Paraguay is a predominantly Catholic country and like many other Catholic counties it has a Virgin. The Virgin of Caacupe.is venerated every eighth of December with a pilgrimage by thousands of Paraguayans who walk up to hundreds of kilometers from all over the country to see her. The Virgin is actually a small blond dollish statue that was carved hundreds of years ago by a Guarani Indian who was miraculously saved by praying to the Virgin Mary while being attacked by a neighboring tribe. The man actually carved two statues, the smaller of which is in Caacupe and the larger one is in neighboring Tobati. The pilgrimage to see the Virgin typically begins the first week in December and lasts until a few days after the eighth. People walk as little as a few kilometers up to hundreds, some walk for days while others dedicate just a few hours. Either way when you get to the Church the scene is incredible.
Last year was very hot and I had no interest in walking to see a statue and a church that I had already seen before, but this year something came over me and I decided to do the pilgrimage. I debated whether to walk with other Peace Corps volunteers or to go with one of the many Paraguayans who would be making the trip. After some time I came to the decision to do it with volunteers, however I still think it’d be a more “real” experience with Paraguayans. My friends were going to meet up at the tollbooth in a town on the Ruta called Ypacarai, which is on the other side of Caacupe from my town and therefore caused some difficulty in actually arriving at the starting point. Because there aren’t freeways or even various routes around the city Angelic and I were forced to get off our coach bus about 10 kilometers before Caacupe and take a local bus into town, where we then had to get off and take another local bus to get to Ypacarai. While waiting for the bus into Caacupe we were talking with agents from the transportation department who were checking to make sure the busses going into town were registered. Of course they couldn’t help themselves from hitting on the gringas. Luckily when I told them I already have a Paraguayito they focused all attention on Angelic who towers about a foot over the average Paraguayan. The trip, which typically takes about two hours wound up being about double that, but we finally made it and actually got there before most of the others.
Once everyone had arrived we set out at a pretty average walking speed. Ypacarai is located about 20 kilometers to the West of Caacupe and we were informed that it would take about 5 hours to complete the pilgrimage from there. We stopped after about an hour and a half for a quick dinner at a small hamburger joint started by Americans, then continued on towards the Mecca. At dinner one of the volunteers in the group announced that we were still quite far from Caacupe and we would not arrive in time for the midnight mass and serenade by another virgin statue that had traveled from my town for the event. At this half of our group decided to kick it up a notch, determined to make it in time for the mass. We ended up completing the trek in 3 and a half hours and arriving over an hour before the mass was to begin.
The scene in the centro of Caacupe was that of a street fair, complete with venders selling everything from t-shirts and knick-knack souvenirs to food and drinks. There were people everywhere. We made our way to the plaza located behind the church, laid out a blanket and laid down to take a nap. Afterwards we wandered around looking for t-shirts and checked everything out.
At midnight we made our way to the plaza in front of the church where the mass was to be held outside and projected onto big screens around the plaza. There were so many people it was hard to move. We found a place just behind a group of teenage boys who had ridden their bikes from Campo 9, about 150 kilometers to the east. They had flipped their bikes over to form a wall around their circle and were all fast asleep throughout the entire mass, which is okay seeing as masses were being held every couple of hours. The mass began with the priest talking about living in peace and harmony and some teenagers acted out a fight between fans of the two biggest rival soccer teams, Cero Porteno and Club Olimpia. It was definitely the first time I saw soccer brought into church, but I guess it works to send a message to the people.
After mass we climbed over sleeping people, pushed our way through those were standing and found our way back to the spot behind the church where two of our friends were still napping. After a short rest we decided to try and make our way back home. We walked to where the busses were passing. On the way I ran into my host family who had decided last minute to bus in. We also met up with some other volunteers who were arriving from their walk in. When we were ready to leave we had incredible luck and a bus headed to Coronel Oviedo passed right in front of us, it even had lots of open seats. We quickly boarded the bus, plopped down into some seats and closed our eyes, still exhausted from the walk. Because the main route was closed off for walkers the bus had to make its way through some poorly cobble-stoned streets to a place where busses were allowed to pass. Some women who had boarded the bus before us started arguing with the attendant who was collecting money. They were charging more than the normal fare and these women weren’t putting up with it. They got off the bus and we gladly paid the extra dollar, happy that there was a bus with comfy seats available at 2 am. About fifteen minutes later the bus driver decided we didn’t have enough passengers and proceeded to turn around in the middle of the narrow crowded street. We made another pass through town and the bus quickly filled up. We ended up getting home at about 5:30 am. A fellow volunteer, Lynn, came to crash at my place and as the sun came up we both fell fast asleep.
Completing a pilgrimage was definitely not on my list of things to accomplish in life, but I am certainly glad I did it! The scene in Caacupe is something that I will never forget!
