Momboisse Family Adventures April 2025: San Sebastian Garabandal, Spain

Friday April 4, 2025 

Back on the bus at 6pm we are on our way to Santilla del Mar and hotel Casona de los Caballeros which will be our home base for the next two nights for our visit to Garabandal and Santo Toribio de Liebana Monastery. The hotel, originally built as an estate in the late 1600's, was restored in 2006 as a 4-star hotel in the middle of the historic district of Santilla del Mar. 

Casona de Los Caballeros Hotel 

View from our hotel room 

Double occupancy room

Dinner during our stay will be at the Bridge Tavern (Barrio San Juan, Nº6, 39530 Puente San Miguel, Cantabria, Spain) which is associated with the Casona de Los Caballeros Hotel.  A three course sit down meal with wine.  

Bridge Tavern 

One week into our pilgrimage and we have already bonded with our travel mates.  Each one  has a unique story and we are enjoying the time we spend at dinner learning about everyone. 

We finally retire for the night around 10pm.  Tomorrow is a long day of touring Garabandal, Spain. 

 Saturday April 5, 2025 

Garabandal from Apparition Hill 

Using Santilla del Mar as our home base, today we will drive to Garabandal, then to Santa Toribio de Liebana and back to Santilla del Mar. With this packed day of touring, we are up early. A hearty breakfast is served at 7:30 in the dining room of our hotel.  

  

Hotel dining room 

On the bus by 8:30am our 1 hour drive to Garabandal will take us past sprawling lush green country, and through tiny hamlets such as Mazcuerras and Puentenansa with century old stone buildings.  At Casio the road begins to narrow as we begin our climb into the Pena Sagra mountains, foothills of the Cantabrian Range. As we approach San Sebastian de Garabandal our bus driver will being the dance of sharing the road with herdsmen driving their cattle to pasture.  

Garabandal is an isolated village, and probably one of the poorest in the community of  Cantabria. Little has changed in the 60 years since the last apparition of Our Lady the Blessed Mother Mary in 1965 as Our Lady of Mount Carmel. The principal occupation of Garabandal is raising cattle, which as you can see above is noted on our drive into the town. 

Our bus parks just outside the main part of the small town.  There are no other tourists. Townspeople go about their daily chores.  It is just another ordinary day here.

Our first stop is the Pilgrim Center where we will watch a video on Garabandal and the apparitions of Our Blessed Mother.  

Pilgrim Center

On June 18, 1961, four village girls: Conchita Gonzales (age 12), Mari Loli Mazon (age 12), Jacinta Gonzales (age 12), and Mari Cruz Gonzales (age 11) decided to snitch some apples from their schoolmaster's tree on the outskirts of town.  After taking the apples Conchita saw her first vision, it was of the Angel.   The Angel appeared to all the girls a few more times.  On July 1, 1961 he spoke for the first time, announcing that the Blessed Virgin would appear to them soon as Our Lady of Mount Carmel. 
On July 2, 1961 Our Blessed Mother appeared to the girls in the pines on the hill overlooking the town for the first time.  She appeared holding a scapular and an Infant.  On each side was an angel. One of the angel's was the one that had appeared earlier to the children.  He was identified as Saint Michael the Archangel. The girls received over 3000 visions and messages at the pines in Garabandal between 1961 and 1965.  To learn more about these apparitions, the messages, the Warning, the Miracle, and the Sign that will be associated with Garabandal, please watch the following video.  It is the same one we watched at the Pilgrim Center.  

The Story of Garabandal 

From the Pilgrim Center we make our way through town to the base of Apparition Hill. The path has been paved over the years to accommodate Pilgrims.  

Mike and fellow pilgrim Tim getting ready for our walk up Apparition Hill

At the beginning of the path is a tile mosaic marking the location of where Saint Michael the Archangel appeared to the girls. 

Pilgrims Meg, Patrick, and Nancy

The accent up the hill is less than 1/2 mile to the Apparition site in the Pines. In the 1960's this was a rocky path.  Currently it is in different stages of development, with the Stations of the Cross lining the path.  

                

    

At the top of the hill are a few oak trees.  It is here that the majority of the apparitions of Our Blessed Mother took place.  

Placing our petitions for Our Blessed Mother

After some time in prayer and leaving our petitions we had brought from our friends and family at home in the box at Apparition Hill, we made our decent down the back of the hill into town. 

Here is a map of our entire 1- 1/2 mile walk from the parking area, past the town church, Information Center, the Pines, and back to the town center.  

It has been prophesied that once the Warning, Miracle, and Sign happen, Garabandal will become an even larger place of pilgrimage than Lourdes.  When will these signs happen, only God knows.  Until then Garabandal will remain a humble town with one small parish church that fills up everyday for Mass. 

                                

                                                  Church in Garabandal 

As we leave Garabandal, church bells are ringing and the towns people gather for Mass.  We only had time to peek in as we are on our way to the Monastery at Santo Toribio de Liebana for Mass. But first we will stop in Potes, Spain for lunch.  

Next Potes, Spain 

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Interested in being your own tour guide? I have over 20 published GPS audio tours with VoiceMap (Carmel, Monterey, California Gold Country, Folsom, Tahoe, Sacramento) and over 40 tours published with GPSmyCity (Carmel, Monterey, Big Sur, Folsom, Sacramento, Boston, Cinque Terre, Kotor Montenegro, Copenhagen, St. Petersburg, Helsinki,  Stockholm, Estonia). Happy Adventures! 

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All photos and videos by L.A. Momboisse unless otherwise noted