A Visit to Cartago

Today Sam and Nafisa had to go to Cartago, the main city in the province, for Soraya’s first pediatrician visit.  Cartago is only 35 kilometers away but, given the quality of the roads, that means an hour’s drive.    They were able to get an appointment in Cartago with an excellent homeopathic pediatrician at 2 PM, later changed to 3 PM.  We left our house just in time for Abe to get his regular afternoon nap, using two cars and driving as caravan all the way to the outskirts of Cartago, where Sam and Nafisa headed of to the doctor;s office while Nancy and I headed downtown.  Our plan was to visit two of the outstanding tourist sites in town: the Basilica of the Virgin of the Angels, which houses a precious statue of a dark-complected Virgin Mary that has been designated as the official patron of Costa Rica; Las Ruinas, as ruin of the 19th century recontruction of a 16th Century church, also located in the downtown area of Cartago; and the Ruins of Ujurrás, the stone remains of the oldest church in Costa Rica, also dating from the 16th Century.  It turned out that this was an overly ambitious agenda given how late we were arriving in Cartago.

We made it to the Basilica, and it was certainly a mustn’t miss.  Lovely from the outside
           

especially seen against the background of the surrounding mountains





it was particularly lovely inside.  The columns were painted with a consistent pattern, as were the wooden walls

although there was extra painted detail on some walls

and some parts of the ceiling

Most of the statuary portrayed white people

making these two statues, one small and below eye-level

and one lifesize on a pedestal

stand out

As best as I could tell, the relic statue is kept in this structure behind the altar

This Pastoral scene could be found in one of the semitransepts

By the time we were done looking at the basilica, it was approaching 4 PM, and we figured we should skip the ruin in downtown, which was after all the ruin of a more recent reconstruction, and make a beeline for Ujurrás where, according to all reports, the ruins would be closing at 4:30 PM.  Unfortunately, as we arrived, families were coming out of the site, and the uniquitous parking jockey waved us away, telling is that closing time had been 4 PM.  We should have tried Las Ruinas in Cartago!
               
But driving toward Ujurrás put us on a different route back home than we had taken coming to Cartago – instead of going the “back way” over the mountains, we drove through the some dramatic countryside,

including extensive plantings of chayote

As we approached Turrialba, with dusk was getting nigh, we saw this nice rainbow