Days 56-60: Preparations for the Camino de Santiago

Preparations for the Camino de Santiago

Days 56 – 60

February 23 – 26

Moorpark, CA

I spent twenty-four hours on an airplane going from Santiago, Chile to Lima, Peru to Mexico City, Mexico to Los Angeles, California.  This brief trip back home was an artifact of a plan drafted months ago: I originally was going to spend two months in South America and six months hiking the Appalachian Trail, so I bought a return flight to LAX two months after I planned to fly to Lima.  Alas, plans are like underwear: the longer you are attached to them, the more they stink and need to be changed.  So when that plan fell through, I bought a three-month round-trip ticket to Europe, with Barcelona, Spain as my first stop.

The new plan: walk the Camino de Santiago.  A good friend of mine first told me about this 800 kilometer (500 mile) pilgrimage from Saint Jean Pied de Port, France to Santiago de Compostela, Spain.  The Camino de Santiago (Way of Saint James) began as a pilgrimage in 812 A.D. after the remains of Saint James were discovered buried near the western Spanish coast.  The site of his remains became the city of Santiago de Compostela, the later word in the city’s name meaning “field of stars.”  Because the major east-to-west route that converges other European routes is traced overhead by the Milky Way at night, pilgrims believed they were being lead to Santiago by a field of stars.  Catholics from all over Europe would journey to the cathedral where his remains were buried to pay their respects, receiving hospitality along the way.  The Camino has been traveled by pilgrims every year since it began in 812, booming for centuries at a time and experiencing reduced traffic during the Dark Ages and times of war.  Now, the Camino has evolved past its strictly religious context into a social and spiritual experience, with over 250,000 people from all over the world walking the Camino each year.  

So I made my decision: I will walk the Camino de Santiago, specifically the French Way.  I have many reasons for wanting to complete this journey, the details of which I will save for my next blog post.  As a result, my four day detour home served a great purpose: allowing me to make preparations for the month-long pilgrimage and the follow-on two months in the rest of Europe.  First, I had to get rid of a few things, like my tent, sleeping mat, water filter, GPS, and a select few other things that had extreme utility in Patagonia yet would prove useless dead weight in Europe.  Then, I needed a few more things, like a change of clothes that I stubbornly did not bring with me to South America.  On as positive note, I am now quite proficient at washing my clothes in random buckets found in hostels, something I would do at night so I could have dry, clean clothes in the morning.  

Stopping off in California also afforded me the opportunities to visit with family, ride a bicycle along the beach, and eat copious amounts of Mexican food, which was non-existent in South America.  And even if it was, there is something about Californian Mexican food that just hits the spot like no other place.