I am so excited to share something with you today! I have been waiting for the right moment, and this is it! This is the day that I want to introduce my family to you — my Camino family, that is. Obviously, I must limit it to just a few and will have to pick and choose, but maybe in another blog I can present others of my special family members to you as well!
Before I tell you about my family, let me preface my remarks. Before I started the walking the Camino, I read that the pilgrims who begin the first stage together with you will often finish the Camino together with you. And I have found that to be true.
Obviously, there are the overachievers who have way too much energy, and they don’t stop at the normal hubs -- they rush off, never to be seen again! Then there are those who also are slower — maybe they have blisters or other health issues, or they just decide they have had enough fun, so they bail at a certain point. But having said that, it’s really amazing how many of the pilgrims I started with are still the ones I meet day after day, at hostel after hostel and coffee shop after coffee shop.
So touching - Three pilgrims praying together at 6:15 before they headed out.
Okay, now to the exciting stuff! The first family member I want to introduce to you is named Salvador. He is one of the few locals from Spain I’ve met on the Camino. I wish I would have started counting how many hostels we have stayed at together or how many times we bumped into each other on the trail or in coffee shops. Salvador has probably become my closest family member on the Camino! He has more or less taken me under his wing and instructed me and even corrected me at times! Salvador is 82 years old (so he has the right to correct me), and when he finishes the Camino in another 8 days or so, it will mark his 9th completed Camino — just incredible! Salvador is such a good guy! I could hardly wait to introduce him to you.
The next introduction is actually of seven of my family members, all from Croatia. If I were attaching a label to the different family members, I would probably label these as the ones who are having the most fun! They are free spirited, and you never know what they’re going to do! I have passed them on the Camino and sometimes they are singing at the top of their lungs, sometimes someone is leading them in a chant — it’s all in their language so I have no clue what they are saying. But then yesterday I saw them slightly off the trail at a shady place — they were all sprawled out, just relaxing! They have so much fun!
One note of interest — one evening I was in a restaurant having supper, and the Seven Croatians were in the bar section. I don’t know how to say this, except that they were really enjoying themselves, and had obviously had plenty of drinks. Well, in that particular village, one of the churches was having a special Mass for pilgrims at 6:00. So I left in time to get to the church. Would you know that right at 6:00, that big old door that creaked loudly when it was opened made a noise, and all seven of these Croatians walked in and marched up to the front row! They had rushed from the bar to the church. But they knew exactly what to do, what to say, when to stand, when to sit — which was more than could be said about me. I always was the last to stand and the last to sit. I just didn’t have the routine down very well!
It was interesting that, when mass was over, the priest informally called everyone up front (there were only 30 to 35 of us), and asked us where we all were from. We probably represented 8 different countries. Then he asked for every country to sing a song in their language. He did specify that it be something suitable for the setting of church. Well, the Croatians were the first to volunteer, and I don’t know if it was a gospel song or not, but they were sure into it and they got everybody else into it! I thought for a little bit that we were going to be doing some kind of march around the church! Their song was way more lively than the Americans who sang “Amazing Grace”!
There’s another family member I’d like to introduce to you. She’s a young lady from the Czech Republic. I met her at one of the communal dinners — she was sitting to my left while a lady from Denmark was sitting to my right. This young lady from the Czech Republic told us her story. She was a teacher residing in Germany. She has had a really, really difficult school year, and felt she needed some time away to reboot her life.
Something she was telling us at the table might interest those of you who have rentals, or maybe are tenants who rent. She said that in her contract for her apartment in Germany, they have the rent increases mapped out for the next 40 years. Evidently, every year, rent increases a certain percentage. So she can plan her budget for the next 40 years if she stays!
Also, she said that the laws in Europe favor the tenants. The tenant has to give something like a three-month notice to get out of a contract, but the homeowner has a lot more hoops he has to jump through to get the tenant out. It’s not impossible, but it nearly requires an act of Parliament for a landlord to break his/her part of the contract.
And then, let me tell you about another family member I just met yesterday. She was in our hostel, and I was talking with a lady from Argentina. Because of my being born in Bolivia, I’m always extra interested in my Camino family from South America. The Argentinian lady and I were talking about Bolivia, and this young lady, whom I learned was from Germany, spoke up and said, “Bolivia? Have you ever heard of a place called Tarija, Bolivia?”
