Andre, Jason y Floresita

Nos encontramos con Jason, fue muy vacilon porque le hicimos una broma, y yo que andaba vestida parecido a los meseros del restaurante, llegue (disque disfrazada, con un delantal, anteojos y un librito para tomar ordenes) y le dije "hi what would you like to drink" y el mae se quedo asi como ¡que? obvio me reconocio, pero si me me pregunto si trabajaba alli, jejejej!! fue muy vacilon.

Andrea y yo

Ya en Nashville Andreita me llevo a todo lado de shopping y hablamos paja todo el dia todos los dias. Mae la pase excelente muchas gracias!!!

El ultimo dia me quede donde Jules y nos quedamos hablando hasta las 2 de la mañana, tenia que levantarme a las 4 am para ir al aereopuerto... pues obvio esto no paso y me dejo el avion... bueno me desperte a las 700 creo ya el vuelo habia llegado a su destino para esta hora jijiij! fue muy estresante pero todo salio bien!! :)

Jules y Flor

En el Restaurante de Sushi en Atlanta.
El domingo fuimos a seguir comprando, muy cansadas despues de la bailadera de la noche anterior. En la tarde manejamos a Nashville y en la noche nos fuimos la casa de Jules a ver peliculas y tomar cafe como en los viejos tiempos!

Atlanta!

El jueves hace ya como dos semanas estaba chatting con Juliet, cuando me conto que iba para Atlanta con Andrea... pues todo salio de maravilla y logre llegar el viernes a encontrarme con ellas alla. La pasamos super excelente!! tenia años, digamos que cinco de no juntarme con estas chicas al mismo tiempo . Fuimos la primera noche a comer, y resulta que Jason tambien estaba en Atlanta, nos encontramos con el en el restaurante... el cual Jason penso que era mi lugar de trabajo porque le jugamos una broma jijiii!! El sabado todo el dia de shopping.. uff ya no puedo ir a un Mall por lo menos en un año!! en la noche a comer sushi, sitio en el que estamos en la foto.. y despues a bailar!

ultimo dia

The last day as I said before, I had the privilage of visiting the Shrine of Baha'u'llah. I went with my friend Ernesto from El Salvador. We took a Sherut to Bahji (it took a while to get there... also rained a little. Due the climate the main entrance to the Shirne was close, and the entrance was on the right hand side following the sing)

The enviroment was dense and theres was a feeling of emptiness because of the depature of the majority of the Pilgrims. With all this, also the winds coming from Egypt were bringing sand and everything was gold colored. The mist didn't allowed us to see more than one hundred meters away. I think a sandstorm was coming our way. I felt a little sadness because in less than some hours I would have to go to Tel Aviv and wait for my flight... the one that would take me back to reality and away from that Perfect World. The greatest blessing was to be by my self for a long time in the Most Holy Place on Earth.

El ultimo dia como dije anteriorimente tuve el privilegio de ir a visitar el Santuario de Baha'u'llah. Fui con mi amigo Ernesto de El Salvador. Nos fuimos en Sherut hasta Bahji (nos tomo bastante tiempo y nos llovio un poco). El ambiente estaba de los mas denso y se sentia el vacio por la partida de la mayoria de los Peregrinos. A todo esto los viento proveniente de Egipto traian arena y todo se veia dorado. Esta neblina no nos dejaba ver mas alla de cien metros. Creo que se avecinaba una tormenta de arena. Yo sentia un poco de tristeza porque en menos de unas horas debia partir a Tel Aviv a esperar mi vuelo... vuelo que llevaria de regreso a la realidad y lejos de ese Mundo Perfecto. La bendicion mas grande fue poder estar sola por mucho tiempo en el Sitio Mas Sagrado del Mundo.

at the Haifa Ridvan Garden.

Aqui con mi amiguita Caroline y su fiance Patrick ... Fuimos a cenar dos noches. Gracias Caroline por todas tus atenciones!!

At the Master's house, the last day.
Sahjaar, me, Sahgi, Ralph, Saskia. This girls met my sister Patricia when she was living in Uruguay. They are the b-day boy sisters.

terraces

Here is a nice picture of the Shrine and the Terraces... get an idea of what Ralph and I went thru to get to the Shirne... I know a lot of people do it but they go from top to bottom or they at least have the fisical shape... not me lol!!

