Camino del norte 2024

What a beautiful day today was! Extremely long, but full of joy and happiness! In total, I walked 19 miles in 9 hours.

In case you were wondering, the older Spanish guy snored a lot. I hardly slept at all. It was like a train station in there. That’s okay because I slept so well the night before in Islares.

I spent last night walking around Laredo. It’s actually a very beautiful city. I especially enjoyed the old city. It is a little bit abandoned, and many parts of it are falling apart. The hostel I stayed in was in the old city, and the host told me that it was recently renovated, but it took a lot of time and energy to turn it into a more modern hostel.

The walk today started with a 2-mile walk along the boardwalk next to the sand. Then, almost all of the pilgrims took a 10-minute ferry ride across the river together to Santoña. It was neat to be with all the pilgrims together.

At that point, I walked with Javier and another Spaniard, Vicente. We walked past a very high-security prison in Santoña, which was interesting! After a while, I turned right to go back to the coast, and Javier continued inland. The coastal route was incredibly beautiful! Absolutely stunning! Then Vicente and I walked along the beach to Noja. Part of me wanted to stop and just swim in the ocean and lay on the beach. I am going to plan a day for that one day!

I stopped in Noja, and Vicente continued on. I stopped for my daily baguette and also bought a chocolate croissant! Wow! It had like a jar of Nutella inside! I could have eaten five of them!

I continued on and thought I might stay in Isla at a lovely newer albergue located next to a church there. I sat on the steps for a while, and then Bastion, my German friend, came along. He was set on continuing onward, and I was still not sure. After getting tired of waiting for me, he went on to Guemes, where almost all the pilgrims I have met along the way were going. After five minutes of waiting, I decided my fear of missing out was going to get the best of me. I put my shoes back on and continued. Bastion saw me coming and graciously waited so we could walk together. This is a really sweet trait he has. He is very kind and welcoming in a way that I wish I could be. Maybe Bastion was put on my journey to show me something about myself.

The last part of the walk was so long! The whole day was on asphalt along the side of the road! Our feet were dying! We were trying to stay positive! With a sign that said 5 km to Guemes, I said to Bastion, "You know what the perfect song for this moment is?" I put on Queen's "Don’t Stop Me Now" on my phone. It was absolutely longer than 5 km to our albergue, and along the way, we met two others, a couple from San Diego. When we finally saw the sign "800 meters to the albergue," I played Queen again, and we were energized and happy as we walked into the albergue.

This place has a bit of an aura on the Camino del Norte. It is a donation-based albergue that has 70 beds, which is amazing because there are not very many albergues available at this stage. They provide everything a pilgrim needs: showers, hand laundry, dinner, and breakfast, all on donations. But the “abuelo” who started the albergue in 1998 gives everyone an hour-long speech before dinner. The speech is very warm and based on the idea that we should be more in contact with each other and support those who are behind us and less fortunate than us. I got a warm feeling from his speech. I think although there is a lot of lore around this man and this albergue that is not always positive, he seems like just a man who loved his life. He loved to travel himself and to learn about other people. And now that he is older, he is creating a place for travelers to come to him. It reminds me of the meditation saying about the man who wanted to change the world, but he couldn’t change the world. He could only change himself, and by changing himself, he changed his family, and by changing his family, he changed his village, and by changing his village, he changed his country, and by changing his country, he changed the world. When he opened the albergue, he had very few pilgrims, but now something like 150,000 pilgrims have stayed here. And each received his message about supporting the human next to you and below you.

Speaking of the person below me… I am in a room with nine others. I just asked, "Who is the snorer in here?" The guy below me responded in a thick Irish accent, "I’ve been accused of it once or twice." Even as I write this, I can hear the train coming around the corner.Read more