Costa Rica Day 2: Woodworking Plant

I guess I just needed a good night's sleep. Aparantly I get a little cranky when I'm tired and/or jet lagged. Then next day was when it all finally hit me..."I'm in freakin COSTA RICA!"

We were scheduled for a tour of a local woodworking plant, so after arguably the very best cup of coffee I've EVER had, we headed here:

You'd never know it if you passed it on the street, but this was a major woodworking plant where they make lots of wooden wares for sale in little shops throughout the country. Inside the plant, there was lots going on:

This guy was making a huge piece for a hotel lobby. How amazing is that?

As for the smaller pieces of wood, they were being cut, polished, drilled and strung for everything from jewelry to placemats and lampshades.

Each tiny piece is prepped and created by hand by one of the many talented, extremely patient employees. Upstairs was where the really fun stuff was going on. I was tempted to pull up a chair and get to making some killer jewelry.

Look at that wood, isn't it beautiful. It is not sealed or coated or dyed with anything...it's all natural, polished by hand to that incredible shine.

The tour ended in the factory's little store, and we shopped for a little bit. I ended up with a cool pair of earrings that I've already gotten tons of compliments on, and my grams got a cool set of windchimes for her patio. Outide the store we sat and had something to drink beside a little pond.

And being the darling husband that he is, Hector let me walk thru the entire tour like this before finally asking if he could use the camera:

That's okay, honey....but you know what they say about payback.