Javierada 2009: Pilgrimage to Javier

I woke up at about 7:30 on Saturday morning. I showered, dressed, and prepared my food for the day. Then Bea and I went down and met up with ShanShan and Carmen from the other apartments. We walked to the parroquia (parish church) together. There we met with two other girls, Ofelia and Lorena. There would be plenty of pilgrims from all over Navarra, and some parts of Spain, and the parroquia helped organize buses for us to take.

The complete pilgrimage is actually 50km, but we opted for option B: to ride the bus and then walk 23 km. There was also a third option, in which you only had to walk 5km. Anyway, by 9:00 everyone was in the bus, and ready to go. We prayed a little first and the priest explained about the Indulgence Plenary. Since it is the Pauline Year, the Pope has granted to the Archbishop of Navarra to grant the Plenary Indulgence to those who, aside from doing to the pilgrimage to Javier (birthplace of Saint Francis Xavier), 1) prayed for the Pope 2) went to mass and 3) confess your sins.

Half an hour later, we reached the point in which we would start walking. So, we got off the bus and started walking! The sun was out but not so strong, it was still pretty cool and we wore our jackets. We walked, talked and took pictures. About an hour later, it was getting hotter, and we removed our jackets. The walk wasn’t that difficult. We were walking on the side of the highway therefore the path was pretty smooth. It was also relatively flat, with no hills to climb. About two hours after we started, we stopped at a gas station to rest a bit and use the bathroom. After 15 minutes, we were up and on our way again. On the third hour I was getting pretty tired, and had stopped talking and taking pictures, just focusing on trying to put one foot in front of the other. We prayed the rosary for a while. The sun was stronger, and it was getting hotter.

The landscape was beautiful: green and clean. The further we walked, it turned into brown wastelands, the jungle, or industrial grounds. Along the roads since the beginning of the walk there were various Red Cross vans to help those in need, and police offers, to direct cars away from the travelers.

At a quarter to one, we stopped in front of Hotel Yamaguchi, with all the other pilgrims, for lunch. By then, we had walked 15km already. We stayed there for about an hour and half, eating and resting.

We started off again at 2, as we were walking we saw an ice cream van. I bought a cone for my dessert and ate it as we were walking. Further, there was also a car, giving away free water (sponsored by the local government of Navarra). The highway was heading into the mountains, the road curving and going up, but very, very gradually, nothing near steep. A little after an hour and a half later, I was getting pretty tired so we stopped to rest for a while. When we got up and started walking again we saw the castle of Javier in the distance. We only had about 20 minutes to walk and we arrived!

It was about four o'clock and we still had an hour before the mass. We rested a while and had a small snack. Then we looked for a nice spot to stay during the mass. After the mass, given by the Bishop of Navarra, we met up with the rest of the parroquia then walked back to the bus. It took awhile to get out, since there were a lot of buses, but I soon fell asleep and didn't wake up till we reached Pamplona.

Today my legs and hips hurt and I have a blister on my foot. I also got sunburned! I spent most of the day at home, partly because of the pain, but mostly because I had to finish a paper. I went out to go to confession and mass, and to blog! It was a pretty amazing experience though I did get very, very tired. Yes, I had fun, but I don’t see myself doing another pilgrimage in the near future. :-)

Pictures to follow!