On one of our first days in Santo Domingo we discovered the Hotel Bougainvillea. It is a quarter of an hour’s walk away from our home and from the Don Quijote school. We buy cards to access the gym and swim area – this costs us 65 Dollars for four weeks. From now on we escape the blazing summer (verano) heat that weighs on Santo Domingo in the afternoon. Instead we enjoy the breeze at the pool, and we cool down by swimming. Often we are alone in the pool.

After the swim, we join this man on his bench…

and stroll around in the beautiful garden with shady trees, flowers, small and huge bromelias,…

an abundance of orchids,…

a Japanese garden representing the pacific ocean and…

with the many birds… no fotos of them, because they sit in the crowns of the trees. These men on the high stand are better equiped with huge telescopes and teleobjectives; they can shoot fotos of birds.

To wrap up the afternoon, we take a four fruit jugo (juice) in the friendly hotel bar.

We have booked the last two nights of our Costa Rica vacation in the hotel Bougainvillea to recover from our tour around the country and to get ready for the long flight home. Now we look forward to picking up our car. It will wait for us in the hotel Bougainvillea. Hasta luego.

Two students – not sooo young any more

We are two students of Spanish, but we are no longer very young. We have both retired recently. We feel like improving the command of Spanish. Just for our pleasure and to communicate better, when traveling in Costa Rica or later in other Spanish speaking countries.

We have quite a bit of collareral knowledge, because Spanish is not the first language we have learnt. We would like to study Spanish by talking, reading, learning more words and repeating specific topics based on OUR books. We look for one teacher for the two of us.  We would also like to live with a family.

What we absolutely do not look for are tests, exams and graduations. We learn Spanish for our pleasure and therefore we are intrinsically motivated. We will feel when our command of the language improves.

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We selected the Don Quijote school in Santo Domingo

We contacted four schools and then selected Don Quijote, an affiliate of a much larger organization. The school is located in the suburb of Santo Domingo above busy San José. We selected Don Quijote, because they listened to our requests and replied to them in detail.

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We arrived in Santo Domingo in Semana Santa and felt at home

When we arrrived in Semana Santa,  our homestay family gave us a hearty welcome. For four weeks, we have now lived in two small and cosy rooms with separate bathrooms and enjoyed the hospitality and the well balanced cooking of Charo. We felt at home. The location was ideal – in a small and quiet street, just five minutes from school and two minutes from the bus station to San José or Heredia. Whenever we returned from a visit from San José, we breathed deeply… much fresher air and much more tranquility in Santo Domingo. This was an excellent choice.

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Working in a family atmosphere in the Don Quijote school

The Don Quijote school is in a spacious villa.

Carlos greeted us with a friendly “adelante”, when we entered. Gabi, the manager, welcomed us. Her friendly smile fills the spacious common rooms with the kitchen.

Michel shows us round… we love the beautiful garden surrounding the villa.

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We work following our agenda

With Eli we work for three weeks following our agenda: A lot of conversation (exchanging about Costa Rica and Switzerland, always being corrected), reading, repeating grammar (such as prepositions, reflexive verbs, pronomina… and of course the subjuntivo) and enhancing our vocabulary (such as cooking, cars, animals and plants etc). Thank you, Eli, for answering all our questions patiently – we only stopped asking, when we understood the topic “our way”. And thank you, Gabi, to have kept all tests away from us.

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Other activities

The school offered other activities beyond “dry” learning. Every Tuesday the students and teachers cook and eat together. Once it was empanadas, once stuffed paprika and once we prepared Älplermagrone – this was the idea of Ursula and the Costa Ricans and the students loved it – muy rico. This is how I explained the recipe to all of them, before we started to cook it.

The recipe is based on Betty Bossi. She has an equivalent in Costa Rica: Tía Florita.

The students regularly meet in a bar to have a chat and once we shared breakfast at school. The students mostly speak Spanish with one another though “short cuts” using English or French might be tempting.

