Well well well,I´m in Burgos now which means I´ve travelled just under 300km by foot alone already! I´m feeling pretty accomplished about that and my feet are feeling it too.
Burgos marks the end of the first third (although distance wise it´s a bit further). The walk tomorrow takes me out of the hilly, sometimes mountainous, country of vinyards, orchards and winding roads and into the (dreaded by some) Meseta! The Meseta, is a flat dry plain with the Camino stretching on into the distance for straight and long stretches. Few turns, hills and sometimes few towns to mark the passage of land... I imagine it makes you feel that you´re not making much ground and that sounds pretty hard for some so many people skip it by bus or parts of it anyway.
I´ve heard the Camino split into three parts: Part one, from the Pyrnees to Burgos is the Body; part two, through the Meseta is the emotions (poignant that many people skip it I think); and part three, the return to mountains in Galicia and the spiritual. Having just finished part one, I can agree with the body. It took these nearly two weeks to get my ¨Camino legs¨ as they say. It´s not really that the soreness and aches of the hard days walking go away, but that you begin to accept them and your awareness is able to grow to include other experiences also. At first I felt like all I could do was inhabit my body, and all my attention was there, but now I can free myself a bit more and engage with the path and with the community that forms in movement along it. You have to go through, to get out as it were. It has been an expansive couple of weeks!
As you move along, and you see the same faces those faces begin to have names and countries of origen. Even though you may know nothing more of these people, these pilgrims (Peregrino/a´s in Spanish) they become your community in motion. Just by smiling and wishing each other a ¨Buen Camino¨ you become friends and soon you are eating, drinking, cooking and walking together.Unlike most relationships you start out sleeping together... in large dormitories OF COURSE! Conversation is in bits of mutually comprehensible languages and often quite hilarious for that. I learned how to cook Paella the other day from a Castillian man named Marti who spoke no English at all but fortunately cooking can be easily demonstrated with gesture and intonation. Marti, his wife Rosa and an assortment of British, American, Swedish, Italian, Mexican, German and far more than expected Canadians make up the bulk of my Camino crew. Some days I walk in the company of another, some days on my own, there is no expectation of staying together as everyone has there own reasons for making the journey but we nearly always end up in the same place. The camino doesn´t end with the end of the days walking, it continues with the company you keep each afternoon and evening.
The experience I can most liken this to is sailing out at sea! We are all in it toegther, sharing the same experience, sleeping in cramped quarters and putting up with snoring. We travel along the same way, and feel the same aches and pains of the work. You could choose to get off, make port, and get on another ship with a new crew but most don´t if they can help it. It´s good to have a community to share the experience with. For me it´s good to hear what the experience is for others also (research and all).
Last night in San Juan de Ortega (St. John of the Nettle) I witnessed a miracle! Although I don´t know if a predictable miracle really constitutes a miracle but it felt a little miraculous to to be present for it nontheless... So, in this tiny town (Population 20) there is a monastery, that was built but St. Juan, a disciple of this other Saint, St. Domingo and both were big supporters of pilgrims. In the church attached to the monestary there are all these stone pillars and on top of one of them is a little scene of angels and pilgrims and the Virgin Mary with palms forward (pictured above). On the equinoxes of the year (which just happened to be yesterday when I found myself there) the light shines in through one window to illuminate this very scene at 7pm. I knew nothing of this until I found myself there and witnessing this very event with a church packed full of pilgrims, residents (the few there were) and bus loads of tourist. Que Suerte! (what luck). My old friend syncrhonicity is also travelling the Camino is seems. I filmed it.
Apart from this, the Camino has been walking walking walking... and passing through towns which are celebrating the Fiesta de San Mateo this week (a festival of wine producing in a serious wine producing region). The picture below of crowds in Logroño was on the first night of this festival. There were crowds drinking wine in the streets all night and still drinking wine in the streets at 6:30am when I walked out the next day! The street was sticky with wine.
This is not an elegent ending but I have no more change and 4 minutes of internet left. So until next time, Buen Camino!
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