19 January, 2022
Forged in solitude
Luis Ángel Maté, a professional cyclist from Euskaltel-Euskadi, rests his head on the refuge offered by the trail, calming the tension, the chaos, the ruggedness of the race with the softness of the mountain, the earth, the rain and the water.
There is a wide world out there and Terra is ready to explore it with you.
Like Maté, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, a warrior and knight at the service of the Catholic Monarchs and Emperor Carlos I, also chose to embark on a trail to find his soul. A war wound left him bedridden, while reading showed him his destiny, but it was the trail that taught him peace.
Saint Ignatius was a warrior, a fighter, a thug and a seasoned knight.
Born in Loyola, Guipúzcoa, he was shot by a cannon while defending the fortress of Pamplona. During his convalescence, he read about the lives of saints, reading anything that fell into his hands, whatever was available. And there began his transformation.
But Jerusalem is another story. Let’s go back to where Iñigo embarked on his journey — a physical journey that was as much a mental pilgrimage. All his journeys were inland. Ignatius of Loyola discovered new worlds, but he discovered them within himself.
And so he began his journey from his hometown in Manresa, where he lived for a few months before taking a ship to Jerusalem.
Likewise, Maté has been on his own quest: the noise and the fury have disappeared, the hunger, the competition and the chaos have stopped, as if the sea itself has paused and embraced peacefulness.
"Why do you want to win the world if you lose heaven?"
Juan Bautista Mendizabal knows this well, passionately inviting us to recreate the path that Ignacio de Loyola traveled in 1522.
It’s a path full of beauty, from Loyola to the grandiose Arantzazu Sanctuary; from the fascinating Laguardia to the mountains and Basilica of Montserrat, until ending in Manresa.
Fermín Lopetegui was the first pilgrim officially recognized to have completed the Camino, back in 2012, and has already traveled it nine times:
“Life is a backpack and when you have spent some time on a pilgrimage, you know what you have left over and how little you need”
So it is that, sometimes, the only way to forge ahead is to forge in solitude.
Get to know the bike from this Pachamama
The perfect companion for endless exploring and overnight adventures. There is a wide world out there and Terra is ready to explore it with you.