Costa Rica 2013

Tuesday5thNovember

Last wake-up in Cahuita (not at Secret Garden as we changed hotels), we leave our rooms to head to central Costa Rica towards Cartago.

But before leaving, a typical breakfast...

Lunch break at El Clon restaurant near Juan Vinas where you can eat next to a small train that constantly circles, suspended above the void!

Early afternoon, we arrived at our destination, we still have time to visit the Lankester Botanical Gardens which hold, among other things, one of the largest orchid collections in the world.

Nepenthes carnivorous plants. Insects fall to the bottom of the flower where digestive juices will consume the small victim of the trap...

Arrival at the Japanese garden through a bamboo thicket

Giant bamboos guadua angustifolia

Details of bamboo nodes

Ginger flowers (zingiber officinale)

Located in Cartago, the Basilica of Nuestra Señora de los Angeles (Our Lady of the Angels, holy patroness of Costa Rica) is the Lourdes of Costa Rica. A place of pilgrimage, it houses the statuette of La Negrita. This small representation of the Virgin was found here on August 2, 1635, by a young peasant woman, Juana Pereira. The villagers placed the statuette in a safe place twice, and each time it returned without explanation to the spot where it had been found. That was all it took to declare a miracle and build a basilica there...  

Regina Angelorum (Queen of Angels), Ora Pronoeis (pray to providence).

The most devout enter on their knees.

The interior is entirely made of hardwood.

Some stained glass windows and statues

One of the chapels and the organ located above the entrance

The small black virgin (20 cm) almost imperceptible in a golden reliquary behind the altar

Behind the basilica, the stream of the time has given way to taps where pilgrims can come and fill their water bottles with the effigy of the statuette.

Night falls, it's time to return to Turrialba where we will spend the night

The church of Turrialba

A quick look inside the church. There are quite a few people for a Tuesday. Catholicism is the official religion of the country.

Now, to bed because tomorrow is Rafting!