Michelangelo's Pieta in Tamarindo

No series of photos about statues in Tamarindo would be complete without a photo of this marble copy of Michelangelo's Pieta. This is the only marble Pieta throughout all of Spanish speaking Latin American. (There is one on Brazil, which of course speaks Portugese.)

It is amazing to me that in a hemisphere with the grand architecture and boulevards of Buenos Aires (the Paris of Latin America), and the grandiose plazas and statues of Mexico City (the world's third largest metropolis), tiny Tamarindo, population about 3,000, alone, has a marble Pieta.

This is due to the generosity of Frank Barnyak and others from the USA and Canada who contributed the funds to build a church in Tamarindo. St. Mary's Church is only a year or so old, but they imported marble statues, granite tiles for the floors and walls, and mosaics.

I remember as a child my parents took me to the 1964 New York World's Fair and we saw Michelangelo's Pieta in the Vatican Pavilion. As an adult, I have seen it several times in St. Peter's in Rome, although it is now behind glass due to a deranged person's attack on the statue with a hammer. If you cannot go to the Vatican to see the original Pieta, come to Tamarindo and admire this reproduction.

This week we are showing photos of Tanzania on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site, including some of the wildlife on a photo safari. Come take a look.