The last three days I´ve been marching across Spain with my compañeras, doing over 30km every day to reach here, Monte do Gozo, perched on the edge of Santiago. We´re sort of poised on the edge of the end, Santiago a very visible 5km away, or an easy 1 hour morning walk. This distance after about 790km passed seemes pretty negligable. I, we, could have gone easily all the way into the city today but waiting at the edge, taking the time to reflect on the journey before plunging into the chaotic fray of arrival seems greatly prefereable to nearly all. Few are eager for the end, even the tiredest bodies are at least hesitant, unsure perhaps of what it will be to return to life after the Camino.

The break also allows time to wash up and prepare the Sunday (or Wednesday) best for church tomorrow. After one day of walking 8 hours, the clean up is essential, after 32 days... let´s just say some things are better burned.

For me, Santiago is a milestone to say the least. A major accomplishment, but Finisterre (the end of the world) a further 80km to the coast of Spain has always been my goal, so tomorrow does not feel like the end for me. I will spend the day resting in Santiago, attend the 12 noon Pilgrim mass and celebrate with all the pilgrims whose faces have coloured the past month. Come Thursday, I´ll be leaving behind 90% of my companions and carrying on another 3-4 days (depending on how masochistic I´m feeling) until I reach the edge, the far western point of Spain and honestly if I don´t find a waterfall plummeting into an abyss of space I think I might be a bit dissapointed. I mean with a name like finisterre!?

For 32 days we have been rising before the sun in dormitories full of exhausted and often smelly pigrims of all nationalities.

We drink our cafe con leche or in my case a cafe solo grande (a black ameicano) and maybe have a bite of bread to eat.

We strap on our packs which by now are either old friends whose presence is barely felt, or arch enemies who may be amongst the sacrificed next time we find ourselves near a fire.

And we walk. Most days we walk 25-30km, or about 8 hours. After this you want to pass out wherever the next obliging horizontal surface presents itself but instead we shower and wash laundry that if it isn´t hung to dry early enough, won´t try at all. And then dinner must be found (or cooked) so that you can regain some strength and get to bed early enough to rise and carry on again tomorrow.

This schedule dosn´t leave a lot of time for sight seeing, but as we say we are not tourists,we are pilgrims. I have also to find time to write down the important details of each day, which after so many days begin to seem lesss important and more mundane. Proof enough to me that almost anything can become routine.

Pilgrims are easily spotted in whichever town you happen to stop in. If the dead givaway backpack and walking stick aren´t present or they´ve already showered and checked into their albergue (pilgim hostel) than the stiff legged walk of a sore body is a reliable indicator. Or you can look for the large, eclectic groups of people piecing conversation together in mutually intelligible bits of languages. They´ll all be having the pilgrim menu to be sure, a set small assortment of options for 1st course, 2nd course and desert including wine or water (both if you´re lucky). For me (the lowly vegetarian in Spain), I eat a lot of ensalada mixta and sooo many eggs.

Sometimes these pilgrims, friends over dinner, become friends on the trail as well and walk to the next town together, or sometimes they walk alone and regroup for dinner the next night. Somtimes the pace is quick, sometimes slow (or barely more than a stumbling crawl). Sometimes you meet someone and have a life changing kind of conversation and never see that person again. And sometimes you see someone every day and never actually meet them. However it goes, with these people you have shared and expereince that is very hard to really relate. At the moment, what´s most incomprehensible to me is that I am really at the doorstep of Santiago. It´s not possible for me to imagine the distance I have walked, more or less 790km. If I look at the route on a map and look at the map of Spain in relation to the world... it´s crazy, I hardly know what to think, what to feel (except tired and sore of course) or what to say. I would say thank you though.

Since yesterday was Thanksgiving in Canada I have a few things I would like to give thanks to. I have already given thanks to everyone who helped me get here, geographically, spiritualy and academically but thank you all again. I would also like to thank, enormously and sincerely, my body. In physical terms I had no idea what I was getting myself into, I´ve never done anything like this before. I am in awe of my body for carrying me this far with minimal resistance. Just one foot in front of the other, day after day and here I am. I am thankful for the Camino itself, anf¡d for the associations and volunteers that support it and the people walking it. I am thankful to my fellow pilgrims for enriching the experience and to the Gods or perhaps Space dwelling planetary overlords for blessing us with unbeleivably perfect weather. I´m not certain I can even say I´ve really had the real camino experience having walked for 32 days and not once, gotten rained on. Even since crossing into Galicia, the supposedly constantly rainy Galicia... blue skies, warm breezes and beautifully cool days. I shoul perhaps knock on wood though with a furter 90km to go until Finisterre.

This is not the last you will hear from me on my travels here. I will have more to say about the post-Santiago experience and the end of the world. Tomorrow I will reach a destination, but the road goes ever onward.

Now I wish I´d had more time, sitting here on the edge as I am. I´d like to have written more to you all, and shared more pictures (I will post more at some point). I will actually be spending the next 6 months or so reliving this experience though and preparing a presentation so most of you will see it and hear it from me first hand anyway sooner or later.