Ralph

Ralph and I hanged out a lot too. He is Saskia´s friend from Germany. Saskia, Ralph and I were in the same group and we were all staying at the same hotel.
One morning Ralph was going to walk around the Terraces. I decided to go with him. It was nice we got to talk a lot from the hotel to the terrace at the bottom, first coming from the hotel. Then we started going up the terraces.. oh my gosh!! 500 steps we went up the Mount Carmel!! I was without air, near to have a heart attack, of course I lost Ralph on the way, he was enjoying the siteseeing i just wanted to get to the top to reach some shadow! It was a nice experience even thought I felt like dying :)

Saskia and me

Saskia and I hanged out a lot, we were in the same group and had dinner together many times. It was so nice seeing her again (she lived in CR for one year). It was cool to have someone to talk to in spanish when we were with our group. she was happy to practice her spanish and I was happy to practice my german... yeah whatever!! heheh!! my subenestrugenbajen, which is bus in tico-german!

When she was here in CR she was really good friends with Aria, thats why for Aria's b-day, Saskia, Caroline and I called her... well she didn't answer the phone but she got the messeage of happy b-day from the Holy Land!

posando

Sahba, the b-day boy, me and Mawe, "posando" for the camera. I know this looks like a weird picture, well that was the idea! We were just playing taking pictures, "modeling". We laught at our selfs so much that night.

Another time Mawe was taking this kind of picures to Sahba and me, but we couldn't do it 'cause Mawe was like "si dale un beso a la camara" "quiere a la camara" "digan sexy" lol!!! just imagine Mawe saying this stuff!!! we couldn't stop laughing so we look really weird in those pictures, this is you wont see them here ;) It was really funny!

At Bahji

Here I am with my good friend Shoghi from Spain! We conected so amazingly! (can you say that?) anyway, this guy is such a nice person, we never sat there and talk but everytime we saw each other we were like: hoooollaaaa mi ammiigoooo!!! and hugs and kisses.
It's so weird when you meet people like that, just like if you would known them from your entire life.
I am still trying to understand this but I guess is the energies between people, all i can say is that it doesnt happen that often but when it does it feels good.

Well this guy is so funny and crazy that the last day of Pilgramage he started saying out loud that I was going as a pioneer to Spain!! a lot of people believed him and started asking me... And he is still trying to convince me to go there. I found this hillarious!

Sahba's b-day

Sazkia, Charlie (her husband), me, Arya and Ralph celebrating Sahba's (from Uruguay/London) b-day.

This time we were about 25 people at a table. We had lots and lots of fun! There was a waiter there that looked just like Arya, everyone in the restaurant was looking at them, we were laughing so much because it was like his lost twin.

As you can see in this piture Arya is a very very very funny guy!

Here we are Peyman me and Mawe possing for a great picture of the Shrine at night.
Here you can see the Terraces lighted, it looks like pearls around the Shrine. Isnt this the most beautifull? What else in this planet can you find as magnificence as this? Were else in the world will you feel and experience all those feelings but here?

Several nights, mostly all of them, we, the yonger ones, went to have coffee at the Cafes in Ben Gurion, the street were all restaurants and coffe places are located. This was my first night hanging out with the youth. We had lots of fun, talking and sharing about our impressions of the Pilgramage and just getting to know each other better.

Jovita, Peyma y yo. Camino al Santuario del Báb.
Esta tarde, estos amigos españoles me honraron con su compañia, visitamos los Jardines Monumentales, y oramos en los Santuarios. Ya cercano a la puesta del sol bajo la temperatura, yo habia dejado mi abrigo en el Centro de Recepcion de Peregrinos y Peyman muy amablemente me presto su jersey, el cual era de mi color favorito y mas casualmente de mi tienda favorita!.

Temple Land

This the Temple Land. We finally made it here. It took us a while and a long way to get here, it was worth it. It is a beautiful place and we prayed the Tablet of Carmel. This area is related to the revelation of this Tablet.

This was on the third day of Pilgramage. This was the hottest day of all the days we were there, and that's the day we walked all Haifa. This is after we took the "telesferico". Caimos en este bello mirador. Behind me is the port of Haifa and as you can see there's a lot of mizt behing me, this was because of the sand storm that took place on saturday. We weren't able to see Akka from Haifa after the fourht or fifht day.

Ernesto

En esta con Ernesto, un bahai de el Salvador, que esta sirviendo en el BWC. Ernesto nos llevo a caminar desde las Terrazas hasta la tierra para el Templo. Fue todo un tour por Haifa con un excelente guía, por cierto en uno de los dias mas calurosos del viaje.
El último día de peregrinaje fue el martes en la noche, pero todavia podía estar en Haifa hasta el atardecer, por lo que el miercoles Ernesto y yo fuimos a Bahji, solo nosotros estabamos en el Santuario de Baha'u'llah... luego tuve la bendicion de estar sola alli como una bendicion en las ultimas de mi estadia en Tierra Santa.

