Our Lives as Spaniards: Tom's Camino

Tom finished the Camino de Santiago on Friday April 19. The walk from Leon to Santiago was extraordinary. Ellen joined me for my birthday in León (along with our friend Kate Bowland who shares the same birthday.) We stayed in the Parador San Marcos, which was pretty upscale for a guy used to sleeping in bunkbeds dormitory-style in the albergues. The albergues de peregrinos are reserved for pilgrims along the Camino. There is usually an albergue every 5 or 10 km and in larger towns there is often a selection with prices ranging from a donation to 10 Euros. When a person checks into the allbergue the hospitalero (host) collects your money, stamps your pilgrim's passport, and shows you the bed and other facilities (like shower, washing machine, kitchen, and bathroom.)

Parador San Marcos, León

Albergue Verde, Hospital de Obrigo

Dinner at the bar in the Mercadoiro Albergue

Howard and Sue leave albergue at Rabanal early a.m.

Each albergue is different. I stayed in one in Hospital de Obrigo that featured clean sheets (I was one of two guests), a vegetarian meal, hosted by a family consisting of a long-haired guy who played guitar, two women who served water blessed by a guru and a yoga lesson in the morning (I drank the blessed water but declined the yoga). Another albergue would have 60 beds to a room, lots of dirty socks and young Korean men who were clearly having trouble with the Spanish diet. My old boots were worn out, so I left them by the pilgrim's statue in Leon. Luckily my new boots fit perfectly; just one small blister to report. Qué suerte!

Old Boots and Pilgrim Statue

Looking back at the Camino

The landscape and the Camino itself changed dramatically from flat fields up over rocky passes to roadside gravel tracks and then lush rural paths crisscrossing small streams through cow pastures and farmlands. I left a small stone from the summit of Hahn’s Peak, Colorado at the foot of the Cruz de Ferro and so added to the large pile already there.

The people I met along the way were uniformly kind: other pilgrims, bartenders, hospitaleros (hosts), and people who were always willing to show me the way when I would say, “Estoy un poquito perdido.” Often if I wandered astray some "angelito" would gesture in the proper direction. I met and shared meals and stories and albergues with people from Australia, Germany, Ireland, Korea, Rumania, Scotland, Wisconsin, Salamanca, Majorca, Valencia, New Zealand, Canada, and South Africa. Sometimes I would walk with others for a day or so and sometimes by myself. By the end of the walk in Santiago, there was a whole gang of folk whom I was delighted to see for having shared the camino experience.

Crossing into Galicia

Jacinto from Salamanca and Tom

Un angelito

Less than 100 km!

After 780 km and 29 days of walking I was tired but felt good about finishing. My pilgrim's passport had been stamped along the way by albergues, hotels, cafes, and churches. At the end of the Camino Frances, which is the Camino that I walked, I presented my passport at the officina de peregrinos. The officina issued me the compostela, a piece of paper in Latin with my name on it to show I had completed the walk.

Pilgrims in line to receive compostela

Lady who hands out the compostelas for completing the Camino

After receiving the compostela one goes over to the cathedral for the pilgrims' mass. During the pilgrims' mass in Santiago they swung the enormous incense burner (botafumeiro) and, while people are demure about taking photos (it is actually prohibited) during mass, when the incense burner starts to swing hundreds of cameras come out and start to click. Since I am not Catholic I do not take the host, but the mass itself is pretty impressive and each pilgrim is acknowledged for country of origin and starting point along the Camino.

Pilgrims' mass

Cathedral at Santiago de Compostela

At the end of the Camino many pilgrims continue walking another 80 km to Finisterre, which was considered the end of the earth in Medieval times. It is the location where the sea swallowed the sun. I was pooped so I took the bus to the place where the end of the earth has a nice little gift shop and bar. The tradition is that you burn your clothes and jump into the sea. I burned some sage instead and jumped in the water on the beach.