June 10, 2015
Things are getting busy on the Camino. I was warned of the carnival aspect of this walk once you hit the “100 km to Santiago” mark.This is the minimum distance required to receive your Compostela or Certificate of Camino completion. Crowds, graffiti, “princess” pilgrims, they are everywhere but I try to remember that everyone’s Camino is different. That is the beauty of it. Even if that Camino includes wearing t-shirts with Mickey Mouse dressed as a pilgrim and St.James’ commemorative bath towels.
My Camino will include the walk to Finisterre on the Atlantic ocean after I arrive in Santiago this Saturday. This is an 86 km walk to a ancient site of pilgrimage that predates even Christianity. The name means “The end of the world,” and so it was before the new world was discovered and turned this flat earth and its thinking on its axis.
Everyone is coming. The Flying Dutchman, our American Friend, Camino Julie. It adds an extra four days but I am way ahead of schedule. I was supposed to be coming into Santiago for my 50th birthday but instead I will be well home with my family for that special day. A choice I made in the end.
My hiking boots may be dusty brown and the soles thin, but I don’t need ruby red slippers to have learned the most important lesson of my Camino.
There’s no place like home.
Yummy Pulpo (octopus) – not available at home. That’s okay.
