Every year, an estimated two million people from across Central America leave their homes and walk to the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Los Ángeles in...
Many pilgrims come from afar to make good on different types of promises, such as Franklin Arturo Garita Quirós, from Paquera, Puntarenas, who was sued by the Environment Ministry in 1986 after he was accused of deforesting his property. He made a promise to the Virgin of Los Ángeles, known as "la negrita," that if he won the case, he would walk every year to her statue in Cartago, as he's done for the past 29 years.
This weekend pilgrims from across Costa Rica will begin walking – if they haven't already – to the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Los Ángeles for an annual pilgrimage of faith known as the romería, where they will pay their respects to and ask for favors from the country’s patron saint, the Virgin of Los Ángeles.
Every year, an estimated 2 million people from across Central America leave their homes and begin walking to the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Los Ángeles in Cartago, east of the capital, to pay their respects to Costa Rica's patron saint, known locally as La Negrita.