Sarchi, Costa Rica, is known for several things:

• The World Record Ox Cart that Sits in the Towns Center
• A Copious Amount of Furniture Stores and Factories
• Art and Artisans
• Coffee Finca’s

We recently stopped by Sarchi when my mom was visiting and one of the cool things we did was tour the ox cart factory (the same factory that created the 2 ton, 14 foot tall, World Record Ox Cart) with Wilson our tour guide, for the day.

The factory in a mural and the factory in reality.

To get to the factory you must first walk through the tourist-trap shop filled with shot glasses, t-shirts and all of the wooden things they make in the factory; miniature size ox carts with serving trays, elaborately painted wagon wheels decorate in the tattoo’y script that defines Sarchi art and beautiful handcrafted tables inlaid with Cedar and Guanacaste woods.

In the factory, the machinery used to cut, grind and polish the wooden masterpieces, is driven by a river – a river flowing into this wheel. The water spins the wheel which spin and drives the belts which then powers the tools.

Here is an example of an inlaid table in progress and its finished product.

In addition to pieces of art in progress you get to see the, many time ancient, tools used to craft the crafts.

Clamps for woodworking

After walking through 2 levels of the workshop we walked across the lawn to a pavilion where the painters applied their intricate designs to various pieces.

After spending several minutes learning about the design style of the Sarchi painters and saying “hi” to the artists we went inside the store to look at the shot glasses and t-shirts.

Hasta Pronto,

Greg