Caminata!

Well, to get a better description of the walk and my general feelings on Catholicism in Chile, see Alli's blog (link is in the next post down). She sums it up well. For a quick description, on Saturday I left home at 3:30am to go with about 40 other college students from the area, including Alli and our other friend Ann and my group Pastoral, to bus to Chacabuco to walk a 27km (17 mile, the first half all up-hill) pilgrimage with 70,000 Chileans to the shrine of St. Teresa (where I went the week before). It was AMAZING.

As many times I have said this since arriving in Chile, the view on our way up was the most incredible thing I have ever seen in my life. And I really mean it this time. Because not only could we see miles of Chilean country-side--hills, cliffs, vineyards in the valley, and the Andes mountains to the left--but we could see miles of other pilgrims behind us and ahead of us, winding around the dirt road that we had passed hours before, or that we still would not get to for a couple hours. And perhaps the most amazing thing was that these were, in the vast majority, teenagers. High school and college students from all over Chile, and while it was clear that some were just there for a fun trip with their friends, I cannot imagine that they were not all touched in some way by our caminata from St. Teresa's childhood home to her tomb at the shrine.

St. Teresa is one of my new favorite saints. She was soooo holy, and she never even reached her 20th birthday! What a great inspiration for anyone, but especially those of us who are so young! And she has really united Chile... they have SO much pride in their first saint (and one of only 2 so far). You literally cannot go anywhere without seeing a picture of her!



(click this one, you'll be able to see the people winding all over the hills below us)


Ann and Alli


Me with Jorge and Mary Carmen, our group leaders (hence the 3 over Jorge), and Lorenzo


Reaching the summit


We made it!


For the second album, click here.