Pilgrimage to El Santuario, Chimayo, Good Friday

1. Bernadette ahead of me 2) A spectacular rock formation 3) The final hill into Chimayo

Dear All, We had a very different experience for the morning of Good Friday, 2007. We joined the thousands of pilgrims making the trek along the Highway, off at Nambe, and along he road to Chimayo which has the pilgrimage centre of El Santuario (the Lourdes of America), which I described in a previous blog. Two (only) of the Sangre crew walked from here - 25 miles (both Australians). Another eight (including me) walked from the Sacred Heart Church at Nambe (8.5 miles) and a further large group walked the final 2.5 miles from where the bus parked into El Santuario. We left Sangre at 6.30 am and my group was walking by 8 am. I'll post a couple of pictures showing the scenery and some of the steady stream of people and cars. I walked with an Irish Sister who works in Birmingham, and she is 20 years younger than me and kept me on my toes with her speed (but I kept up!). The State authorities give big support to the walkers and close off a lane of the freeway. There are big yellow notices directing walkers off the ramps at times onto parallel quieter roads, and traffic is urged to "watch for walkers" and drop speeds.

1. Myself & Bernadette en route 2. At a free food stall 3. The view ahead

The amazing thing was the number of young people. I would say the majority of walkers would be young, although there were a great variety - even a few in wheelchairs. Lots of strollers held babies, but at least one held two little dogs with their coats on! A few people carried crosses - some small and manageable, others quite large. All along the way there were roadside stalls offering free fruit, water, and even first aid and sunburn cream. When asked why, one group said, "Jesus said, if you give even a cup of cold water in his name ...." and they had been coming back for years. There were lines of portaloos at various places, and the Sheriffe' car, and other police cars and motor cycles cruised up and down frequently. When we arrived at El Santuario the crowds were large and we joined a queue to get into the Church. People were wandering around just doing ordinary things. Some would have had very sore feet because they may have walked all night, many from Santa Fe, but some even from as far as Albuquerque, which must be nearly 100 miles!

It took Bernadette and I about two hours to do our walk (and we left the rest of the group of 7 'for dead'.)

We were in the queue for about an hour and actually got into the Church, but did not go right through with the crowd to where the 'holy dirt' was, because we had reached the time where we had to leave to walk back to the bus. So, we sat down in a pew and prayed for a little time.

1. The queue to the Church 2) People just mooching around 3) Queueing beside young people
By the time we left, the road was absolutely chockers with people and cars, and the State Police had mounted horse posses to join the throng. Their main duty would have to hav been traffic control, but drivers were very careful and considerate with large groups of people on both sides of the road, mostly going towards Chimayo, but also returning. On the way back to the bus Bernadette really forged ahead with a very determined stride and the oncoming groups parted like the Red Sea so I followed peacefully in her wake. There was a very long hill to climb to leave Chimayo and it was just over 2 miles to the place where the bus had parked.

As we drove away, we saw one man carrying a large cross on which were written the seven 'deadlies' or their derivatives: resentment, anger, lust, gluttony, to mention just a few. As we drove along the highway, there were still many, many small groups heading to Chimayo - they would have had hours to walk yet (about 12.00 noon). There were many more people walking all along the road as we drove out than when we arrived, and many many cars parked along the stretch near where the side road enters the highway.

On Friday evening we went to the Good Friday Service (the one usually held at 3 pm in Australia) at Santa Maria de la Paz and as we returned from there about 9 pm there were still a few Pilgrims on the highway. Someone told me that the pilgrimages continue over a week. Today, as I write this it has been snowing lightly (again!) and the hills are lightly whitened. Tony and Anne, who did the 25 miles yesterday, are very glad it wasn't like this then. Bernadette wore a pedometer and was able to tell me we covered 11.5 miles which was a good distance, but manageable. Needless to say, I slept like a top last night.