The town is named for a chapel erected to the Virgin of the Candelaria. One day in the 18th century, a local girl was gathering firewood, when she saw the image of the Virgin Mary in the trunk of a tree. The girl told others, who erected a shrine to the image, and eventually carved the trunk into a statue of the Virgin.
Eventually, the villagers decided to carry the statue to the town of Tenza, which was then the major municipal center. But at a certain bridge along the way, the statue became unbearably heavy, and they had to set it down. A rainstorm broke out, which they took as a sign that the Virgin wanted to stay where she had been before. And sure enough, as soon as the group decided to carry the statue back to the original shrine, it became lighter, and the rain stopped.
There are other stories associated with this image, like the one about a blaspheming woman who was struck by lightning and died as she insulted the statue, or the story of the well that sprung up beneath the foundations of the crypt of the large church they built on the site of the original shrine. This well is still revered by locals for its healing power, and they report that if you bury a gourd with water from the well, a spring will arise on the spot within a few years.
This is what the church looks like from outside. Notice the cool spiral staircase winding up the belltower.
Another fascinating local custom is the burning of a mountainside below another chapel to the Virgin, just outside the town. Every year the villagers set the brush on fire on this mountainside, in the knowledge that the Virgin will send down rain before the fire reaches her chapel. It is considered a show of the people's faith in the Virgin. The slopes just beyond the one they burn are covered in primary forest, which obviously worries local environmentalists, but the village is currently working with the regional environmental authority to figure out how to continue the custom without endangering the entire ecosystem.
The chapel is the little white square on top of the low, unforested mountain in the middle ground of this photo:
Here's a more wide-angle shot:
While in La Capilla we ate a delicious meal of stewed beef, rice, corn cakes, mixed vegetables, and huge corn cobs.
This was served us by a local innovator named Miguel, who produces wine on his farm (which is otherwise dedicated to a mix of corn, beans, squash, stuffing-cucumbers, fruit trees, hogs, and chickens).
He showed us his vineyards, and discussed the difficulties of cultivating grapevines in a humid tropical environment.
Anyway, I just wanted to give La Capilla a bit of good press.
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