Once a week, Michel takes new students to San José to introduce them to the city. And Jorge, the school driver that fetches students at the airport, offers great tours for up to four persons… we have participated in quite a few of these tours.

I can recommend this small Don Quijote affiliate of Santo Domingo

This is a small school. It provides a good environment for one to one lessons. I observed one student that came as an absolute beginner and after a week he was able to have a conversation in Spanish. I can recommend this small school. If only more students would come here to benefit from it.

What I can also recommend is this little restaurant called the “Gentle Cat”. It is just across the street of Don Quijote and offers good Costa Rican food at reasonable prices. We sometimes recovered forces here after an intensive morning.

Our three weeks have passed quickly. Now we will soon start to travel and look forward to applying what we have learnt – communicating in Spanish.

On Monday, April 11th 2016, we have booked Jorge again. With Roland from the Netherlands, Jorge takes us to Cartago and to the Osori valley. We are leaving early at 7:30. It is the Battle of Santa Rosa (1856) that the Ticos celebrate today as a major event forming their nation.

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Cartago, the old colonial city that has suffered from volcano eruptions and earth quakes

Cartago was founded in 1563 on 1400m above sea level. It has been destroyed by the eruption of the volcano Irazú in 1723, then shaken twice by severe earthquakes in 1841 and 1910. After 1910, the people from Cartago gave up to rebuild their Santiago Apóstol Parish Church. It is a ruin now, an impressive ruin.

Instead they built the Basilica de la Nuestra Señora de los Angeles.

They constructed it on the site where a lady collecting wood found the Negrita, the black and tiny Maria. Whenever she took the  Negrita home, the Negrita went back to the place, where she had been found. Now there is a pilgrimage place here with holy wells that are visited by sick people asking for help. The miraculous healings are documented in vitrines… here is one for the eyes.

Above the well is this quote from the bible: “Como busca la cierva corrientes de agua, mi alma te busca a tí, Díos mío” (Salomo, 42 – As the deer looks for streams of water, I look for you, my God). On August 2nd, this Negrita and the well are visited by many pilgrims.

In the Basilica the mass is terminating. The interior has a beautiful ambiance with its blue columns, wooden ceilings and stained windows. The Negrita resides above the altar.

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The Jardín Bótanico Lankester – loved by tourists and Ticos

Founded in 1973 in Paraíso, not far from Cartago, is a center of exhibition and conservation of the University of Costa Rica. The main focus is on orchids.

There are also a lush Japanese garden, a cacti corner, ferns, ginger plants and palm trees.

And, on the meadows, in corners of the Japanese garden, under fern trees, all over we meet Tico families that have come together to share a picnic on this sunny free Monday.

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Orosi and the beautiful valley of the Reventazôn river

Our car climbs up to a small pass, and from here we can see the Orosi valley with the coffee plantations.

In rural Orosi, we visit the San José de Orosi church and the Convento Franciscano, unfortunately closed on Mondays.

We drive around the lake to Ujararas and eat lunch in a beautiful garden restaurant with an adjacent swimming pool and fish pond for Tilapias. The voices of happy chlidren enjoying the pool are in the background. The restaurant is surrounded by Cas trees, and we take fruit juices made from Cas.

200m farther there is the old church of Ujarras. The first church here was erected in 1561. But in 1832 it was decided that this place is too dangerous due to flooding and frequent earthquakes and the people had to relocate. The church then  decayed. Now there is a park here… on this sunny free Monday it is full of families that merrily enjoy their picnics. Jorge says that he has never seen so may people here before.

On the way back to Santo Domingo, we are caught by some traffic jams – the Ticos seem to return from their picnics to tackle the rest of the week working again. But then, Jorge knows the best secret streets home, and we arrive in time to fulfill our promise and prepare Älplermagrone (pasta as prepared in the Swiss Alps) for our Tico family.

Sunday is another day that is free from studying Spanish. Today we visit the Museo del Oro Precomolombino y de Numismática in San José. The afternoon is reserved for family visits.

