Sunday:
Spanish Level: My Spanish still sucks. Carmen’s family was so nice to me it was truly incredible. I really wish I knew more words so I could talk with them. I could understand a lot of what they said which was good but trying to respond I know they thought I was nuts or just plain retarded.
I had asked to visit the Basilica in Cartago so we all got up at 7 and got ready to go. Cartago is about an hour away from their house. The church there is notorious in the country and in the world, Basilica de Nuestra Senora de los Angeles. There is a story that a small statue/doll of a mother and child was found here and moved several times but that the statue mysteriously always returned to the original location. It didn’t want to be moved. For this miracle, the priests finally quit moving the doll to other churches and just built a church around the doll where it preferred to stay. Allen, one of the sons in the family told me a lot about the history and other things at the church. The whole family is really great!
After church I figured we’d go back home but no… we went on a full fledged tour of Cartago, it is similar in size to about 3 counties in GA. We met a friend of Freddie’s in the mountains and then in 3 cars we all went first to view a dam and lake from the mountain top. Costa Rica gets 65% of their power from hydro electrics. Then we went down a LONG dirt road past a coffee plantation to a national park to see a waterfall and a river, then down through the mountains to the lake and dam. Freddie works for the electric company in Costa Rica. He helped build this dam. Next we drove around past miles of farms of chayote and chili dulce and coffee, we stopped at a piece of land the friends had purchased where they plan to build their new house, it was beautiful but a little secluded. I asked them who they were going to drink coffee with?? Then we went on to some famous ruins of a church near where Freddie’s friend was born. He used to work for the electric company too but now he and his son are taxi drivers (of the legal, red taxis). We went back to their house for coffee and then home. Oh and we stopped back by the Basilica one more time for some holy water they have coming out of a river there where the virgin is. It was a long great day. I had a really good time. I couldn’t believe they all came along. It was great and I couldn’t thank them enough.
When we got back, the part of the family in the other car had stopped and gotten a birthday cake for me!!!!! I couldn’t believe it. They were so nice I felt very at home… they sang happy birthday to me and took pictures and everything. I can’t wait to see them again.
Spanish Level: My Spanish still sucks. Carmen’s family was so nice to me it was truly incredible. I really wish I knew more words so I could talk with them. I could understand a lot of what they said which was good but trying to respond I know they thought I was nuts or just plain retarded.
I had asked to visit the Basilica in Cartago so we all got up at 7 and got ready to go. Cartago is about an hour away from their house. The church there is notorious in the country and in the world, Basilica de Nuestra Senora de los Angeles. There is a story that a small statue/doll of a mother and child was found here and moved several times but that the statue mysteriously always returned to the original location. It didn’t want to be moved. For this miracle, the priests finally quit moving the doll to other churches and just built a church around the doll where it preferred to stay. Allen, one of the sons in the family told me a lot about the history and other things at the church. The whole family is really great!
After church I figured we’d go back home but no… we went on a full fledged tour of Cartago, it is similar in size to about 3 counties in GA. We met a friend of Freddie’s in the mountains and then in 3 cars we all went first to view a dam and lake from the mountain top. Costa Rica gets 65% of their power from hydro electrics. Then we went down a LONG dirt road past a coffee plantation to a national park to see a waterfall and a river, then down through the mountains to the lake and dam. Freddie works for the electric company in Costa Rica. He helped build this dam. Next we drove around past miles of farms of chayote and chili dulce and coffee, we stopped at a piece of land the friends had purchased where they plan to build their new house, it was beautiful but a little secluded. I asked them who they were going to drink coffee with?? Then we went on to some famous ruins of a church near where Freddie’s friend was born. He used to work for the electric company too but now he and his son are taxi drivers (of the legal, red taxis). We went back to their house for coffee and then home. Oh and we stopped back by the Basilica one more time for some holy water they have coming out of a river there where the virgin is. It was a long great day. I had a really good time. I couldn’t believe they all came along. It was great and I couldn’t thank them enough.
When we got back, the part of the family in the other car had stopped and gotten a birthday cake for me!!!!! I couldn’t believe it. They were so nice I felt very at home… they sang happy birthday to me and took pictures and everything. I can’t wait to see them again.
posted by GA_Peach | 9:57 PM
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