a ride with Adolfo, the property manager who tends to our place.  We stopped by the mini-super for supplies (wine, peanut butter, tomato paste) and headed around the island for home.  During the course of the drive, we worked out a solution for our paper needs.  Adolfo would buy four reams for us, put it on the chicken bus and have Hamilton or Don Celso meet the bus when it passed through Merida to retrieve our paper.  Yep, this is how things get done here.  (Note:  It worked beautifully!  Monday evening, Don Celso came by with our paper!)

We were very tired after our early start and long travel day but we were very glad we made the decision to get all the way back home.  Shortly after we arrived and got windows opened up, Yosslyn (Hamilton's daughter) came over with dinner for us.  People here look out for us and this was yet another expression of that.  Hamilton and his family knew we would be exhausted.  We had fried fish smothered with stewed veggies, rice and tostones - and they even brought a bottle of Coke for us, too.  It meal was fantastic!

Welcome home dinner, provided by our dear friends.

We unpacked just what we needed to clean up before going to bed - the rest could wait.  It was another great travel experience for us.  Everything went smoothly; we saw old friends and made some new ones; and we were now home safe.  Rejuvenated and excited for classes to start again!