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A very, very beautiful museum shop

When we arrive around nine, the gates to the underground museum at Plaza de la Cultura are just being opened. The museum shop looks very inviting. It sells handcrafted work produced by the remaining 2100 Indígenas or natives from Costa Rica. High quality artwork! Masks, objects made out of woven textile, calabaza, gold and terra cotta. I would love to buy it all, but my suitcase is to small. Here are some samples.

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Museo de Oro: An great overview of pre-columbian life and artifacts

The precolombian inhabitants of Costa Rica were at the intersection of the high cultures of Mexico and of the Andes, and produced wonderful small artifacts made out of gold, both by negative form wax casting anf by positive form hammering. The motives are taken from nature which is illustrated by an interactive rain forest mockup. The artifacts date from 500 to 1500 AD. It is sad for me to read the edict of the gobernator that had the natives expelled from their homelands in 1665.

Here are two examples, a bat…

… and a frog.

Also beautful pottery was manufactured by the pre-columbian natives.

… and music instruments.

At an interactive desks visitors can compose their own precolumbian music, a great idea that we have not tried out though.

You can also learn, how the precolumbian natives lived, how they organized their spiritual lifes (women played an important role) and how they buried their dead.

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The numismatic department – entertaining and informative

The numismatic museums I have seen so far, are nothing but a boring display of coins and more coins under glass. But this numismatic museum is different. It makes the link between money and history in Costa Rica. Precolumbian lived in a barter economy. In 1821 Costa Rica became part of the centralamerican confederation which was reflected in the coins. From 1838 onwards, the now independent nation of Costa Rica had heir own coins. The coins were called Escudos and Reales. This is an Escudo of 1850.

From 1896 onwards the money was called Colones. In 1950, the Central Bank of Costa Rica bought this printing machine from Heidelberg that was in use until 1994.

Heidelberg, this is the town where I was born, and from here the brother and sister of my grandfather emigrated to Costa Rica. The cousin of my father built up the “Los Peters” coffee business in Sarchi in the 50-ies. I loop back to my roots. And in the afternoon, we visit two of my cousins descending from the “los Peters family”. We received a great welcome… wonderful and thank you.

It is weekend. No school, no studying. We have booked Jorge again, the good soul and driver of the Don Quijote school that shows the students around the area. Our program for today: The cable car in the rain forest and a boat ride on the Sarapiquí river.

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Flying through the rain forest – a little “touristy”, but… impressive

We head east leaving the Central Valley with San José on the motorway to Guapiles and Puerto Limon that goes through rain forest. We stop at this private park.

It offers cable car rides through the rain forest. We fly along quietly, first on the middle level of the trees and then along the crowns of them. For about an hour.

It is a primary rain forest with the highest trees reaching up to 60m. On the trees an abundance of epiphytes. While riding, we do not see any animals – we just hear the noise of the cicadas and of some iygüirros (thrush, Drossel), the national bird of Costa Rica. The guide that came with us says, it is normal that during the day you just hear the rain forest. They have cameras that filmed even tapirs in the night. The weather is beautiful, and he regrets that there is no rain today – rain belongs to a rain forest… well, no rain is okay for us.

After the ride we go for a short walk. The park has prepared gardens with frogs, snakes, butterflies and orchids. Then we see a sloth high, high up in the crown of a tree. We can just distinguish his furry back. My binoculars serve me well, the ones that Ernst gave to me as a present after our journey to Costa Rica six years ago.

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“Gliding” along the Sarapiquí river – our first howler (congo) monkeys

Soon we are leaving the dense rain forest and reach the intersection Guapiles/Puerto Viejo de Sarapiquí. We drive north along plantations of pineapples and palm oil to Puerto Viejo de Sarapiquí. It is here where my family started their plantation business in Costa Rica – the brother of my grand-father had banana plantations . Until end 19th century it was the most important port in Costa Rica, but it lost its importance, when Puerto Limon emerged along with the train from San José to Puerto Limon.

After a great lunch in restaurant “Soda mi Linda” (Jorge’s favorite place), we hire a private boat just for our small group of five.

