Years ago Krishna and I set a goal to complete a Hindu pilgrimage and a Christian pilgrimage when we retired as a way to gain a deeper awareness of our cultural and spiritual roots. We did complete these pilgrimages after we retired and because of these two journeys our lives have evolved in ways we totally didn’t expect. The Hindu pilgrimage took us to the 4 corners of India. That story is for another time. What I’m going to write about today is about the Christian pilgrimage which took us on a 500 mile walk along the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain.
The Camino de Santiago has been a Christian pilgrimage route since the Middle Ages, when, legend says, that the remains of St. James the Apostle, were found in a field in northern Spain, near the Atlantic coast. A cathedral was eventually built at the site and the city of Santiago de Compostela grew. People from all over Europe began travelling there to visit St. James’ tomb. It became one of the 3 main Christian pilgrimage sites along with Jerusalem and Rome. Years ago Krishna and I set a goal to complete a Hindu pilgrimage and a Christian pilgrimage when we retired as a way to gain a deeper awareness of our cultural and spiritual roots. We did complete these pilgrimages after we retired and because of these two journeys our lives have evolved in ways we totally didn’t expect. The Hindu pilgrimage took us to the 4 corners of India. That story is for another time. What I’m going to write about today is about the Christian pilgrimage which took us on a 500 mile walk along the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain.
The first time we walked the Camino was in 2002. We weren’t sure if we could walk 500 miles,
especially with a full backpack, or if my limited Spanish would be enough to
get us through. So we joined a group called,
Spanish Steps, which provided van support and pre-arranged where we would stay
each night. That year we only walked 124
miles of the 500 mile route. We walked
the most scenic and beautiful paths of the Camino and drove the other
parts. Those 124 miles were very painful
ones, blisters, lost toe nails, aching back and knees, but there was something
special about the journey. And something
kept drawing us back and telling us we had to complete the entire Camino.
In 2005, we went back again and walked the entire Camino. It took 35 days, averaging 15 miles a day. No blisters, no lost toe nails this time, but plenty
of challenges. We walked though the Pyrenees, the Rioja vineyards, through days of the dry
and hot plains. Then it rained every one
of the last 10 days. We got used to
being wet and cold as we walked through the mountains and into the hilly
farmland of Galicia.
The journey was a life-changing experience.
Not so much the destination, but the journey itself… it’s so hard
to explain…the emotion, the joy it brought …
While walking and contemplating our steps, we were given a new appreciation
of life itself and of the little miracles that take place each day. It also gave us a new perspective of what is
important in life.
It was a real awakening for us.
In 2007, our oldest son, then a
Doctor in the Army, left for Iraq. We promised God that if he brought our son
home safely we would go do the pilgrimage again. Our son came home in January, 2008. In the
Spring of 2008 we returned and walked the last 100 miles of the Camino. According to tradition, if you walk at
least the last 100 kilometers, you will complete the pilgrimage and can receive
the Compostola (which is a certificate of completion).
After completing the Camino 3 times we were still driven to return. There are routes to Santiago
throughout Europe. We decided to complete a French route, called
Le Chemin de Saint Jacques, another
500 miles, which crosses southern France
and climbs the Pyrenees at the French border into Spain. In 2011 we completed the first of 3 segments
of this route. In April, 2012, we went back
again, this time accompanied by two friends from La Jolla Golden Triangle
Rotary Club, Linda and Fary, to do another segment.
On all our treks we’ve traveled with a tour group called, Spanish Steps. The owner and our good friend, Judy Colaneri,
and her husband, Juan Carlos, spent a week with us in January, 2012, and we had
a Camino reunion at our house.
Judy and Juan Carlos own a Bed and Breakfast, called, Fuentes de Lucia,
in Austurias in Northern Spain.
While they were here I told Juan Carlos that much of my ancestry came
from Spain
and gave him a few names, dates and places that I knew. Juan Carlos began a project of tracing my
roots. He not only found my ancestor who
left Spain 11 generations back in the year 1611, but he found the passenger list
of the voyage that ancestor took to the New World and he found a letter showing
that my ancestor was hired as an assistant to a sea captain from Cusco, aboard
a ship bound for Peru. Now I know why we
keep being drawn back to Peru
as well. And the little town I couldn’t
find in Spain
because part of the name was not correct – Juan Carlos found it, and its just
40 km from their B&B along the Camino Primitivo (the most ancient of the
pilgrimage routes, now traveled infrequently).
So – I’ve learned that I’m a true child of the Camino!
I always believe that things happen for a reason. Now I know that we had to keep going back to
the Camino and maintaining our contact with Spanish Steps to make this
discovery about my ancestry.
In April, 2013, we will return to complete the last segment of Le
Chemin, which will bring us over the Pyrenees and into Spain. We will end our journey in Roncesvalles, Spain
(our original Camino starting point) and tie together a journey of 1000 miles.
When our journey ends we will
rent a car and spend a week driving the 500 miles to Santiago de Compostela
that we once walked and stopping at places along the way that we had hoped to
see again. We’ll also have time to visit
Austurias, maybe with a short stay at the B&B, so we can visit the home of
my ancestors.
The traditional greeting along the Camino is, “Buen Camino”, “Good
journey”. Life is quite a journey!
Bonnie
November 25, 2012
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