Well, that was like asking an American if they have ever heard of a place called Boston! She said that she had spent two months in the city of Tarija!
What’s interesting about this lady from Germany is that she is riding her bike on the Camino. Now, for those of you who think that would be the easy way to go, you’re wrong! If you look at the terrain — the rocks and the uphills and downhills — it would be much more difficult to ride a bike than to walk it. But she was not only riding the Camino; she said that she had been on a fairly major ride: so far she was at 5500 km or about 3,400 miles. She started in Norway and will finish at Finisterre, the end of the earth! And she’s doing that all alone!
I know this blog is long, but I have a lot of family! Let me quickly present two more family members. Yesterday I was walking the trail. I am trying hard to break keeping to myself. I passed this lady, and as always, I spoke - I usually say, “Buenos días,” or, “Buen camino,” or just, “Hola”. But as I passed her, I was convicted that I should slow down and talk with her.
Within five minutes, I learned that she was a hairdresser from the state of Mississippi. She had gone through an ugly divorce, and her husband ended up in prison. Her kids were bitter and angry. She only had 9 or 10 days to walk the Camino, so she had jumped in along the way. But she was trying to reboot and find herself again. And I was able to have probably the deepest spiritual conversation with her that I’ve had with anybody so far along the Camino!
Let me talk about one more family member. He is probably the most unique of any. One day, I had been walking 2-3 hours, and stopped in at a coffee shop — which I know really surprises you, that I might do that. But I saw, walking into the coffee shop, a man with a prosthetic left leg. It was obvious that he was a pilgrim and was not a local. I thought, “Wow, he is one tough dude!” When I saw that he was wearing a T-shirt that said Peru, I realized he was not only my Camino brother, but he was my South American brother. We chatted briefly and I left before he did. But I was totally amazed that he was walking the Camino with a prosthetic leg - I struggle walking with two healthy legs, and he was doing it on one!
I was maybe 15 minutes away from the coffee shop when I heard the noise of a bicycle behind me. That’s one of the biggest hazards here; you have to make sure you don’t get run down by a bicycle. I respectfully moved over to the side of the trail, and the sight that I saw was one that will stick with me for a long time!
Here came a man riding a bicycle - with only one leg! That’s right! It was the man I had met — he was not walking the camino, he was riding it! His right leg was on the right pedal, but there was nothing on the left pedal. But then I saw where his left leg was - It was strapped onto the back of the bike! So, make sure you understand what I saw. A man was riding a bicycle with his right leg doing all the pedaling on a rocky path, and his left leg was conveniently strapped on the back of his bike! Now that’s a sight you don’t see every day!
Enough of my family for the day!
[EDITOR’S NOTE: Joe didn’t send photos of his “Camino Family.” Our assumption is that he’s trying to respect their privacy. We include this note because we know you want to see the guy on the bike!]
The trail goes through that opening in the building.
I was a little apprehensive about the walk today. The last 3 to 4 days have been long and hard. And with the oppressive heat, it seemed to just suck my energy. In fact, a 58-year-old died of heat stroke on the Camino a couple of days ago. Today was one of those times when I was tempted to take a rest day. But as I’ve already discussed with you, at this stage in the Camino it would greatly complicate my lodging reservations.
Anyway, yesterday my legs just felt dead! When I got up this morning, I prayed, “God, I’m going to need extra strength today.” And God answered that prayer — after about the first hour or so, I seemed to get my trail legs back, and my energy increased! And, as a bonus, God gave me extra joy, as I continued to try to tone my soul!
Shoe update: Thankfully the trail today was fairly easy, which put a lot less pressure on my left shoe that is trying to come apart. So for a shoe update, it’s about as it was yesterday — no worse. But your prayers for shoe healing are still needed — my toe is in danger of poking through the top. Where is the duct tape when I need it?
Tonight I am staying in a hostel called Hostel of the Rock. It is literally built into the rock on the cliff! Similarly, on the Camino of life, I am also staying in the Hostel of the Rock — the Rock of Christ Jesus! With that type of foundation, everything’s going to be alright! Thanks for walking with me today.
A house built on a rock — literally!
Buen Camino!
This shows the ultimate goal. The red dot: Finisterre!
Approximate total miles: 560
Approximate miles walked today: 15
Approximate miles remaining: 189