La Familia Quesada: Que Amable

For a few days in San Jose, the Quesada family took me in as one of their own. We went up to Volcan Irazu and Cartago for a paseo, or a day out. The volcano quieted down long ago and now there is a beautiful, bright blue turquoise colored lake in the crater. The vegetation is similar to the low, growing scrubby stuff that I saw on the paramo. The day was especially cloud, so we missed the supposedly beautiful view of the valley below. Even so, there is something wonderful and mysterious about wandering around in the clouds.



On our way down from the volcano, we stopped in Cartago, the old capital of Costa Rica, to see the Basilica de los Angeles. The church was built, oh I forget when exactly, but a long time ago to honor a vision of the Black Virgin. As the story goes, an indigenous women found a little figure of the Virgin craved in black stone when she was gathering wood. She took it home and put it in a box. The next morning the Virgin had (apparently) slipped out of the box and run back to the place where she was found. This happened a few more times to the women and then a few more time to a priest. So it was declared a miracle and the church was built. Now, people go there to gather holy water and also leave remembrances to thank the Virgin for miracles, like curing a sickness.

Overall, I just had a wonderful time being surrounded by Quesadas. They are a very loving and supportive family: lots of hugs, lots of conversations, lots of laughs. It gave me the warm and fuzzies. It was like a little dose of my mom´s hugs and chicken soup before I embark on another adventure.