There and Back Again... a St. James Way Tale by me

On April 2019 I made the St. James Way (Caminho de Santiago) along with my wife. We started in Porto, Portugal and walk the way to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. This is a pilgrimage with hundreds of years, and you can find many sources of information online about it. You can also watch the movie The Way for a romanced version of it.

There are many Ways leading to Santiago, we choose the Portuguese Way to Santiago, but we will do many others. Next one will be The French Way.

It′s an amazing experience that I recommend to everybody, alone or with someone, or even in a group. Personally, I wouldn′t do it in a group, but i am sure everybody feels different about either ways.

For me, in many ways, this pilgrimage was a metaphor of life condensed in these 11 days. I was born again the day I left and I was a different person the day I arrived. I was reborn again to start over.

"He who returns from a journey is not the same as he who left" Chinese proverb

Planning

Our journey started on the 10th of April 2019 and ended on the 21st, at the end we walked +- 240 km (+-150 miles).

There are many ways you can schedule your journey, and your day to day. We decided to get up early, walk till after lunch, and then enjoy the place we arrived in. We didn′t preprogramed our nights in advance, depending on the day, we stayed wherever we arrived.

We stayed in hostels, hotels, private houses, monastery's, wherever we could, depending on the time of arrival. Our planning was made day by day. We only knew how many days it would take, more or less, and that the goal was to get to Santiago de Compostela.

One thing we knew for sure...

“It′s the not the Destination, It's the journey.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Whatever plans you do, it always be different, you will always be surprised and must adapt. And that′s the way it should be.

Just Do it

This is the best slogan ever; about the life we should live.

“Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So, throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” Mark Twain

We didn′t spend too much time programming, we didn′t think much about what things to pack. And next time we will even pack less. Every needle weight a ton, that′s a thing we′ve learn for sure. Just pack light and leave. There is no perfect timing, there′s no perfect of anything.

Obstacles

In one of the stages, through the Labruja Mountain, we left early in the morning and it was raining hard, very hard. We had to climb a rocky steep mountain where the rain didn′t let as see the way. It was a very hard stage, where we couldn′t even enjoy the view because of the mist. I remember to think that if I got up that morning in my house and went there to climb, I wouldn′t do it, I would get back home. But that wasn′t the goal, we had to do it and we didn′t think twice.

If you run into a wall, don′t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it. Michael Jordan

Fellowship

Thousands of people from all over the world do the different St. James Ways (Caminho de Santiago). Along the way we meet many people, from locals to other′s that are doing The Way. Different people from everywhere with this common goal, get to Santiago.

We are all the same, we have the same goal, and we help each other′s without any doubt from the first minute, expecting nothing in return. Either walking or when we stop to eat or have a nice beer, we meet strangers and we treat each other′s like long friends, we share experiences and advises. Sometimes we cross in other places, but most of the times we never see each others again.

(If you know someone from this picture let me know.)

“There are no strangers, only friends you have not met yet.” William Butler Yeats

• I′ll share some of the many experiences we had, in later posts.

Bo Camino

Every road, every travel, every experience has a soundtrack, ours was Eddy Vedder with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, "The Long Road" from the movie "Dead Man Walking".

I′ll share a more private experience and let you see some pictures we took (with the soundtrack). I hope you enjoy it, and hope this is an incentive for you to make The Way. PM me if you need any help.

For everyone we cross in our way, everybody says "Bo Camino", and this is what I desire for You, for Your journey, for Your projects, for Your live,