Savoring an Elusive Romantic Getaway in Costa Rica through Art

Even paradise wears you down after a time, especially if you find yourself bogged down by the normal daily routines of life: transporting the kid to and from school, shopping for groceries, yard work, cooking, cleaning, etc. We have found since moving to Costa Rica that we seem to take even fewer vacations or weekend trips than we did in the States in order to break up our domestic monotony.

So, even though our original motivation to stimulate demand for Tamara's well-known mosaics was admittedly pecuniary, this trip turned out to provide us an excellent opportunity for an amorous getaway hours from the finca working together to bring Tamara's art to someone new.

A scintillating and enthusiastic art lover, Judy Fried, responded to my posting on a Costa Rica expatriates Facebook group showing off some of Tamara's past works. She had the perfect spot, a front door gable, where she wanted to display an original mosaic featuring a Quetzal, local plants, butterflies and hummingbirds with a symbolic representation of their gorgeous view over Costa Rica's Pacific mountains down the Gulf of Nicoya.

One of the original mosaic concept sketches

Tamara's Costa Rica School Mosaic Project Mid-way

With about a week before school here in Costa Rica resumes, Tamara and her small crew are trying to finish the big wall mosaic at Sean's school. Most of the details are done now, so it's a matter of filling in the spaces and then grouting it all. Easy to say, time-consuming to do.

A neighbor girl, Marilyn, and fellow ex-pats, Steve Bok, and Patti Lawrence have been helping out every day

They'd probably all be done by now if we hadn't take several days off last week to make our first visit to Panama, but we wanted to squeeze in one trip while Sean is still on school break. 

This project, as all projects are wont to do, is taking longer than expected, but it's certainly coming out beautifully. I have been pushing Tamara to get some local media involved for publicity for her and the P.Z. International Women's Club, who helped sponsor this project. Anyone local who has contacts with journalists, please let them know.