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Oct 4 y 5
Pilgrimage to Lujan.
As I sit here and write this I kind of wonder what I was thinking. This thought also crossed my mind many a time on the caminato. I read about this little town outside of Buenos Aires in my lonely planet book. It mentioned that there was a pilgrimage every Oct. This sparked my attention for some reason but I figured I would just go and visit the same weekend, to get the whole experience. Who would be crazy enough to walk something like 17 hours? I began to see signs and here stories of the pilgrimage. It caught my attention each time and finally when one of my teachers told me about it I looked at the girl behind me and we decided to do it. Again, why I am not really sure. We found a catholic school and asked how we could sign up with them, they referred us to this church near my house. We met with the father there and he quizzed us on our backgrounds and why we wanted to do it. The three of us Americans signed up and we were ready. This pilgrimage is traditionally one of young people so I was excited to meet some new friends. We walk to the town of Lujan where the virgin of lujan appeared. We arrived at the church at 8.30 am on Sat. Got emergency contacts, health advice and information. We made it to the starting point at about 10, and we were off. A group of about 60 or so people from the parroquia de Carmen participated. The first leg was okay. It was pretty warm outside but other than that it was a brisk stroll. Over a million people participate in this pilgrimage, so I was a bit worried about loosing the group and never being able to find them again. It was nice to be able to practice my Spanish in a group where nearly no one spoke English to me. Met a couple nice people, but to tell you the truth I was more focused on continuing walking than chatting it up with people. There were 5 or so stops for about 30-45 minutes. These would consist of some food, bathrooms and people putting their feet up and the doctors dealing with people with medical issues, or blisters (this was me). The first stop I had a big one right on the bottom of my foot, after that they all just got worse, and grosser. Each stop they drained them and cleaned them. But as an example, today when I took off some of the bandaides on my little toes my blisters on them were about as big as my little toe itself. Ew. Although at the last stop I wasn’t sure if I would walk the whole way, I decided to push it on the last (and longest) leg and push through the pain to finish. (not really sure I decided on this since I didn’t really have anything riding on walking the whole way—the other option was to drive 2 hours and walk the last 2 hours of the last leg.) by the last 10 or so blocks I was struggling. We had a cart and at this point all the people left were holding on to the cart while walking. Not only was I tired (it was 4am—and I had spoken Spanish all day), I hadn’t eaten very well, and was trying to think of motivators which only made me homesick. Finally we arrived in Lujan. (with the other million some people). I felt a mix between, happiness, nausea and exhaustion. we got on the bus and headed back to the church. I should have video taped HOW I was walking… it probably would have been funny for everyone to see. Lets just say I looked like I was hurting. I treated myself to a cab home.  and walked into my building and my doorman gave me an odd look until I explained that I had just done the pergracion. Yikes. I slept from about 6-2 and then got up took a shower and ate breakfast/lunch. And watched a movie with my host mom. Now I am going to start on my homework since that is about the only thing I can do.


If anyone has any specific questions email me since I am still exhausted and may have not covered all that would be appreciated.
So I walked 37 miles. And survived…barely.