On this warm and sunny Saturday, many families are swimming in the river. Jorge says that they are mostly Nicaraguans working in the banana fields. We chuck along, changing sides, peeping into the trees and into the water.

There they are, high high up in the top of the tree, howling and jumping from branch to branch: Holwer monkeys  (congos, Brüllaffen).  Swallows (golondrinas, Schwalben) are following our boat. Egrets (garzas or garzetas, Reiher) sit on the dead wood along the shore and one of them has just caught a fish. Two alligators (caimanes) are dozing in the water – they are perfectly camuflaged, I would have never seen them withouth the boat driver showing them to us. A cormoran is drying his wings  (anhinga). We enjoy our first wildlife experience in Costa Rica.

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Drummers? – No, this is not Semana Santa, this is the Campaña Nacional de Costa Rica

In the mid nineties, William Walker privately tried to establish a colony in central America. Costa Rica fought against him in a series of battles from 1856 and 1857. The main battle was on April 11th and will be celebrated on Monday. But there were more battles, one of then on April 10th in Sarapiquí (Battle of Sardinal). And this is why we are now stopped by a parade of drummers and standard bearers, all dressed in blue and white. The war ended on May 1st and counts as the foundation of the nation of Costa Rica.

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Back to the Central Valley, for sea level to 1100m

With this coquito tree we sa good bye to the low lands and return back to the Central Valley and Santo Domingo.

Thank you, Jorge, for another great experience in Costa Rica.

At seven in the morning, Jorge from the Don Quijote school picks us up and with Valentina we drive to the Poás, one of the active volcanoes in Costa Rica. The plan is to visit the park and later the Catarates La Paz.

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We are lucky… we can see the Poás crater with the lake

Overtaking cyclists our car winds up and up through coffee and strawberry plantations (we buy strawberries sold along the road later) and at eight we reach the Poás vulcan on about 2700m. It is chilly… Valentina from Belgium feels cold – no mountains there, just “mon plat pays”. Good that I have two jackets with me.

We are almost alone. The park has just opened. On a wide paved road we walk 600m to the newest crater from an eruption in 1953.

This crater has been active again in the nineties. Because of the sulfur emitted from the crater it is only allowed to watch it from the lookout. I catch the photo with the steam cloud.

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Walking through shady forest to the Laguna Botos

Up we walk on a well maintained path through a shady cloud forest to the next crater. It is extinct and holds the Laguna Botos.

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The Sendero Canto Aves

We continue our way on the Sendero Canto Aves. Ursula and Valentina see hummingbirds – I hear many birds, but cannot see them in the dense forest. I enjoy the beautiful umbrellas of poor people,

the bromelias,

and the fern trees.

When we come back to the visitor center around ten, I think that I am at a different place than two hours ago. Everything is packed with tourists. Good that we were here so early!

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Not far from here… the La Paz waterfall gardens

After a short ride we reach the La Paz waterfall gardens. We find a zoo with the birds, mammals, frogs, butterflies and snakes of Costa Rica, a pool, jacuzi and a pond for fishing trouts, a restaurant for lunch (very efficient, but good food) and several waterfalls in the jungle.

Here is a tame tucan.

And here is a romantic foto of the waterfall area.

Around 4pm we are back at home in Santo Domingo. This has been a beautiful excursion.

It is Saturday, and we have booked a coffee tour with Jorge from our school. Jorge takes us to Britt near Heredia.

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Britt offers a didactical tour to demonstrate the history, plantation and production of coffee. It is a tour with stops in a marvellous, shady garden. There are samples and panels explaining it all.

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Origin of the coffee

Originally the coffee beans come from Ethopia… it seems that goats liked them. Via Saudi-Arabia and Europe they traveled to Brasil and then to Costa Rica.

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Why coffee in Costa Rica and where?

It is the combination of altitude above sea level, rain, volcanic soil and acidity of the terrain that is excellent for the coffee plant. Costa Rica only grows the Arabica plant.

