romería

On the morning of Aug. 2, 1635, a young indigenous girl named Juana Pereira went to collect firewood as she did every morning. She...

The Basilica de Los Angeles in Cartago reopens its doors to receive thousands of faithful, who will walk from all corners of the country...

The traditional romería, an annual pilgrimage of Catholics to the Costa Rican city of Cartago, has been canceled for the second straight year due to the pandemic.

The Catholic Church of Costa Rica has asked faithful to join an online celebration rather than making the pilgrimage to Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles in Cartago. 

An estimated 2 million people make the pilgrimage to Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles in Cartago. 

An estimated 2 million people made the pilgrimage to Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles in Cartago on Friday. 

Happy Virgen de los Ángeles Day from all of us at The Tico Times.

The scene at the Basílica.

In a reminder that Costa Rica’s Catholic Church is still woefully stuck in the past, one of its highest leaders on Sunday used the annual pilgrimage to Cartago, which draws an estimated 2 million people each year, to speak out against legalizing gay civil unions and in vitro fertilization.

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.