Disney, eat your heart out

---

Geo: 10.3916, -84.4383

Today Annie has offered to take us to a little town, Zarcero, up in the mountains. Jeff and I debate what to wear - jeans or shorts - because this place is up in the hills and may be chilly. A quick text to our super dooper tour guide brings the response that shorts should be fine.

The drive to Zarcero was gorgeous, hilly, windy and steep in some places. The views on both sides of the road were breathtakingly beautiful - really. Terraced hillsides with coffee and some bright green plants in orderly rows that we decided were cabbages. As we went higher the landscape changed to lodgepole pine and fir trees. I found this really disorienting because next to some of those pines were palm trees!

When we arrived in town the first thing we see is the town church which was built in 1910. The outside facade is completely different than all of the other white churches we've seen in other plazas. We wander inside and wow! The floor, laid by hand, is composed of hand painted tiles. The interior columns are wooden and incredibly beautiful. The art work on the ceiling and walls took my breathe away. Here is this incredible church tucked away in a little town in Costa Rica. Turns out the church was renovated in 2012 which was when all the interior gold filigree and gorgeous paintings were completed. Stunning results from a year long renovation.
We spend a long time wandering in the church, but eventually go back outside to the plaza itself.

As we start walking down the church stairs three young high school kids approach me. "Hello" Aha! Someone wanting to practice his English. While his two friends held back, the young kid told me his name, ask mine and asked where I was from, all in English. Then he asked "Would you like to make a photo with a beautiful boy?" HAHAHA! Why, yes, I would! Below is a photo of me and my tres (3) "beautiful" boys. (We did teach them the word for "handsome."😉 They were so funny.

Now we give all of our attention to Zarcero's famous topiaries. These whimsical living sculptures were all created by one man, Evangelista Blanco B. Take a look at the photos of these bushes! The artist is self taught and did all the work himself. Annie isn't sure if he's still alive or not. He is legend in Zarcero (actually in Costa Rica) not just because of his work, all donated by the way, but also because about 10 years ago the Disney corporation tried to get him to come work for them. He turned them down.

Annie finds a photo of him on the web - old man. We wonder if he passed his vision and skill along to another generation. We wander around the topiaries for a long time.

After a while we set off in search for a farmacia (pharmacy) to see if we can get something for Annie's sinus headache. Yup, here you can buy stuff like Claritan-D (or similar) by the pill. She paid $6 for two pills! Yikes!! She was pretty ticked off about that because in San Ramon they are nowhere near that expensive.

We stop in a store to see if they have postcards of Zarcero. No, they don't, but if we go to the kiosk in the square they will have some. There's a kiosk in the square? We head back that way and see a kind of shed thing and call out until a young teenage girl appears...no, they are sold out. Annie asks if there is somewhere else in town we could check. During this exchange an old man comes out from the shed. He looks oddly familiar. I look at Annie who stares back at me, then she asks him if he is Evangelista Blanco, the sculptor? "Si"

OMG!!! Not only is he not dead, we are meeting him. I am practically jumping up and down. Annie translates and we rave to him about his topiaries. What a gift he has given us! The young girl is his niece and she takes photos of us with him. (He tells Annie that people always want to have his photo.)
She asks him what will happen to his creations when he dies; has he apprenticed someone to carry on? He says he has not, but after he dies he will come back at night to take care of them.
This photo is of him standing beside a topiary self portrait.

We leave him and continue on our postcard quest. We find a tienda (store) with postcards and somehow end up looking at the incredible bird photos the owner has on his phone. Holy Mackerel!! They are really, really good. Donde? I ask him "Where?" Well, turns out he has a good friend who has cabins for rent and does tours up around one of the volcanos! This is the sort of thing that isn't on "normal" tourist radar and reinforces our belief in the importance of learning Spanish.

Time to head back to San Ramon where we are going to treat Annie to lunch and she is going to take us to a typical Costa Rican restaurant. The drive back down was as beautiful as the drive up, well, except maybe for the long time we followed a truck overloaded with sugar cane.

Lunch was good and we are getting the hang of ordering food like a Tico. Annie tells me to go look at the bano (bathroom) - good heavens! The door is pink, one wall in red, one wall in green, the toilet itself is green and its seat is propped up against the wall (not that unusual). I had to take a photo!
Afterwards, we drive around San Ramon a little and learn that the hospital is next to the Emergency which is next to the morgue. Very convenient, and I'll be sure not to ask for a morgue view room if I am ever in the hospital!

Home again..remember the "for sale" house we saw on Thursday, when we just popped in on the owners unexpectedly? Annie told us that the owners left today and renters won't be back until tonight so Jeff and I go to snoop around a little. We shout "Upe!" and "Hola" as we walk down the drive though we know no one is home. We just want to go around, sit on the deck and look at the view. Well, damn! Busted! The renters have already returned, and were asleep until we woke them. We are embarrassed and apologize for barging in. They, Gloria and Paul, welcome us in so we introduce ourselves and confess our nefarious plans to hang out on their deck. Now, this is how serendipidous (I know that isn't spelled correctly) travel can be. Paul immediately asked us what we'd like to know about Costa Rica...ummm.. we really don't have any questions. Turns out Paul and Gloria are the folks that run the website "Retiring for Less in Costa Rica." A website we've looked at many times!! Are you kidding me?? We stay and visit with them way too long especially considering that they didn't know us and we just showed up shouting in their driveway.
Interestingly, Paul volunteer teaches English to senior citizen Ticos, and he and Gloria do several tours around the area. Oh, and they occasionally need a housesitter, so please send them our info! How amazing is that?

We leave them to get back to their siestas and walk home. What a day! Meeting the sculptor, meeting Paul and Gloria...too much!

---