Jordan in Costa Rica 2012: Adventure to Cartago and Cachi

Today Mara and I took an adventure out to Cartago to visit the very famous ruins and church. We took a bus from out town of Tres Rios and stopped somewhere near the town center. We then walked around for a bit and happened upon the ruins. They were quiet beautiful. It was hard to imagine them as ruins of a church as there was all the hustle and bustle of the city.

The church was built many times only to be destroyed many times by natural disasters. In 1910, an earthquake happened causing the latest reconstruction to collapse. It was then decided to cease all construction and what is left are the ruins of the church.

While taking pictures I was leaning against the ruins. Low and behold, I could have been eaten by the world's largest moth!

These boys thought it was so funny to see a tourist. So I just had to take their picture!

It is said on a foggy night in Cartago you can see the headless ghost of a priest roaming the ruins.

We weren't really sure why this sign was there... or what it really meant.

Mara and I outside the ruins.

Never thought in my wildest dreams I would go to Costa Rica and see Patrick Starr (a SpongeBob character) spray painted on the side of a delivery truck.

We then traveled to the very famous Basicillica de Los Angeles. There holds a statue of the "black virgin Mary" that has a lot of folklore behind it. On August 2, people from across the country pilgrimage to this church to ask for help from the virgin, some even on their knees. We witnessed people shuffling on their knees toward the front of the church today as we sat to take in all of its beauty.

After the church, we took a taxi to Cachi, a small town with some more famed ruins that was recommended to us by our house brother. The taxi driver went one way, but the road was closed. After much discussion with a random man on the sidewalk he decided on the best way to go. Something you should know about Costa Rica, the road conditions are "not up to code" and the drivers are all competing for the Daytona 500. There were many "Mi dio"'s said under my breath as the driver would careen around a corner on a one lane road. We witness many beautiful ravines and coffee plantations as we drove into the Orosi valley. Our driver however, did not know where the ruins were so we ended up driving to Cachi... but the ruins are not actually in Cachi. So we drove back towards Cartago, asked a few other random people, then finally came upon the beautiful national park where the ruins reside.