Visiting Cartago

HI everyone! We are warm and dry inside our house while it is pouring rain outside. We experienced our first real rain Costa Rican style this weekend. It is very typical for this time of the year to be very rainy, but I've never seen SHEETS of rain like this - it poured for 2 hours straight yesterday and looks like it will do that again today. Luckily, it's started later in the afternoon once we were home from our adventures. The rain is so loud when I was talking on skpe with my (Emily's) folks yesterday, I felt like I had to yell!

We had a fun day yesterday. We left earlier in the morning to head toward Irazu, a volcano near our house. We used the GPS and headed up the mountain in our car, which we now know can handle the mountains! We got to overlook the whole central valley as we drove up - it was amazing! We didn't make it all the way to the volcano as it started to cloud over later in the morning. We will try again in the "summer" months (Dec. and Jan.) when the skies are typically clearer. We headed instead down into Cartago, which was the capital of Costa Rica for about 300 years before they moved it to San Jose. So it's a city full of history. It was Mother's Day yesterday here and it is typical that Catholics go to church on that day, so a lot of people were out and about. We really enjoyed seeing the ruins of a cathedral built in 1575 which was seriously damaged by an earthquake in the 1800s. They've created a beautiful garden inside now and the area is kind of a public park/square.

We also visited the basilica in Cartago which has a very interesting history. The story goes that a young Indian girl, walking through the forest, found a black stone figurine of a woman holding a baby. She brought it home to keep and the next day, found the doll had escaped and was back in the forest. She went through this routine for a couple of days and finally told her story to the priest and gave the doll to him. The doll disappeared from his office as well and returned to the forest. They decided this was a sign from God. As the story spread, the Costa Ricans adopted this as a vision of the Virgin Mary and call her the Negrita - the little black girl. People come to the church to pray to the Virgin for healings and give thanks for successes and miracles they've experienced. They bring charms of their body parts they want healed or tokens (sports medals, notes, etc) and leave them at the church. It was fascinating to see the thousands of tokens that people have left behind.

We also stepped into the mass that we just finishing up. Mother's Day in Costa Rica coincides with the Day of the Assumption of Mary. There were many in church and at the end of the service, people got on their knees to crawl down the aisle to the altar. We learned they were asking something of God or had promised God this act of contrition. It was incredible to see and to imagine how painful this would be! Every August 2, people from all over Costa Rica come to this church (some walking all the way) as a pilgrimage to worship and ask things of God.

We really enjoy learning about and seeing various parts of the country. Spanish classes are going very well. Mark did EXCELLENT on his test and can now talk in the past tense quite well :) We both passed into our next levels which we start tomorrow. We are feeling a little more confident as each day goes by and it feels a little more like "home." We miss you all, however! Thanks for your prayers!