Walkin' On....A Religious Pilgrimage, of Sorts

Last year on this date, something very important in Costa Rica was cancelled due to the H1N1 virus - the Romería. The Romería is a religious pilgrimage to the Basilica of Our Lady of Los Angeles in Cartago to celebrate the following, that was plagiarized from another blog, "On August 2, 1635, the small statue of the virgin was found at the site of the basillica by a native woman. As the story goes, when this woman tried to take the statuette with her, it miraculously reappeared back where she'd found it. Twice. Finally, she and the other townspeople gave up and built a shrine there where La Negrita had originally been found. In 1824, the statuette was declared Costa Rica's Patron Saint and thus began the annual pilgrimage where people from all corners of the country and beyond come to say their most serious prayers on bent knees." Millions of people walk the route to Cartago from all over Costa Rica and even other Central American countries to arrive for the celebration on August 2nd.

So, being that this will be my last August 2nd in Costa Rica, I set out with two friends on an extremely last minute, spontaneous trip to attempt the walk from a location near my site, but still 40 kilometers away from Cartago. Two of us rushed away from my house Sunday afternoon after running a girls' outdoor leadership camp all weekend (post on that to come soon) to meet another volunteer to begin the walk around 3 pm….a bit late for a full 40 kilometer walk, but we figured we'd walk what we could before it got dark (even though many people walk through the night, we chose not to be walking after dark).

Yeah, that's right, that's Laura Chinchilla, Costa Rica's current and first female president. I'm pretty sure she's waving at me. ;)

We walked. And we walked. Along the highway, cars zooming past us in both directions of the Inter-American Highway, passing groups of other pilgrims along the way. Three hours passed and the sun was completely gone, the rain had begun and it was very dark. So, we ended our walking part of the pilgrimage right there about 15 kilometers short and decided to grab a bus the rest of the way. Arriving in Cartago around 7 pm, the city was hustling and bustling with people from all over Costa Rica, there to get a blessing from Our Lady. We quickly grabbed another bus to a quiet little city tucked in a beautiful valley surrounded by coffee plantations just outside of Cartago where we stayed for the night.

The following morning we enjoyed a European breakfast at a german-run lodge - coffee, tea, croissants, baguettes, fruit, granola, yogurt. Delicious. Simple.

Then we were on our way to the basilica back in Cartago. We arrived just at the end of mass, complete with big screens, crowd control, vendors offering to take your picture, aaaaaaaaand a Laura Chinchilla sighting, up close and personal - Costa Rica's current president and first female president. A quick stop on the basilica to see Our Lady of Los Angeles, and we were back in our way to explore the rest of festivities.

An afternoon latte and pastry finished things off before we got our buses back home.

Arriving home tired, and feeling juuuuuust a bit more spiritual, I was ready for another day in my little ol' life here in this little ol' village.