A participant in the Pallerols stay tells us:

Our great adventure in Pallerols began on July 3 and ended on July 15th. We were a group of 23 people, belonging to the youth clubs of Lantegi and Noray of Pamplona. Most of them were boys between 11 and 13 years old, although some high school and university students also came. We stayed in the houses of "Ca l'Ampurdanés" and a few of us slept in the rectory of Pallerols.

It was an excellent experience! In the mornings we had different workshops (acting, cooking, archery, survival, photography, biology, among others) and in the afternoons we did sports, swam in the swimming pool and attended the Holy Mass.  Also each day in shifts we painted some signs of the road to the Pyrenees that St. Josemaría made in 1937. Many of us liked painting, so we did it with great pleasure and full commitment.

One afternoon during the first days Ramon visited us and told us about Saint Josemaría's experiences in those lands. His story was full of details and caught the attention of everyone, especially the kids. They could, therefore, imagine every scene in the story. Ramon also told us about the history of the invocation of the Virgin of Pallerols, "the Virgin of the personal way", which helps to discover and follow the will of God, as he helped St. Josemaría on that November 22th, 1937.

We were also able to do some of the stages of the Pass of the Pyrenees path, exactly the same path that Saint Josemaría made while escaping away from the terrible persecution that catholics suffered during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).

On the first hike we climbed the "Collada de la Torre" from "Aravell" to the river of "Civís". A few days after we recovered the walk from the River of Civís until we got to Sant Julià de Lòria, climbing the Barrac de la Cabra Morta and Mas d'Alins; It took us a few days but finally we ended up arriving to Andorra.

The afternoon we arrived we were lucky to attend the Holly Mass in the parishood of Andorra la Vella, one of the churches where St. Josemaría celebrated during the 9 days that he had to stay in Andorra, waiting to pass the port of Envalira closed due to the heavy snowfall on December the 3th.

We realized the great difficulty that St. Josemaría and those who accompanied him suffered, considering all the extreme bad conditions they had (cold, barely stocks of supplies, food and water, fear, tiredness, diseases, inappropriate clothes and shoes, etc). Nonetheless we enjoyed sighting incredible landscapes!

It has been really exciting for all of us, and we feel very fortunate to have been able to be in such a special place and, of course, to have attended the Holly Mass every day in the Church of San Esteban de Pallerols, where Saint Josemaría found the Rialb rose.

We want to take this opportunity to thank especially those who took care of this beautiful place, allowing so many people to visit it and experience those days of St. Josemaría's life, that were so transcendental for the history of the Work.