Evolution of our Camino

Cathedral in Conques along le Chemin

When we began plans to walk the last segment of Le Chemin de Saint Jacques we were overcome with emotion as we realized that this journey would tie together the French and Spanish pilgrimage routes for us, a total 1000 miles, and bring closure to a journey that we started over 10 years ago.

We thought - what better way to complete this journey than to dedicate these last miles of walking to support our La Jolla Golden Triangle Rotary Club service projects.  It was our passion to walk the Camino that lead us to our other passions of Rotary and service and ultimately changed the direction of our lives.

That's how the fundraiser "A Journey of 1,000 Miles" came about.  Details about the fundraiser and ways to donate can be found on our Rotary Club web page at http://lajollagtrotary.org/. 

We thought that writing a blog would be a good way to bring attention to the fundraiser, but, in reality, writing this blog is more of a way for us to share a personal story.  The story is overflowing in our hearts but difficult to put in written word, as you can tell by the long gaps of time between blog posts.

 The Evolution of our Camino

Walking Le Chemin de Saint Jacques

At least a dozen or more years back I saw an article in the Travel section of the San Diego Union Tribune about pilgrimages.  The Camino de Santiago was one of the pilgrimages featured.  I saved the article and kept thinking about it.  Krishna and I talked about it as we took our early morning walks before getting ready for work.  He was Hindu and I was Catholic.  Over the years we've combined our religious practices...going to Mass on Sundays and to the Temple on Tuesdays, celebrating both Christmas and Diwali as well as all the other church holy days and religious festivals throughout the year.  We made a commitment that, after we retired we would complete a Catholic pilgrimage (the Camino de Santiago) and a Hindu pilgrimage (the Char Dham Yatra, that would take us to the four corners of India) as a way to gain a deeper understanding of our cultural and religious roots.  We didn't realize at the time, what the real impact these pilgrimages would have on our lives and how our lives would evolve because of them.

I retired in 1999.  The following year we signed up with Spanish Steps to do a two week journey along the Camino.  Just 4 days before our flight left we were faced with a sudden family emergency and had to cancel.  We realized that life itself was a journey and our Camino, our road to face that year, was not in Spain, but at home.

Apostles on the Cathedral in Leon

In 2002, we finally made it to Spain for the two week trek with Spanish Steps.  During these 2 weeks we walked 124 miles of the 500 mile route.  We thought we were prepared.  We had been walking lots and had begun working with a trainer.  But, we got so many blisters.  We each lost toe nails.  In those miles of walking, though, we thought and talked and prayed.  We realized how fortunate we were to be able to walk this journey and we wondered why.  With great fortune comes great responsibility.  What was our responsibility?  Part of my ancestry had come from Spain generations ago, yet, as far as I knew, I was the first to be able to go back to visit.  This visit was more than just for me.  It was on behalf of all my family who was not able to be here.  Something kept drawing us back and telling us that we still needed to complete the full pilgrimage.

Prayers at the Ganges in Haridwar

In 2004 and 2005, we went to India to complete the Char Dham Yatra ("four sacred sites journey" our Hindu pilgrimage).  This pilgrimage covers the sacred places in the four corners of India that Hindus hope to visit in their lifetime.  The first trip took us to Jaganath Puri, Orissa (in the east), Rameshwaram, Tamil Nadu (in the south), and Dwarka, Gujarat (in the west).  We needed to visit these areas in the winter when it wouldn't be quite as hot.  In early summer, after the snow on the narrow roads had melted, we visited the fourth corner (in the Himalayas) and the temples of Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath, and Badrinath.  We had invited family members in India to join us on these journeys.  On the first trip, only our nephew, Pawan, was able to travel with us, though his parents joined us in Dwarka.  On the second trip, though, there were around 27 of us. We had to hire a small bus to drive us on the small, treacherous roads in the lower Himalayas.  During that journey we realized again, how fortunate we were to be able to do this.  With great fortune comes great responsibility.  What was our responsibility?  We began a quest to learn about Krishna’s family and ancestry.  Thus began 2 years of research that lead to the discovery of many new relatives and of ancestry going back to 1703, with roots in Jhang-Magiana, a city which is now in Pakistan

In 2005, we walked the full Camino.  It took us 35 days, averaging 15 miles a day. 

Day 1 Starting the Camino in Roncesvalles

 - This time we were more prepared, physically.  We learned from some of our mistakes and had better hiking boots one size larger than our tennis shoe size, and had learned how to lace them properly.  We didn't get any blisters this time, but on day 2 I hurt my knee from a long down hill in the Pyrenees.  A pharmacist in the little town of Estella sold me a tube of voltaren cream and it worked wonders.  By the end of the trek just about everyone in our group bought tubes of voltaren cream for all the various aches and pains that came up from endless walking. 
- Several of those walking with us were experienced hikers who had done Kilmanjaro, the Inca Trail, etc.  Up to that point, we were just walkers who wanted to walk the Camino.  I had always wanted to visit Machu Pichu, but I had never thought about hiking the Inca Trail.  With encouragement from the group, that became a new quest.

Cover of our 706 page family history book

- As we walked the Camino, we thought and talked and prayed.  We talked about the Indian family history project we had undertaken and the book.  We realized that we were fortunate and with great fortune comes great responsibility.  What was our responsibility?  We thought about how we would distribute the book.  The book would be expensive to produce and not everyone could afford to pay for it.  Rather than ask anyone to pay we decided to give it as our gift to each family member and instead ask them to donate whatever amount they could to a family charitable fund set up in the US and in India.  We thought about ways to best use these funds so that everyone in the family will be a participant in giving.

Krishna with our godson in Q'eros

In 2006, we made it to Peru and Machu Picchu.  We decided not to do the Inca Trail because we wanted to sleep in a bed at night instead of in a tent.  So, instead, we took a “hikers journey to Machu Picchu” that included day hikes in and near Cusco, the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu.  Little did we know, that because of that decision we would come in contact with Holly Wissler, our tour guide, who would introduce us to the Q’eros community, and eventually we would get involved in building a permanent foot-bridge in the community, leading us to make a trek to the community (high in the Andes and very isolated) where we would sleep in tents and have no electricity or running water.  We would fall in love with this community, do additional projects for them, have a godson there and return yet again.  Things happen for a reason.

2007 was a year of challenge.  Our granddaughter was born 2 months premature.  When her mom had to go back to work, we couldn’t bear to see such a tiny child go to day care so we took care of her until she was 14 months old.  That same year, our son, a doctor in the army, was assigned to Iraq.  Each day he was there was heavy on our hearts.  We kept ourselves busy with our granddaughter and with compiling and writing our family history book.  We thought and talked and prayed.  We promised God that if he would bring our son home safely, we would go back and walk the Camino again in thanksgiving.

Near Sarria in Galicia, last 100 k

In January, 2008, our son came home from Iraq.  That April we went back to Spain and walked the last 100 miles of the Camino.  If you walk the last 100 kilometers of the Camino you can earn the Compostela, the certificate of completion of the pilgrimage.  We began thinking of ways to use the family charitable funds and talked a lot about doing a microcredit project because of an article we read on the plane.  As we talked about microcredit, someone suggested looking into Rotary.

... to be continued