The story goes that a long time ago, in 1635, a woman of indiginous and African decent went to the forest to collect firewood. To her surprise she found a small black statue of a woman with a child, and carried it back to her house. The next day the woman went back to the forest and found that the statue had returned to the same place in the forest! The woman told the priest, and he said that the statue was the Virgin of Angels. They could not move the statue because it always returned to the same place, so they built the church right there!
Every year people from all over the country complete this journey to visit the statue and pray to the Virgin of Angels. Most of the people in Costa Rica are Catholic, and pray to the Virgin of Angels about their own problems and problems of the world. When their prayers are answered a silver trinket is put in the church. If they prayed to heal the heart of their father, they would put a trinket in the shape of a heart in the church. A lot of people complete the pilgrimage in order to pray for help from the Virgin of Angels, or simply thank her for their health and happiness. I'm so glad I got to experience it with them!
One of the best things about Costa Rica is that it is usually between 70 and 80 degrees fahrenheit. That means that it is the perfect environment for long walks, especially at night. We were fortunate that it did not rain when we completed our pilgrimage!
Since Costa Ricans are generally very concious about helping the environment, they made sure to encourage people to recycle or throw their trash away.
