Warning: this post might not be the most fluid or well-written because my brain is pretty fried right now.
So, this weekend was a pretty laid-back one, considering all of the crazy travels I have been doing the past 5 weekends. I didn't leave my bed all of Friday. Saturday wasn't much different, except I ventured to the common area of my hostel and relaxed on the couch. I also managed to walk to the store to grab some food for myself. Since I wasn't feeling up to much, I managed to watch a whole season of Criminal Minds on Netflix. An impressive (pathetic?) feat, considering there are about 25 episodes in a season, and each episode is about 45 minutes long. Please, don't do the math on that.
Today I am feeling a bit better. I graduated to toast this morning for breakfast, and quickly accelerated to pancakes and strawberries for lunch! Much to my dismay, I couldn't finish my pancakes or strawberries, but it was a start.
I haven't actually explored San Jose much, so I decided I would go on a little adventure today and sightsee a bit. Truthfully, I don't really have too much of a desire to "get lost" and roam about San Jose, so I think what I did today will be the extent of my San Jose adventures (despite living here, during the weekdays, of course!). I wanted to go to mass at the main cathedral in San Jose, so I looked it up on Google (Google is the best). The main cathedral in town, Catedral Metropolitana, is located in the heart of the city, about 3.5 km away from where I am living. The listed mass times online were 9:00, 10:30, and noon, so I figured if I grabbed a cab around 9:45, I could get there a bit early and look around for a bit. I took one last look at the map and headed out. I still wasn't feeling super, but I needed to stretch my legs and get some fresh air!
Also, Costa Rica fun fact: finding mass times online basically requires the skills of an FBI agent. It is nearly impossible to find the times online, so I often just end up guessing. 10:00 am is normally a safe bet.
I walked to el estadio nacional down the street - there is a hotel right there, so there are always a ton of cabs. However, I didn't see any! There did seem to be some sort of carnival-circus thing going on. Also, firefighters EVERYWHERE. As there was no fire around, I assumed it was some sort of firefighter celebration (fun fact #2: in Spanish, firefighter is "bombero"). I walked past the national stadium down the main road by Parque La Sabana (the biggest park in the city). I was content with walking, so I didn't feel the need to flag a cab down right away. Once I reached the end of the park, I tried to flag down a cab. The first one that passed had people in it, so, being persistent as ever, I gave up trying to get a cab (haha). I saw a sign pointing to the "sector central," so I continued along the main road following that. As San Jose is a city, there are always cabs and I figured if I really needed to, I could flag one down. I kept walking and walking, not really knowing where I was headed. I have a good memory - I had the picture of the map in my head to the Catedral Metropolitana. I was on the main road, so I felt relatively safe and I knew that I didn't have to go down any tricky streets to get to the church.. I thought, "I could certainly use the exercise, so I will keep walking!"
However, my sick body finally caught up with my dumb brain and I realized that I was quite tired after about 2 km. As I have mentioned before, my phone isn't super useful here in CR, so I don't take it with me unless I'm out of the city for the weekend. I didn't know how far I was from the church. An interesting thing about being here in CR - I have gotten more used to not constantly checking where I am on journeys or, in cases like this, what the time is. I think it helps me appreciate "the now" better than I did before.
Anyways, I kept trudging along, when, FINALLY, I looked up and saw a cross on top of a building in the distance. Score, the cathedral! I followed that cross until I made it to a nice little square, with the church.
A dreary day in San Jose
When I made it inside, I realized they had just started to distribute communion, so I was either really late or really early - mind you, I didn't have my phone, so I didn't know the exact time. I sat and looked around for a bit. It was a very vibrant church. Once mass ended, I went to the entrance in search of the mass times and a clock to figure out which mass I had missed. Churches in Costa Rica don't really post mass times well in the churches either, so I had a bit of a time trying to find the times. Finally, I found a bulletin board with the parish information. Mass times listed at 9:30 and 11:00... Hmm, not what I saw online for La Catedral Metropolitana? Okay, interesting. I ventured around some more, and found this plaque (also, fun fact #3: if you misspell "plaque" as "plague," you get a vastly different sentence. Almost said I found a plague at the church... Historically and just all around disturbing):
If you can't read it, it says, "Esta iglesia dedicada a nuestra Señora de las Mercedes," which basically translates to "this church is dedicated to our Lady of Mercy." In short, I realized I was not at La Catedral Metropolitana, but at a different church, La Iglesia de la Merced! I didn't really care all that much, I was just happy to be at a church and have a place to sit. It was a pretty cool church, too, so I just roamed around before mass started.
Lots of colors! It was actually pretty dark in the church, so I had to enhance the photos a bit. Sorry, but no #nofilter
There were TONS of statues in the church - the most I have seen while here in CR
The altar
There were two of these closed-off shrines (?) around the altar
As you can probably tell, the architecture was rather "busy" - A LOT of colors and tons of different statues. I was already feeling pretty trippy from the walk over; plus, I hadn't eaten much - only a can of soup, 4 pieces of bread, and some crackers - since Thursday night. Paying attention was hard, but I felt like it was the easiest mass to follow along with yet. Not sure why, because I definitely wasn't totally with it during mass. :p Also, since all the churches are open in Costa Rica, there tends to be a lot of wildlife interactions inside during mass and, funnily enough, this city mass experience was the most "natural" yet. There were pigeons flying around everywhere! I spotted a little black kitten at one point and was tempted to join a little toddler in chasing it around (I resisted). At one point, I looked up to the ceiling and saw a HUGE city of MASSIVE spiderwebs. I didn't actually see any spiders, but I would not be surprised if the City Hall of Costa Rican tarantulas (are there even tarantulas in CR? I don't care to find out...) is located in La Iglesia de la Merced.
It was funny, because no one else seemed to notice the cats and the spiders and the birds during mass. I feel like this has to do with the connection to nature here. Back home, I feel like we try to do our best to disconnect entirely from nature. We have the inside world and the outside world, but here it is just one world. I think I like my bug-free world a bit better, but being doing here has certainly been a great experience for me.
After mass, I wasn't feeling the trek back, so I hopped in the cab. Let it be known that I STRONGLY DISLIKE traveling by cabs, especially by myself. In San Jose, I have experienced two different kinds of cab drivers while by myself: the first, that like to ask me how many Costa Rican boyfriends I have & other information that is slightly suggestive, or the second, the silent creepy ones that make me wonder if I am being driven away to my death. (I'm being dramatic, everyone is generally very friendly, but I just don't like cabs.) Today, it was the second type: the man looked like a very scary Vin Diesel - very quiet, and as soon as I got in the car he started blaring this crazy rap music. It was totally fine, except for the fact that he totally ripped me off, but at that point I was too tired to care. I was just happy to be in my neighborhood. I walked the rest of the way and made my pancakes.
Alright, that is all for now! Hopefully my health continues to improve! Here's to a good week!
amdg.
Boo...Don't be sick!
ReplyDeleteSounds like you made the best of it! Hope you feel better as the week goes on!
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