La Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles, Our Lady of the Angels Basilica, was built in dedication to a statue that represents Mary holding the baby Jesus, Virgen de los Ángeles. The story goes that in 1635, a young indigenous girl was collecting wood in the forest and she found a small statue that looked like a doll on top of a stone. She took the doll home and placed it in a box she had. The next day, she went back out to the forest and found another doll on the same stone. When she took that doll home, she realized the first one she had found was gone. So this time, she locked the doll in a box. Again the following day, she went back out to the forest and found the same doll on the same stone in the same location. When she realized that the doll she had found the day before had disappeared from the locked box, she ran and gave the doll to a local priest who also put it in a box. The next day when the priest went to examine the statue further, he discovered it had disappeared. So he went into the forest to where the girl had originally found the statue and it was there again. He took it back with him and this time put it inside the tabernacle. But once again, the statue was gone by the next day. So the priest invited other priests to the forest that day because they realized that something supernatural was occurring and that the statue wanted to remain in that location in the forest. Many churches were built near that location, but they were often destroyed by earthquakes and other natural disasters. But the basilica that is there today was built in the early 1900's. It was a beautiful church to go visit, and the legend behind the church was very fascinating as well. Because this statue appeared in Cartago, the Holy Virgin is the patroness of Costa Rica. Every year, many Costa Ricans make a 22 km pilgrimage to the Basilica in order to visit the rock where the statue was found and then they will wash themselves and drink the water that comes from the rock. There are other similar stories in many Latin American countries, and one that many people may of heard of is Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, Our Lady of Guadalupe, from Mexico.
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| The statue on the rock. | A closeup of the statue. |
On Friday, we all met at the bus station at 6 in the morning to catch our bus to La Fortuna. La Fortuna is a town about 4 hours away by car from San José and it is very close to the Arenal Volcano. It took us quite a while to get there by bus, and once we got there we checked into our hostel and found lunch. For some reason, it was very clear out that day, and because of that, we could see the volcano very nicely. So instead of going to the Baldi Hot Springs like we had planned, we instead went on a hike through the forest to see some animals and find spectacular views of the volcano. We were able to see quite a few animals and plants, and we even got to swim in a waterfall! After that, we did go to an area with some thermal waters, but it was pretty dark at that point so I do not have any pictures. It was not as relaxing as it would have been going to the hot springs all day, but it was a day of adventures and we probably got more out of the day than we would have otherwise.
On Saturday morning, we were picked up from our hostel in a van and we went to the lake that is outside of La Fortuna. The volcano had been dormant for many years, but back in 1968, it erupted. Three towns were buried and about 87 people died. And after that, a couple small towns in the area were relocated, and then the old towns were flooded to increase the size of the lake that was already there. The volcano has been dormant again since 2010. We went by boat across the lake, and the view of the volcano was absolutely amazing. When we got to the other side of the lake, we took another bus to our next hostel in Monteverde. There are quite a few nature reserves in the area, and there is forest all around the town, so it is a very popular tourist destination. After we ate lunch, we went to the hanging bridges in the Selvatura Adventure Park. It sprinkled on us a little bit, but the views were wonderful in the forest, and we even saw a howler monkey up close. That evening, a few of us went on a night tour of a different part of the forest. It had been down-pouring rain for most of the day, so I think that is why we did not see very many animals, but the ones we did see were pretty cool. After that, we went to a restaurant called the Tree House Restaurant and Café. It was definitely a tourist place, but the food was really good. And then a couple of girls from our group had had amazing milkshakes at another restaurant, so another girl and I went there after dinner so we could try the milkshakes, and let me tell you, they did not disappoint.
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| The inside of the Tree House Restaurant and Cafe | The best milkshakes ever. I got a mango one and Allison got a blackberry one. Then the guy gave us a small glass of the other person's milkshake. |
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| A panoramic of the view from our hostel |
Overall, it was a fun weekend filled with a lot of adventure and I had a pretty great time seeing different things in nature that I do not normally get to see. I was kind of annoyed that it rained the whole day in Monteverde, but it is just that season here in Costa Rica, so we just have to enjoy the not rainy days even more.
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