Kattia, Doña Nora’s daughter with a car, has a cold. So, she lent her car to us, and I drove since I was the only one with a license. Alexis brought the car to us, and, as I was driving him back home, he was explaining all the squeaks and squeals that were characteristic of the old car. He said, “It has a lot of problems, but it will take you where you need to go and bring you home.” He was right. The most fun for me was the lack of power steering.
Off we went driving toward Cartago. We got there ok. We saw the basilica that was built where an apparition of Mary was seen. Doña Nora taught me why not all Catholics here are considered “believers.” (She was raised Catholic and now belongs to an evangelical denomination.) The short story is that it is because of tradition for the sake of tradition. So, it could very well happen in any church.
Next, we had lunch in Orosi. A pueblo where there was a Franciscan Mission until from 1743 until 1996. The Iglesia de San José Orosi is the oldest church still in use in Costa Rica. From here we thought we headed toward Cachí, but we took a right. Shortly thereafter the “highway” ended and the dirt/rock road continued. Doña Nora said, “They must be fixing the highway.” We laughed about this twenty minutes later, when we finally turned around on the narrow road with quite a drop-off—after crossing a river and climbing almost to the top of a mountain.
We finally found our way to El Presa de Carchí. Una Presa, as I learned is a dam. There was a pretty lake and you could look waaaaaaaay down from the dam. There were also people selling granizados (A fantastic version of a snow cone with condensed milk and powdered milk. YUM!), crawfish, hats, corn, orchids. It is always an interesting combination of sales.
From here we headed back to San Jose. Except for when we missed our turn and drove for about half an hour out of the way. We didn’t have a map. Yes, I was driving, but Doña Nora was navigating…sometimes. We really did enjoy ourselves. And we actually missed our turns because we were rerouted due to parades common during Semana Santa.
Driving back through Cartago, we stopped at the ruins of a church that was demolished twice by earthquakes. It would have been a HUGE cathedral, but God apparently wanted a garden there instead. There is a beautiful garden inside the walls and no roof.
We made it back to San Jose and returned a much dirtier car to Kattia. We had a great time.
Sunday morning, church was normal. Pastor Raul preached a resurrection sermon, which apparently isn’t terribly common on Easter Sunday among evangelical Christians here, according to a missionary who has been here for 6 years. I think that is because every single day Christians recognize Christ as risen, and every Sunday they celebrate it.
Semana Santa in Costa Rica is kind of like a spring break for everyone. The majority of Costa Ricans travel during the week. The Catholics attend services and have some pretty elaborate parades. But, if you aren’t Catholic, it isn’t very different from any other week.
