Difunta Correa

After wining and dining in Mendoza, I headed two hours north to San Juan, a small town in the dry region at the base of the Andes. Most people come here to take a tour of the Valle de Luna (valley of the moon), a huge valley with crazy rock formations and dinosaur remians. But having about enough of the normal tourist track, I came to visit the shrine of Difunta Correa.

The legend begins around the year 1840 with a young woman who set off to find her husband who was forced to fight and then injured in the Argentine civil wars. After many days of searching in the desert, she finally ran out of supplies and died. However, guachos riding through the area days later found her boy and her baby son. The son was still alive and feeding by her miraculously ever full breast.

While not officially reconginzed by the Catholic church, she is regarded by many in Argentina and parts of Chile as a saint. All around the country, you can find small shrines with bottles of water to quench her thirst, especially along highways as truck drivers are one of her most devout followers. Believers ask her help to interviene in their lives and help them accomplish tasks such as buying a house or car, or they ask for safety if fighting in the military, or many women ask for her help in finding a husband. Those whose wishes have been fulfilled come to the shrine, located in the middle of the desert, to offer their thanks.

Many of the offerings of thanks correspond to the wish asked. For example, there are model houses, model cars and model trucks for those who asked for a home, car, or help in the trucking industry. There is a whole chapel full of military uniforms from grateful soliders. However, the best, was the room full of wedding dresses that have been brought by happy new brides. In total, so many followers have brought items of thanks that 17 different chaples have been built to house it all, each holding a different catergory of offering. Then, on top of the nearby hill (covered in more model houses) is statue of the woman and her suckling child for which people line up to pray at. Nearby you can light candles in the middle of what has become a river of wax from the candles lit over the years.

I was certainly one of the few foreigners there but met a nice family on the bus. The oldest daughter told me her family comes often and at Easter there is an especially large pilmigrage where people walk for a day or two to arrive at the shrine. The crowds that were their however did seem to represent many groups of people... old, young, men, women, but mostly middle or lower classes.

In the end, I decided to leave my Lonely Planet as an offering of thanks for my trip and time in Argentina and South America. I'm not Catholic but it seemed appropriate. So if you ever make it here, it's in the room with all the model trucks on the second shelf on the right at the back.

After San Juan, I headed to Cordoba where I have been staying with my friend Natalie, who is studying here for a semester abroad. It's been rainy so not much to do. But soon I head back to BA for the very last stop on my trip! Less then a week left...