There are several regions that grow coffee, for instance in the central valley around San José or more to the south near Carthago and the Chirripo volcan. The coffee beans from the various regions can be blended or sold as coffee originating from one region.

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Growing a coffee plant

Under the leaves are the seeds that then ar planted out, replanted into the small bags and then into larger bags… it takes three to five years, until the plant can be harvested. 

A coffee plant bears fruit for about 20 years. The red fruit is being harvested from December to February/March. The harvesters are paid by bucket harvested. 11kg of beans give 1 kg of coffee.

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The cleaning and roasting process

Each seed contains two coffee beans that have to be uncovered in a multistage process. Then the beans are sun dried and roasted from 7 to 16 minutes, or from light brown to dark brown. Professional testers perform the quality control, using similar techniques and words like I know from wine tasting. The lady guiding through the tour with a lot of humour illustrates all this in a show at the end. We can taste the different coffees, but for us it is difficult to sense the difference. We just think that the coffee we get in Costa Rica has a very balanced taste.

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The gorgeous Britt garden

The Britt show has given a good overview of the process of growing coffee… but now I should take Ursula to a real coffee plantation like the one of former Los Peters in Sarchi.

The Britt garden is gorgeous. To complete our visit, we walk through it, enjoy it and take some fotos.

The school Don Quijote offers an excursion to San José. It turns out that we are the only participants of that excursion. Michel is our guide. For 315 Colones, the bus takes us from Santo Domingo to the busy city center of San José. We can feel, hear and smell that we are in a city. People are rushing in the narrow streets,  street sellers are shouting out, what they have to sell and the many busses are exhausting stinking, black smoke. This is the sprawling center of a metropolitan area of about 1.6 mio inhabitants. It is the capital of Costa Rica, but it had to fight for that. Until 1823, the older city Cartago was the capital. In the battle of Ochomongo, San José won and took over.

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On the way to the Plaza de Cultura – some shopping

The bus station to Santo Domingo is not far from the post office, elegant in yellow.

A surf shop? Ursula buys goggles for swimming. A book shop with a German name, Lehmann?

Yes, says Michel, around 1900 many Germans immigrated to Costa Rica. Right, my grand uncle and grand aunt also came to Costa Rica then. We enter and buy a children’s book by Joaquín Gutierrez – he is an author from Costa Rica and Michel loves this book. Let me see, it might come in handy for my telling fairy tales, when back home.

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The Teatro Nacional at the Plaza de Cultura

The Plaza de Cultura is full of Josefinos. It is dominated by the Teatro Nacional, built in 1897. The first enactment, I hear, was Goethe’s Faust.

Inside is a beautiful lobby with statues.

On the ceiling there is the famous painting about coffee and banana plantations that has been produced in Italy and shipped to Costa Rica. The theatre has this plush atmosphere that we both like, for me it is a “real” theatre. It reminds me of Buenos Aires and Ursula of Florence.

The cosy coffee bar inside the theater serves excellent coffee (from Britt) and has enticing cakes. I take the fresh fruit juice named Saraquipí.

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Towards the Museo Nacional and the Parque Nacional

The Museo de Oro closes soon, and we put it on our agenda for later. We follow the Avenida Central. From this street I could see the Museo Nacional six years ago (when I was here with Ernst), but now a modern building stands in the way. It has been built in 2014 and hosts the Jade Museum. Also for later.

The Museo Nacional is in the former arsenal that became superfluous, when Figueres eliminated the military after the civil war of 1947.

I liked this museum six years ago – it gave an excellent overview of the history of Costa Rica.

We continue to the Parque Nacional and admire all the government buildings of San José. In the parque there is amemorial that reminds of the battle of Santa Rosa (1856), when Costa Rica defended itself successfully against invadors from the North.

In the Auto Mercado, we buy Swiss cheese and risotto. We want to cook some Swiss meals for our homestay family. Thank you, Michel, for helping us to find everything and then helping us to carry it.

