The long pilgramage to Caacupe...

About a week and a half ago on December 7th, my friends Jessica, Brenda and I decided to go on the pilgramage with Brenda’s family to the Basilica de Caacupe. Caacupe is the most important religious symbol in Paraguay and the dedication to the Virgin de Caacupe resembles that of the Virgin de Guadalupe in Mexico. This is one of the more important days in Paraguay, which is why most people get off work the 7th at mid day and have the 8th off. December 8th is the holiday and when the actual mass is held at the Basilica. However, since this is the beginning of a ridiculously hot summer in Paraguay, everyone begins walking for miles and miles from their towns on the 7th to arrive in Caacupe for the morning mass. We began our journey at 9:30pm on the 7th. Guarambare on a bus to the basilica would probably be about 2.5 hours, but we took a 2 hour bus to a city called Ypycarai which is where most people begin their walk. All of the buses were extremely packed and there was barely room too breath…Soooo happy it wasn’t as hot that night as it had been the previous nights. So we arrived in this town at about 11:15pm and began the long walk.
We started out happy as the streets were completely packed with people, and there was plenty of food to be found along the way as were medical and health checks. Around 2am, we began to get tired from continuing walking and the crazy younger kids who were jumping around with reggaeton blasting and beers in hand. Yes, weird many people were drinking heavily on a pilgrimage to see the virgin. We stopped to rest at a gas station and sat against a gas pump in pure joy to rest our feet. Brenda’s mom saved our lives as we gained much more energy with the Trader Joe’s Energy Trail Mix we brought with us. So we began again, more delirousness as the walk went on…and then we saw a Churro stand….CHURRRROOOOOS IN PARAGUAYYYYY!!!! Never thought that would happen, I thought it was a mirage until the 3 of us ran up to the stand at about 4am and stared at the man selling them to see if they were actually Churros…They were…at this point, I had never been happier. As we indulged in the Mexican goodness in Paraguay, we continued to walk up and down many long hills and begged to rest as Brenda’s Paraguayan family marched on.
They kept telling us we will rest very soon…Yea, we should of known that when a Paraguayan says that, it means 1.5 hours later when our feet are numb from walking. I guess the wait was worth it as we arrived in the city with hundreds of thousands of people at about 5:45am in a park with free bread and cocido. Never have we been happier. After this, we walked into the city to look for a random sidewalk in front of someones house to sleep. It was so random that since there are no hotels, everyone brings a sheet with them to lay on and take naps in front of people’s houses…So there we were, Brenda, Jessica, and me and cuddled to sleep on the sidewalk for about an hour and a half, with many blisters on our feet and tiredness. Never has an one hour nap felt so relieving. People who actually live in the city basically rented out their showers and bathrooms for all the people walking in to use because there are soooo many people there. We didn’t bother getting close to the basilica as it was impossible due to the amount of people who had been there for days, so we began our journey back to Guarambare.
When everyone who walked into one city and then all try to leave the next morning, there is bound to be major bus problems. We waited for about 3 hours after walking to random places, talking more impromptu 5 minute naps on sidewalks in hopes of seeing a bus with space, or just watching people hang out the doors of the buses just to be on…soooo not safe. Out of sheer luck, we finally got on a bus, although we were all basically on random Paraguayan men standing, it didn’t matter as long as we were heading back to Guarambare. After 2 hours packed like sardines in the heat on the bus, we got off to take one last hour ride to our town. Never have I wanted to sit down so bad. When we arrived in our town, we were too tired to walk the 25 minutes home, so we sat in a plaza to rest. We were so happy to be back because we hurt so bad, but it was a great experience to be had as it was amazing to see the sheer amount of people walking such a large distance to this church.
Also, I would like to wish everyone Happy Holidays in the U.S. as Christmas begins, and hopefully a busy tourist season for the sake of jobs in Tahoe. I also want to tell Kelly Wysong, Michelle Aguilar and family, and Bruce Doherty, that I am thinking about all of you a lot and hopefully the new year brings you happiness and health.