The thermal sensation was 33 degrees and the humidity exceeded 60 percent around 8 pm this Saturday, February 10. From the Plaza de las Américas in Córdoba Capital, thousands of walkers prepared and began to travel the 35 kilometers that separated them from Alta Gracia.
At the Fangio roundabout, traffic was already beginning to be cut off for pedestrian circulation. Police, municipal inspectors, and highway police gave signs of a new procession to the Sanctuary of Lourdes like every February 11, to carry the Virgin of Lourdes.
There were also visitors who made the journey on bicycles, rollers and horses. Probably most striking were the family groups including children or babies in strollers in the Saturday night humidity. At the entrance to Alta Gracia, walkers still had more than 30 blocks left in mountainous areas to reach the Sanctuary of the Grotto of Lourdes.
“A promise,” shouts the walker with a bottle in hand, a cap and visible drops of perspiration. Stopping at this point is not an option. Mario Guzmán stops and tells that every year he returns to his native Alta Gracia to do the walk. He lives in Río Turbio. But he wants to thank.
Pilgrimage of the Virgin of Lourdes.