In the Friday evening traffic jam we return back to our quiet Santo Domingo. The air is much fresher here. We breathe deeply and are happy to have decided to stay in peaceful Santo Domingo.

Semana Santa re-enacts the last days of Christ up to his resurrection

In Semana Santa (Holy Week) the catholics re-enact the last days of Christ and his resurrection: On Palm Sunday his entrance into Jerusalem (the crowd waves with palm leaves), on Holy Thursday the Last Supper of Christ with his apostles, on Good Friday his arrest, trial, crucification and death, and on Sunday his resurrection.

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A countless number of activities in Santo Domingo de Heredia

We came to Costa Rica late on Tuesday of Semana Santa and observed the activities of the rest of this week in Santo Domingo de Heredia, our small hometown for the next four weeks, a little off the beaten tracks. Already on Tuesday we heard the “bumpbump” of the drummers accompanying a procession. The number of processions and services to follow in this week were countless… several on each day.  Impossible to attend them all. We visited only a small part… some ten hours in all. Let me share my impressions with you.

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Santa Misa y Procesión solemnel dedicada a Jesú atado a la columna

On Wednesday there is the procession dedicated to Jesus attached to the column (and then Barrabás will be free, not Jesus). Three platforms with figures are waiting in the choir. One of them shows Jesus attached to a column. At six pm, the service starts in the Basilica de Santo Domingo de Guzmán.  Though it is still a working day, the church is almost full. The priest tells the story of Jesús from being captured to resurrection. The drummers and ratcheters enter the church, led buy Roman soldiers. Then the heavy platforms with Jesus at the column leave the church, but this is not easy. The platforms are being carried towards the door, carefully put down to the ground (the leader knocks and all the carriers let the platform down like one hand),  pushed through the door on wheels and finally the platforms  are being balanced down to street level. The procession walks 100m north, some 100m west, 100m south and again some 100m east to get back to the Basilica. We follow them for a while, take a photo of the Basilica and then go home.

I wonder, why there are Romans participating in the processions. They were never in Latin America, right? Yes, right! But this is the enaction of the life of Christ, and the Romans were part of that and hence belong on this stage. Ursula laughs… remember there was the emperor Augustus at that time, she teases me.

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Solemne Procesión de la Humillación

On Thursday from 3 to 5 pm the holy procession of the humiliation takes place. Again three platforms are waiting in the Basilica. Jesus now stands on a mountain looking down at three persons.  Perhaps he is now in the garden Getsemane. On the second platform there is Maria in a blue dress. On the third platform I can see  three men, perhaps apostles (I recognize Petrus with the key and a friend tells me later, the others must be Jacobus and Johannes).

Again the Romans, the drummers and the ratcheters enter the church – and leave them.

Again the three platforms are carefully moved out of the church to the street.

I sense the odor of incense. The men carrying the platforms wear white shirts and a blue ribbon that says ” Jesús del Consuelo.” There are many carriers, and they carry the platforms in changing shifts, as they are heavy.

Some of the ratcheters are small girls that fight with their ratchet to produce the “ratch” noise that accompanies the drummers.

It is all hard work. The sun is burning down on the procession. Some spectators give water to the carriers, the drummers or the ratcheters. I follow the procession for two hours, until they go back to the Basilica.

Wrapped up in incense the statues “walk” back to their places in the choir.

In the evening there is the misa vespertina della cena del Señor, hora santa y adoración al Santisimo, Procesión del Silencio and at 3 am the Trisagio y Prcesión de la Penitencia con Jesús del Consuelo. As we feared to walk alone in the night, we did not attend these events.

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Catching up with the Trisagio y Procesión de la Penitencia

However, at  5:30 am I left the house trying to catch the end of the night procession at the first daylight. I find the procession in the second large church of Santo Domingo, en “el Rosario”. The cargadores (that carried the platforms) are sitting outside of the church and prayers are entering the church. The platform of Christ stands near the choir. I join the prayers. The church is full. The prayers are standing. This service finishes soon, and many people are leaving saying, “necessitamos un descanso” (we need a rest). I can understand that, they have been up from 3am to follow the Trisagio service and the procession. And now it is after six in the morning. The children that had operated the rattle are sitting in the cemetery. This has been a long day for them. They have taken off their white and red gowns and hold them in their hands.

