Out of the Jungle

Time for another update, this time from San Jose.  We’ve been in San Pedro, a city right next to the capital city of San Jose, since Wednesday.  I’ve been living with my host mother, Mayra, her daughter, Christina, and her son, David since we arrived and attending intensive Spanish classes at the Costa Rican Language Institute for five hours each day.  My host family is really nice and helpful, especially David.  He is 18 and speaks very good English, though he only speaks Spanish with me, in order to help me practice.  I’ve learned (not without some adventures) how to walk to school, how to take the buses and how to cross the Pan-American Highway where there are no crosswalks and people drive like maniacs.  It’s hard to tell is my Spanish is improving at all, but I’m certainly getting more comfortable and things I learned long ago are coming back, albeit slowly. 

We visited the national museum, where I found these balls of rock and I’ve spent a little time exploring San Pedro and my hometown, Lourdes, but I decided that I wanted to spend my free Sunday checking out some churches.  Not only are there churches every where in Costa Rica, but they are absolutely beautiful.  They certainly don’t have that Puritan-influenced, New England look that I’m used to.  I asked my host family what time services are held on Sundays for the church on the corner, but they told me I should take the bus to Cartago to see the National Church, which is essentially the basilica of Costa Rica.  Cartago is the old capital of Costa Rica and is about a 30 minute bus ride from the center of San Pedro.  So I set off from my house this morning and spent about 4 hours walking around Cartago.  I got off the bus in front of an incredibly beautiful church and sat inside for services.  I don’t think I’d ever seen so many people in a church.  I walked around and saw the ruins of an old fort, a road race with tons of entertainment, three other gorgeous churches, plus some impressive government buildings.  I thought I was pretty much ready to go, so I spent the next 2 ½ hours looking for the bus stop to go home.  In my wanderings (and I mean wanderings,) I turned a corner and saw what was quite literally a breath-taking sight.  Right in front of me was the basilica.

The other church I had seen was beautiful, but had nothing on the real thing; the basilica stretched on and on and the sheer whiteness of the structure seemed so majestic among the red and orange buildings.  I ventured inside and caught the end of services, then looked around for a while before continuing my quest for the bus, which I eventually found and took home.  I certainly found some churches! The project for next weekend is to find one of the three synagogues in San Jose and check that out as well.  This week also holds (a lot) more Spanish, a trip to visit the Cabecar indigenous group, and more exploring San Jose.