Camino de Santiago

Recently, I embarked on an adventure.  I hiked 200 miles of the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage that has been journeyed since ancient times.  If you want to research it a bit, American Pilgrims on the Camino is a good place to start.  It starts in France and continues throughout Spain, and ends at Santiago de Compostela, where the Cathedral de Compostela is [the supposed resting place of St. James].

It was incredible.
200 miles is a lot of ground to cover.  We had approximately 16 days to backpack it, with a rest day thrown in.  It was an experience that I'll never forget.  I met so many people from so many different countries.  Everyone was friendly and helpful and loving.  You have to be when you're practically sleeping side by side in sleeping bags every night.

Some of my favorite things: hiking through the mountains of Galicia [the Celtic region of Spain]; picking cherries of the trees that lined the trails; a German man telling me that my German was "Nicht schlecht"; Galician soup on a cold night; tiny villages with stone buildings reminiscent of the medieval times; cobblestone streets; hills of heather and sheep and flowers; a 78-year-old Australian pilgrim named John who was born in India on a tea plantation telling us that "India was magic"; the beautiful, gothic churches everywhere; playing the guitar in a tiny Albergue and the bartender calling me Janis Joplin.  Basically everything about the people and scenery and wonderful culture.

Some of my not so favorite things: messing up my knee going downhill, so it hurt for the rest of the trip; blisters; swollen ankles; walking the 20-mile day [that was not a fun day, regardless of the beautiful scenery]; the open-door showers; and sore feet.

I want to go back and do the entire pilgrimage.  We only did a little over a third of it this time, but I want to complete the whole thing.

A few pictures:

Till next time,

R.A.