Day 6 in Grecia, Costa Rica

Day 6 in Grecia, Costa Rica

On Monday, December 17, we headed into Grecia on the bus with our neighbors from Kansas, Don and Deb.  We had to hike up the mountain to the bus stop.

 

A Tico-style home on our way to the bus stop

From there we caught the bus into Grecia.  We got off at the main bus terminal near the square in Grecia.  Deb had a doctor's appointment, so we went along to get a look at the place.  It was very nice and she was impressed with the doctor and the price.  We grabbed one of his cards. 

Bird of paradise flowers in Grecia

After the doctor visit, we went to the department store and purchased a cell phone that we could use in Costa Rica.  However, they were out of sim cards so we had to go to another store to purchase two sim cards with prepaid minutes. Each sim card has a different phone number.  We are not sure if we get a new number every time we have to get additional minutes, but we'll figure that out another day.  There was only a tiny bit of English spoken in those stores so it wasn't the place to ask questions.  We just know you can get more minutes at lots of places around town. 

We ate lunch at Cafe Delisias on the square.  It is supposedly the Gringo hangout in Grecia.  None of the staff spoke English.  We had some difficulty getting what we thought we ordered, but we all ended up with food.  The sandwiches and pastries seem to be the best things to order. They served Cafe Britt coffee which was an excellent local coffee.

After lunch, we walked to Grecia's main church.  It is a metal church that came in pieces from Belgium in 1897.  They had to haul all of the heavy metal pieces in oxcarts over the mountains from the coast to assemble it in Grecia.

The church is open all the time for worshipers.

Yes, this dog is laying in the center aisle of the church and looks like he is praying too.

Outside of the church was a pretty grotto area.

This almost life-size nativity was set up in the main square of Grecia in front of the church. It seems weird to be celebrating Christmas in this summer-like weather. 

We headed back to the bus terminal and shopped around in the indoor market adjacent to the bus terminal while waiting on our bus back to Arriba de Cajon (above Cajon).  After getting off the bus, we had to hike down the gravel mountain road to our apartments.  The road was so steep, we all slipped on the gravel at different times.