The Seven Churches Visitation also known as Visita Iglesia
is a pious Roman Catholic tradition observed by faithful Christians during Lent
by attempting to visit 7 Christian sites or parishes.
Customarily, Visita
Iglesia is done every Holy Thursday. Unfortunately for the stokedtraveler,
he lives in a province where there is a large number of magdarame (penitents). For this reason, he decides to spare his car
of blood from those who flagellate themselves splashing around blood in
anything or anyone they get close to. He’s seen several automobiles in the past
which were decorated with blood and he is just irked by the thought of having blood
on his white car. He makes his church visit during Holy Tuesday when there are
little to no mamalaspas walking
around the roads.
It was a choice between doing Visita Iglesia (Visita
Altares as his mom calls it) in
his home province in Pampanga or take a longer road trip in Bataan heading to
Mt. Samat. The former was the more practical choice due to the proximity,
budget (gas expense) and familiarity to the location. He will still take the excursion
to Mt. Samat and write about it in a separate entry.
The trip starts straight from the family house of the
stokedtraveler in Angeles City. Though he planned to make an early start in the
morning, his body refused to cooperate. He managed to leave home at 2pm in the
afternoon.
