Behind the Photographs- Camino Life

Life on The Camino de Santiago is amazing.  Amazingly peaceful, amazingly beautiful, amazingly thought provoking and inspirational.  Life on the Camino De Santiago is also amazingly real.  Real life.  Pack your determination, and your humor.  Leave your self judgement behind. Turned out to be the two most important things I took along, and the one I didn’t miss at all. 

Look  - Simple.  The Camino is simple.  Nothing to do but walk.  Unlike everyday walks at home, each Camino day brings new sights, landscapes, challenges.  Being lost in thought with a new view in sight is incredibly freeing.  Look outward, look inward. 

Humidity, sweat, and overall dampness- I’ll get straight to the point. You just might start the day out with wet underwear.  You just might end the day with wet underwear, and wet clothing. The humidity can be high on the Portugués Camino routes.  Clothing items washed out in hostel/hotel sinks don’t always dry overnight.  Or ever. Unless you’ve used an entire packing cube just for underpinnings, you’ll likely have a wet bra or panty band to start the day. Just saying. Speaking of the humidity, you’ll likely not notice the wet areas of your undergarments after an hour or two on the trail because everything will be wet from the humidity and the reaction of the human body to it. Everything. Wet.  Enough said. 

Bread. And bread.  And more bread.   Served with every meal, (in abundance) bread definitely helps fill the belly of hungry pilgrims. I think the description of “bread basket” for ones’ middle area may have begun on the Camino.  Bread gets bonus points for holding up well when carried in the backpack.  Unlike bananas.  How 7 pounds came off my body while walking the Portugués Coastal Camino I’ll never know given the amount of bread I consumed.  I miss the excuse of calories expended walking to eat more bread now that I’m home.  I still eat a lot of bread, I just miss that excuse.  

The Portugués Coastal Camino is a fairly flat route.  Not really. Compared to other routes? Possibly.  The terrain may not be nearing perpendicular but calling it “gently sloping” would be misleading.  Grossly misleading.  Long ascents were frequent.  Lots of uphill leading to lots of downhill sidestepping to protect 60-something year old knees. Lots of sweating.  Thus the need to rinse things in the sink at night.  And the excuse to eat bread.  And to chug Advil.  I think the only thing I consumed more of than bread, was Advil. 

Santiago Cake (aka More Bread) - A simple Spanish almond cake served with almost every cup of coffee (and in most cafes with any drink ordered) along the Camino.  Yummy.   I’ve already made it at home.  If you come to my house and have anything at all to drink, you’ll likely be offered a piece of Santiago Cake.  If you come to my house for any reason, you might be offered Santiago Cake.  On further thought, I may have consumed more Santiago Cake than Advil.  May have. 

C-19 - Don’t come down with CoVid on your Camino.  Or any illness.  You may need an additional rest day if you do.  If you do, eat more bread, eat more Santiago Cake, take more Advil.  CoVid may make your remaining walking days a bit difficult. You may not think straight with a Covid Fever.  A good sister can help with that. Be thankful if you are walking with your sister.  

Finish if you can - Honor your desire to walk the Camino. Walk with your eyes and your heart wide open. Walk. Climb. Eat the bread. Eat lots. Take the Advil.  Take lots. Think the thoughts.  Pray the prayers. Smile the smiles, shed the tears. Feel the feelings.  Honor your desire to finish.  Finish if you can. You’ll be ever thankful you did.  

Written for an old friend.  Me. 

It’s Decided Then—-Pre Camino

My Camino De Santiago Compostela actually began days, weeks, months, before the physical journeying.  I’d read of this phenomenon.  I’d heard first hand from others who had walked “The Way of St. James” that their own Camino had actually begun before setting foot in a plane, train, or automobile.  Most travels do begin before the actual physical journey with plans and preparations but this seemed to mean more of an emotional beginning.  Possibly of realizing of “why” one wants to walk the Camino, a desire to “find” something, a spiritual call for some.  

The Camino was historically a religious pilgrimage to the tomb of St. James and lo today many people (about 25%) still walk for a religious or spiritual reason.  https://hiketheway.com/blog/top-5-reasons-people-walk-the-camino-de-santiago

During the planning phase of this trip, still several weeks ahead but close enough that I was getting excited about post-covid travel,   I was talking to Father Aiden Rontoni in Redding, CA.  Father Aidan is a fairly young priest who livens up our overwhelmingly aging population at All Saints Church in Redding.  I appreciate his way of sharing different thoughts and ideas while remaining reverent to history and traditions.  I told Father Aidan of a couple challenges I was facing in preparing both mentally and physically for this journey. Father Aidan, with a huge smile and confident, calm tone said “Your Camino has already begun”.  I don’t remember the date, the time, and no, not what I’d had for lunch,  but I remember that moment as the one when I realized my Camino had indeed, begun.  

The  Camino De Santiago, also known as the Way of St James, is a network of ancient pilgrimage routes that leads to Santiago de Compostela. https://theculturetrip.com/europe/spain/articles/a-brief-history-of-the-camino-de-santiago/?amp=1

Walking the Camino De Santiago Compostela was on my radar though not on the “must do before I die” list.  I hadn’t thrown the Camino into the proverbial bucket mainly because I couldn’t imagine being away from my husband, kids, and grandkids for several weeks.  I don’t spend a lot of time on myself by choice.  I whine at times about it, joke about having my grandchildren so much, fuss about no “me time”, but it’s a choice I make.  I enjoy every second I spend with my grandchildren and my entire family.  Grandma Daycare is the best job for me.  Caring for and supporting others, that’s absolutely my game.  Well, baseball is too but that’s a story for another time.  I simply didn’t like the idea of missing my family and not being around to share their lives and support their highs and lows for several weeks.  Then……my wee bit older than me sister Sharon called.

Sharon and I are “Irish Twins”.  We miss the technical definition of “born within a year i of each other”  by 18 days but we claim the title regardless. With respect to our mother who delivered 5 children in slightly leas than 9 years we still often call ourselves Moms “Irish Twins”  Mom was Norwegian and Finnish. Our Irish comes from our Dad, but that’s a story for another time too.  

Sharon asked if I would “pretty please” walk the Portuguese Coastal Route of the Camino De Santiago Compostela with her.  Mmmmmmmm, I said.  “Please” Sharon said.  “Can I think about it for a week?” I said.  “Yes” Sharon replied. A week later, after much contemplation, prayer, and conversations with my family,   “Yes”  said I. 

https://www.caminodesantiago.gal/en/make-plans/the-ways/portuguese-coastal-way

   I love my siblings fiercely…..not an overstatement.  Siblings carry our history along with theirs and remain our link to the past when parents, aunts, uncles pass on.  Siblings are a touchstone to the inner child I believe none of us wants to leave behind.  My inner child began to get excited about supporting Sharons’ Camino walk.  My inner child and my adult self in all it’s jumbled disorder began to get excited about walking “her own Camino”  too. 

We planned.  We planned and we planned.  We replanned and rearranged plans.  Sharon did the bulk of the planning as that is her thing.  With my input on specific questions, ideas, must dos, must not dos,  and with Sharons’ magnificent travel experience, we planned a dream journey.  We talked about how even though we would be doing this together, we would also be walking our own Caminos.  We would have times when we would choose different paths, go different directions.   We would start in Porto, Portugal and end in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.  

We had a game plan, and on May 30th, 2022 it would be Game On!