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On a pilgrimage

photos courtesy of Costa Rica's Fuerza Publica and AM Costa Rica

So why this Costa Rican invasion of Panama?

See, long about 1635 a little girl in what is now Costa Rica found a small stone sculpture of the Virgin Mary in a mountain spring. Many miracles have been attributed to the icon since then, and the by the time that Costa Rica became its own country, the "Virgin of Los Angeles" became Costa Rica's patron saint.

Fast forward to 1970, and when they were building the Los Angeles neighborhood of Panama City, in the corregimiento of Bethania, they brought in a reproduction of the icon, which usually resides in a little shrine near the Palacio Lung Fung restaurant.

Now we just had one of the occasional pilgrimages in which members of Panama's Tico community made a 10-kilometer trek, accompanied by a Costa Rican police string band, to pay respects to their country's most important virgin.

American Society welcome back wine tasting
Costa Rica's main virgin heading this way
A new group of Peace Corps volunteers
Not quite with it on the handicapped parking concept

For dog people