A little more info...

Now for more juicy details!!! When we went to the Orosí Valley we also visited the Basílica de Nuesta Señora de los Angeles. It is the church of lady of angels. This is the saint of the Costa Rican people. It is very similar to the Virgen Mary. Here is a picture of the outside:

It is extremely beautiful and very large! And it all started with a little “negrita.” Here is a bit of the story…In 1635 there was a little dark skinned girl that was walking through the forest. She got to a river and on one the rocks in the river there was a dark rock that resembled the Virgen Mary. The little girl was excited because the rock or statue was dark skinned like she was so she took the rock home and hid it under her bed. She went out the next day and the statue was back on top of the rock. So she ran home and told her mother…who in turn told the priest. The priest went to the rock and declared that it was sign and that he was meant to build a parish in honor of the statue. So he took the statue to his parish but it mysteriously returned back to its original location, twice. In 1926, the Catholic Church build a basilica on the spot of the forest to house the statue (so that it would remain in the same place.) Under the church there is “supposedly” a spring that pours out holy water. Costa Ricans often come here to taste the healing power and fill their bottles with the water. Here is a picture of them doing so. It really isn’t a fountain but more like a run off. It has pipes and such. I did seize the opportunity to sprinkle a little on myself…ya know…every little bit helps!


Yesterday Gert, my roommate broke my sunglasses! My favorite sunglasses! It really was an accident. He did not see them and sat on them! I have sat on them many times and they have never broken! Perhaps they were just worn out. It was funny because he felt bad! I told him the previous day that he was bad luck because he lost me in the mall, directed us to the wrong bus and in turn, we had to walk a mile in the pouring rain! (Yeah, Tuesday afternoon was not a good one!) However, he really is nice and felt awful! He tried to fix my glasses and asked if they were expensive or if they were custom made for me! HA HA!!! Little did he realize that they were $7 from Target! He is definitely A LOT better off than I am! He is a big shot European lawyer…and I am a lowly schoolteacher in the ghetto! Anyway, at dinner he surprised me with a new pair! And they are A LOT nicer than mine but they look very similar. They are Ray Bans. Because they are expensive…I know I will break them or lose them!

Speaking of being a schoolteacher…you know how in English we will often say “I’m just a poor…” Well apparently they don’t say that here. At dinner the other night the family and I were discussing how cheap movies are here in Costa Rica (like 3 bucks!) *Now remember…this is all in Spanish* Mauricio starts to say how expensive they are in Canada (which is the same in the U.S.) So, I told them how it was the same in the U.S. and that I never went to the movies. The mom asked me why and I said “!Porque yo soy una maestra pobre!” This means… Because I am just a poor teacher. Apparently, this is not a statement in Spanish but a joke because Isabel just laughed and laughed! And kept saying how funny I was! HA! Who knew?!?

Now to the food!!! The food here is very delicious but not as different as I expected. We have rice almost every night but the rice is very delicious. Its sort of plain…but delicious! We have a lot of fruits and vegetables. The pineapple and bananas are the best! They are also the 2 main exports out of Costa Rica. (Coffee is the 3rd.) I have not really eaten out much. Once I ate out for lunch and I just went up the street to the Automercado (a type of supermarket.) However, the food was delicious. I had a Spinach empanada. It was so good!!! It had spinach, cheese and onions. !Qué Rica! Isabel also cooks typical American food like baked chicken and spaghetti. But it is always delicious! In fact, for breakfast she sometimes makes scrambled eggs. I do not normally like scrambled eggs but these are delicious! She puts little tiny chopped up onions and spices in with the eggs. It is yummy! She also made us homemade Flan the other night!

Today we are off to a butterfly farm! Hopefully it will be fun and will not rain on us! It rains almost every day but usually not for long. Kind of like when I lived in Boone. You know that it is going to rain but you do not know when and for how long!

I hope everyone else is doing well! Keep the emails and comments coming! I love reading them! ~Miss you all~