Road Trip 3-Playa Verde

Fortunately, after getting off the boat, the next stop was lunch—everybody was famished.  Part of our excursion was a typical Costa Rican lunch—black beans, rice, plantains (I think), coleslaw, chicken or pork, salsa, and lemon aid.  I am sure we all had this pictured in the hungry part of our brains.

We hurriedly drove to this house that had a yard full of flowers.

       

Apparently it was like a local Bed and Breakfast because they rented these little Cabanas.

We noticed they had a rug hanging on the line like it had just been cleaned.  It was beautiful.

We all sat at this long table and they brought our lunch to us.

While we were all eating, a parrot that was evidently a local resident, although it could fly, came and was wandering around under our table waiting for someone to drop some food.

Well----several days before, I had stubbed my toe while taking our morning walk.  Gail had brought a first aid kit along with us from Arkansas that had colored band aids in it.  I had put one of these band aid--a green one--on my toe.   That parrot saw that band aid and went for it like it was a five star menu item.

I had to finish my lunch with my foot up in the air on the seat of Gail’s chair.

After lunch we again headed for Tamarindo.  However, we had one more stop to make--the town of Gaitil.  This is small town in the middle of the mountains where they make pottery.  The local people here are Chorotega Indians who are native to this area and have been making pottery since Christopher Columbus was here. 

 (Christopher Columbus discovered Costa Rica and named it “Rich Coast” because he saw all the gold the people were wearing.)

This is one of the homes in the town with their pottery shop out front.

The Chorotega people go into the mountains and gather the raw materials they use to make the pottery.  The material is then pounded into dust that is mixed with water.  

The pieces are then shaped completely by hand.  Here, he is making handles shaped like frogs.

They use the colored rocks from the mountains to make the paint they use on the pottery.  They mix the dust from the rocks with water to make the paint.  They do this with their feet similar to making wine.

Each piece is hand decorated.

The pieces are then fired in a kiln.  There are no thermometers on the kilns and the temperature is controlled by the different kinds of wood used.

When the pottery is finished it is very hard and very beautiful.  Each piece is inscribed on the bottom with the name of the artist that made it and the person who painted it.

Gail bought a beautiful coffee cup.  It is signed by Jesus and Susan.

She also walked down the road to another shop and found a necklace that was handmade from watermelon seeds.

Eventually everyone found their way back to the bus and we once again headed for Tamarindo.  However, someone (not sure who that was Lynne Reilly) in the back of the bus hollered out to Juan that they were hungry for watermelon.  So Juan found us a roadside fruit stand.

It was wonderful and fully satisfied everyone. 

Believe it or not, we did all of this in one day—a wonderful experience.