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Touted as the centre of Costa Rican arts and crafts, especially furniture making , the village of SARCHI , 30km northwest of Alajuela, is a commercialized place - firmly on the tourist trail but without much charm. Its setting is pretty enough, between precipitous verdant hills, but don't come expecting to see picturesque scenes of craftsmen sitting in small historic shops: the work is done in factories. The Sarchi ox-cart is a kaleidoscopically coloured, painted square cart meant to be hauled by a single ox or team of two oxen. Moorish in origin, the designs can be traced back to immigrants from the Spanish provinces of Andalucia and Granada. Though full-scale carts (US$1000) are, understandably, only rarely sold, smaller-scale versions (US$60-200) specially made for tourists are popular, as are Sarchi tables, bedsteads and leather rocking chairs (about US$70). Apart from the shops and factories, the only thing of interest is a bubblegum-coloured pink-and-turquoise church which looks out from atop the hill in Sarchi Norte.
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