The San Sebastian's Walk is a religious catholic event with ecological and sport characteristics, which takes place the last Saturday of January of each year in the outskirts of the city of

Maracay Maracay () is a city in north-central Venezuela, near the Caribbean coast, and is the capital and most important city of the state of Aragua. Most of it falls under the jurisdiction of Girardot Municipality. The population of Maracay and its ...

, Aragua State, in

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

. The route of this peregrination begins in El Limón and finishes in the Main Church of

Ocumare de la Costa Ocumare de la Costa () is a small coastal town and the capital of the Ocumare de la Costa de Oro Municipality, located 25 miles north of Aragua, Venezuela. Called simply ''Ocumare'', the colonial town sits at the skirts of the Venezuelan Coast ...

. The route is 29.09 miles long crossing the mountains of the

Henri Pittier National Park Henri Pittier National Park is the oldest national park in Venezuela, originally created in 1937 under the name of ''Rancho Grande'' by decree of President Eleazar López Contreras. In 1953 the park was renamed in honor of Henri Pittier, a distin ...

using the only paved route that unites the city of

with the coastal zone of Venezuela.

History

The origin of this event is associated to Celso Bethencourt, who was born in

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

, Spain, and to Francesco Centrone, originally from Italy, who made this first route walking with no stops to fulfill a religious promise to Saint Sebastian, finishing their long walk 20 January 1987 in approximately 12 hours, after this first peregrination Francesco Centrone continued making this passage, every year on the same day; year after year making the long walk with family and friends, forming little by little a tradition. In 1996 Centrone and a group created the Foundation Peregrination Saint Sebastian to continue with the walk. The Foundation manages the donations and the money to support social programs in the town of

and to foster ecological plans on the route.

Route

The route consists on 7.8 miles of ascent, 12.4 miles of slope and 6.2 miles of level ground. The route traditionally has multiple points at which assistance is available.

Details

There is a time limit to accomplish this walk of 12 hours. Starting time is at 6:00 a.m.

References

Official website

External links

caraboborunners.com.ve
{{Use dmy dates, date=September 2019 Aragua Annual events in Venezuela Religion in Venezuela