Domingo

After we got back from the beach we still had plenty to do on Sunday.  We went to a pentecostal church in our neighborhood which was very charismatic.  The worship was awesome - I love worshiping in Spanish and remembering that God understands every language.  One of the students told me that he didn't know exactly what he was singing, but he knew that God did.  We left the service early - after two hours...

Alexa and I at church.

The ruins at Cartago.

Then we got on a little tour bus and headed to Cartago, the original capital of Costa Rica.  We stopped to see the ruins of the church there.  The church had been badly damaged by an earthquake, rebuilt and then damaged again by another earthquake.  After the second earthquake the people just gave up on it and didn't bother fixing it again.  Unfortunately, it was closed so we couldn't see the inside at all, but the outside was still pretty cool.

Inside the manstion turned restaurant.

Next we headed to a coffee plantation for lunch.  The mansion of the plantation had been turned into a restaurant and was very pretty.  They also serve coffee flavored flan - which was ok (I'm not a huge flan fan) - and coffee grown at the plantation.  I tried a cup, but I still like the smell much better than the taste.

The cathedral in Cartago.

Last, we stopped at the Catholic cathdral in Cartago.  The cathedral is home of la Negrita - a small stone carving that is said to have healing powers.  There were cases of little charms that people had brought as a testament to being healed - lots of little silver legs, arms, eyes, etc.  The legend says that la Negrita was found by a little girl, and the girl tired to take her home, only to find she had disappeared and returned to the same spot where she'd originally found the statue.  After this happened a couple more times, they decided to build the cathedral in this spot.