Yesterday, we went to the Mirador de El Santuario de la Virgen
de Caacupe. It is a church built around a statue of the virgin
Mary. The church is huge, and it has a large courtyard. Robert
called it the "St Peters of Paraguay." The catholics have long
pilgrimages that end there. They can conduct huge services with
many thousands of people, and they broadcast on TV.
Anyway, several hundred years ago an indian man was saved from
cannibals and he promised to carve two statues to the virgin
Mary. One of them ended up in this church. The church has a long
stairway with beautiful murals that represent the story of how the padres
came here, evangelised the indians, this one man got saved and
carved a statue, he was lost in a flood but the statue was saved,
and it eventually ended up here.
The church itself is not that nice looking, but there was a nice
view from the top. And the inside of the church is nice. Like most
catholic churches, it has stained glass murals showing various
scenes from the life of Christ. And you can walk up pretty close
to the statue, which is painted nicely.
This church is located about 23 km outside of Asuncion, and it took
the good part of an hour to get here. We traveled on the main
Paraugay cross-country highway, but it did go through several small
towns.
Chinese Nursery
On the way back we stopped at a hamburger and ice cream stand run
by the wife of a pastor who wants to join the CMA. Robert had a
business meeting with this man while Brenda, Mary and I had funky
burgers and ice cream. We had the burger with ham, egg, and cheese.
It was like eating breakfast and lunch together. For dessert we
had a concoction with strawberry pulp at the bottom, and soft
serve ice cream on top. The ice cream is hand made in the store.
Yummy!
Robert and Brenda bought some small plants for the house at a
Chinese nursery. Mary and I bought a hammock to replace the one
our neighbor's cat tore up. And we bought some strawberries at a
roadside stand ... ooh, it's time to go down and eat those for
breakfast.
Later in the afternoon, we went to a jewelry store where Mary is
going to have a ring made. She has an aquamarine stone and she
wants a ring made for it.
Today we are supposed to help paint some props for a children's
play happening this weekend.