Aqui estoy con Mawe. Si no fuera por este niño no se que habría hecho, porque desde el itinerario del viaje, el hotel y como llegar de allí a PRC etc, el me dijo. Fue de lo mas cool ir al Peregrinaje en la misma epóca que Mawe ya que entre todas las emociones y sentimientos era refrescante ver una cara tan conocida :)
Mawe sos un exito! gracias por toda tu ayuda, consejo y risas!

En esta foto estamos representacion de los indigenas de Bolivia, Persas, Rusa, Tica :)

Esto fue a la salida de la Recepcion con la CUJ, la cual fue maravillosa! muchas personas fueron con sus trajes tipicos a esta reunion, fue muy colorido y emocionante. Yo llevaba mi vestidito y estiletos pero venia de Bahji y me fue imposible pasar a cambiarme al hotel... osea... anyway igual andaba bien vestida pero me hubiera gustado estar mas presentable :)

Aqui estamos en el Hotel Port Inn. Amigos de El Salvador y Panama :)
Este hotel esta un poquito lejos del Centro de Recepcion de Peregrinos (como a 20 minutos cuesta pa'rriba del Monte Carmelo) pero los dueños Raquel y su esposo son muy atentos, los desayunos super completos, hay acceso a una cocina para prepararnos los almuerzos para esos dias en que se sale todo el dia de Haifa y se va a Akka y sus alrededores.

Yo me quede en lo que era el Hostal. Lo lindo era que casi todos los huespedes andabamos de Peregrinaje!

Pereginaje

Where do I start?
It has been one, if not the most amazing experience of my life.
I got to pray at the Shirne's many time, in fact I got to be at the Shrine of the Blessed Beauty by myself for about an hour i would dare to say. :) lucky me!!!!

The trip there was really interesting... one of the turbines of the plane exploted as soon as the plane took off so we had to return to the airport in CR. (all the firecars and ambulances were there wainting for us) not a nice experience but I was so focus on getting to Haifa that all I could think was: please continue the flight we might make to US!! jejej

So they put me on another flight that was leaving aroun 1pm... so is 1pm and we are sitting in the plane and nuthing happens, so we wait and wait... the plane was bad.. AGAIN!! so we got out of the plane without knowing if I was going to make it to US or not.

Finally they took the part that was bad from plane A and put it on Plane B and he happily took off around 6pm... 12 hours later from the time i got to the airport.... nice!! well finally i made it to US , Tel Aviv, and finally to Haifa... I was tired and had to go straight to the Pilgrim Reception Center. From here on everything was just perfect.

I got to be in one of the english groups because for the first time in history there was 70 hispanics pilgrims... so 3 of us had to be place in other groups. This was nice in the sense that I got to share with the people of my group, the persian group (we were in the same bus) as well as the people in the spanish group! (thanks to Mawe that coneceted me with them)

There was so many youth, almost everynight we went for coffee and it was hard to talk to everyone cause we were about 20 (maybe more) in a table... I know we shouldnt have been sitting all together but we are latinos... hard to keep us separated jiji!!

Visiting the holy places was amazing, so much I felt and lerned! The feelings you get there are undescribeble so I wont even try to do so... All I can say is that everyone should apply for Pilgramage and the sooner the better the younger the better cause is a little tireding (fisicamente) and mentally. It is a blessing that we as bahais should not deprived our selves.

I was blessed also with the fact that I was able to share this perfect experience with friends like Saskia and Mawe and of course the friends I made there (Ralph, Shogi, Roya, Vladimir, Ernesto among others). Althoug I would like to go again with my family!

At night we had Talks (2) with the Hand of the Cause, Dr. Varqa and others with members of the UHJ and the ITC. I could summarize the content of this by saying they all said everynight: study the letter of december 27 and request for Pilgramage if you havent done it.

I have so many stories and anectodes but it would take me forever to writte this so I will stop here hoping that one day maybe we can have a cup of coffe and I will tell you guys more.

Just one last thing: the faces and names that basicly all of you came to my mind when praying at the Shrines, and some of you just came over and over to my mind, like you couln't get enough prayers :) that was nice!!!

Pictures will be posted as soon as I figure out again how to upload them... jijiji!!