Pilgrimage to Salta – Through the Interface

On our first trip outwards from Salta, heading north to the Quebrada Humahuaca – we were curious to see a group of people walking south towards the city. They had backup vehicles and even a police escort, but we didn’t think more of it than that. On the way back down we saw the same group, much further along, as well as other groups of pilgrims on bicycles.

Pretty much the same thing happened when we headed south from Salta to Cafayate and then back: we saw several groups, some on foot, some on bikes, even some on horses, heading north to the city.

It turns out these are all groups participating in la Fiesta del Milagro, or la Novena, an old – and historically very interesting – pilgrimage.

The pilgrimage revolves around beliefs related to two statues that were donated to the town of Salta in 1592, a statue of Christ and one of the Virgin Mary. A hundred years later, some serious earthquakes hit this region of Argentina. The statue of Mary fell but somehow didn’t…