La iglesia de Cañas with mosaic laid tile.

La iglesia de Cañas.

Scarlet Macaw

Orange fronted Parakeet

Iguana in the middle of town.

A howler monkey in the trees at a truckstop on the Pan-American highway to Liberia.

We are currently on vacation.  My brother is in the country, and Allison’s father, brother, and his family are with us as well.  We have travelled to the beach in Tamarindo to celebrate our time together.  Everyone actually flew into Liberia which is around 5 hours from San Jose, Costa Rica.  The distance is not far, but the road is narrow and curvy.  It takes longer than it seems it should take.  We made the trip without any problem, and we were surprised at a local truck stop to see howler monkeys and scarlet macaws in the trees.  We stopped at a church in Cañas to admire the mosaic tile work on the church done by the artist Otto Apuy.  Apparently Otto Apuy was a young man who could not stop himself from doing art with bright colors and shapes wherever there was space available.  Some thought he was rebellious, others just noted he had a lot of artistic energy.  A local Peace Corp worker introduced him to the greater world of art, and his talent took off.  He went to Spain where his work was featured, and now I believe he lives in Costa Rica and continues to do his work.  I cannot find a lot about him on the internet, but I loved the look of the church he has beautified.  While we were taking pictures of the church, we were suprised to watch a 3 foot iguana walk by.  We were in the middle of town, and this big lizard looked completely at home.  Pura vida, Costa Rica!