Contemplations

It’s a week now, and this year’s Camino is nothing like any of those I walked prior. While there is a small group of pilgrims forming that try to walk or dine together, most walking and dining is done either in preformed groups along language or age lines, or alone.

Everyone walks their own Camino, but if the German group remains all but functionally mute when passing or being passed by pilgrims (customary is a quick Hola or Buen Camino) and suddenly, behind sour looking faces, almost unwilling to accept the indignity of having to do so, asks to have their picture taken… that’s a different Camino as the one I am used to.

The “hot shit” pilgrim is J, a physician from Australia. Quick to explain to me, that my work in social and community medicine just shows that I am not long enough in the game to value money, he’s nevertheless the kind of riot that makes him a Camino Legend.

We’re two days from Burgos and three from the beginning of the Meseta, my favorite part. The landscape is barren and the bars serve as nodal points. It’s here that Camino Families are forged, break apart, reorganize, and gain dynamics beyond the walking together.

We’ll see what the desert brings. Tomorrow brings 39°C, little shade, and 32 kilometers. Time to attend the pilgrim dinner and hit the hay.Read more