The celebrations now continue seamlessly after the night procession. The cargadores enter the church. Today they are wearing vests of bordeaux red color with a foto of Jesús on their backs. They surround Jesus in the garden and stand still. Someone attaches the cross to Jesus making him ready for his march to Golgatha.

A young priest starts to plea for the ill… one after the other, and always, he repeats: “Nada es imposible”. People are mourning and some are crying. One lady is so overwhelmed that she has to leave the church temporarily. The priest then asks all to embrace their neighbors. Some of the cargadores come to the back of the church to embrace their parents and brides. In the end we all take our hands and pray together. To complete the service, the priest tells us the next events… the activities will last all day again. The service for the ill ends at about eight am. Some of the participants have been up since 3 am.

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Bendición del Fuego on Saturday evening

On Saturday evening we attend the service “Bendición del Fuego”. The theme is: The Light is back. The believers enter the church at 8pm with candles in their hands. When we arrive, they are already in the church. It is full, not one seat left. People are even standing. Aoother procession is just coming back from their turn around the city and is entering the church under the bumpbump of the drummers, the ratchratch of the ratcheteers and the sounds of the brass musicians, enwrapped in a cloud of scenting  incense.

When all the platforms with Christ and his environment are back near the choir, the service starts. The priest tells stories from the Old Testament, Genesis, Abraham and Izaak, Moises, Jesaia, Ezekiel and from the New Testament (the grave is empty on Easter morning’ and a man dressed in white tells Maria Magdalena and two other women not to be afraid, because her son has resurrected). For one topic there is always a sermon, a lection and a prayer (“oremos”). A professional voice is singing beautifully. The believers are listening, are clapping their hands, are praying, and are also looking after their children – with love and care – many of them have brought their favorite plush animals with them. It is all natural and chlidren belong to that. A baby is baptized and also an adult after having confirmed his “yo creo”. Later the lights were switched on, to indicate that Christ has resurrected. In the prayers, people hold their hands up.With the holy communion the service ends. Charo y Jesús have come to meet us and take us back home at 11pm.

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Easter service at 10 am on Sunday morning

On Sunday we go back to the Basilica with Charo and Jesús at 10 am. Another processiom has just returned and the statues on their platforms are moving into the Basilica.

The Basilica is again full. Not one seat is free. Families have come with their children and plush animals, mothers in hot pants and sleeveless tops, young couples – the girls in short sleeveless dresses – it seems to be normal to come to the church and celebrate another service with fervor. Singing, lections, prayers, preaching. The songs are vivid and all believers sing, move their bodies with the beat of the music, clap their hands, hold their hands up to demonstrate their faith in God. They sing “resucitó”, “ame”, “gloria”. The service ends with the sacrament – there are four long queues that patiently wait for their small piece of holy bread. One and a half hours later, the priest announces more processions… how many more will take place? I am losing track of them.

While we walk back home, Ursula and I admire the fervor and enthusiasm that the catholics show here in Costa Rica to celebrate Semana Santa and re-enact the last days and the resurrection of Christ. But, we also feel fear. Can such a mass of people not be seduced… by wrong leaders and by the wrong messages? This is just a short thought.

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 Nothing  is impossible, this is the message of hope that I take with me

We both are protestants brought up in Switzerland. We do not take all the events of the Semana Santa by the word, but like beautiful symbols. We enjoyed the atmosphere of solemnity, fervour and peace of the celebrations we attended. “Nothing is impossible” or “nada es imposible” means hope for me… hope that there will always be men and women that despite the recent attacks and the wars around us keep up their vision of peace and are willing to act. We do hope that nothing is impossible and that we will find peace again. Or, as the NZZ of March 27th puts it: “Death does not have the last word, but the last but one word”. Shall all be possible… and nothing impossible.

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