Category: Uncategorized

May 7. Another good walk today. Today, my trek was a 17 miles. I’m in a little village, about 27 miles outside of Santiago. Tomorrow, I’ll walk about 15 miles and on Friday, I’ll walk the last 12 miles into Santiago. Today has been another great walking day. Lots of blue sky, sun, woods and fields to walk through. Still a lot of farms, but the landscape is slowly becoming more urban. Unfortunately, it looks like our arrival into Santiago will be rainy. Not much else to share. All of us, who are doing the long Camino are getting melancholy about the end of the adventure. It’s been an unbelievable time.

April 6th. Short note today. Another good walk today. About 14-15 miles. The walk didn’t compare to the magical walks I had the last two days, but was pleasent, mostly rural with lots of farm fields and their associated manure smells. The weather was perfect. I had a great dinner with friends tonight. Galacia is known for their octopus dinners and we’ve been having it every night for dinner. It’s braised with olive oil and paprika. It’s delicious. It’s another long-ish walk tomorrow 17 miles. We’re getting closer by the day. I’m currently flying out of Santiago on May 12, to Paris. I’m staying with friends in Paris that night and flying back to Boston on the 13th. Hard to believe that a week from now, I’ll be home. I’m in the final stretch.

May 5th. A much shorter walk today. 12 miles and I reached my Alberque by 12 noon. If I hadn’t paid for my bed in advance, I may have kept walking. I started my day in the woods and fields of Galicia, as I have the past two days. I can’t explain how beautiful it was to walk through this landscape. The paths would wind through the woods with streams , moss covered walls and trees, then I’d move into a farmers field with cows and horses and old stone farm houses, then back into the woods. It was all so idyllic. Not sure what my next days will bring, but these have been great walking days.

An administrative word on the Camino… to earn the “Compostela”, which is the accreditation document that shows you’ve walked the Camino, a person needs to show that they’ve walked at least 100 kilometers of the Camino. I am at the 100 kilometer mark on the Camino. The result of that rule means that church groups, high school classes, religious organizations, senior citizen groups are all joining us on the Camino now so that they can walk their 100 Kilometers and earn their Compostela. The path is becoming very crowded. It’s not good or bad…but the “character” of the Camino is now very different. It’s the road weary “veterans” of “The Way” versus the new walkers, who don’t smell like we do! They also haven’t learned some of the etiquette rules for sleeping in then alberque. Someone described some of the Camino now as a Conga Line, with all of the extra people, walking on what can be very narrow paths. We welcome everyone on the Camino. These new pilgrims are just adding another dimension to our last few days.

I’ve got a little bit longer walk tomorrow. As of now, it looks like I’ll be getting into Santiago on May 9th. Time to start thinking about booking my flight from Santiago to Paris. Can’t believe that this adventure is coming to a close. I am looking forward to getting home, but also conflicted about this wonderful experience coming to an end. It’s everything I imagined it to be. It’s 9pm….time for my 59 other bunk mates and me to get to bed.