Nearing Santiago

With approximately one week left on my pilgrimage, I find myself at the foothills of a mountain, on the edge of the Leon Province in the Albergue do Brasil.

How will I feel in one week, when I arrive at the cathedral in Santiago? What transformations have occurred, and what surprises does the camino still hold? Will I continue on the Cabo Finisterre, to the seaside to find a Concha, scallop shell, the symbol of the pilgrim?
From the ambulance ride with Mireille, a French woman who fell down a flight of stairs and gashed open the skin of her eyebrow and cheekbone, at 5:30 in the morning and needed an interpreter at the emergency clinic... to teary goodbyes to those internationl pilgrims who aren´t finishing the trek this year; but take buses, trains and flights back to their respective countries.

Am reading Depak Chopra´s ¨The Seven Spiritual Laws to Success¨, for the second time.

Receiving friendly text messages from friends and family (which are free to receive from you, but please understand they cost me to send out, so I refrain), they bring me wonderful cheer, your simple hello´s.

Kevin lands on the 9th, and we will travel Spain until our Madrid departure on the 19th. Angel and Barb, our friends who live in the Gredo Mountains, west of Madrid, await our arrival. They will host us for three nights. I look forward to the recovery time, and planning time with Kevin. Kevin writes emails daily, with packing and shopping questions. He is very excited to use a passport again, after so many years of being stateside.

A steep mountain awaits for today´s hike, and I have been typing, responding to several emails, and delaying this inevitable departure. The sun will scorch me if I don´t reach the shelter before the hours of siesta! I have already crisped my ears, and now wear a gifted green bandana, from Hector of Mexico.

My cell number, for text messages only please, is 207-653-6256 (and please sign your text message, or I will not know who your are). It does not cost you anything additional, as this is my regular Maine cell phone.

El Camino, another world

If you are wondering to where I have disappeared, you must go back a few centuries to the medeival times and even before, when Roman roads were cutting across the Iberian Peninsula!
As this pilgrimage is rather sacred at times, full of mediation and personal reflection, we are encouraged to distance ourselves from the outer world of modernity. The Way of Saint James is also communal, bringing together voyagers from France, German speaking countries, Italy, Brasil, plus a handful of Canadians and US citizens.
I have gone through a variety of foot pain, including the stretching of arches tendons. I have walked thru the pain and somehow arrived on the otherside. ¨Physician heal thyself¨as the bible suggests.
I hike from village to village along marked paths thru forests and fields. At times my ears burn from the extreme sun, while other times I am wrapped in my gore´tex avoiding wind and heavy rains. The storks are flying high in the sky and build nests upon the belfry of each church, many of which are in ruins.
The fountains are spring fed in the villages and serve as necessary watering holes to refill our reservoirs and canteens. Hospilaleros greet us at the door of albergues and refugios, showing us the way to showers, toilets and bunkbeds. Exhausted, we prop our feet up and look forward to dinner, sometimes in restaurants which offer a special fare for pilgrims, othertimes we cook in the refuge kitchen. Some refuges serve communal dinners. Some refuges ask for a donation, others have a set fee for lodging.
We sleep in monasteries, churches, convents, gymnasiums, hostals, hotels, pensiones, refugios, albergues, .... wherever a bed is available that we can afford. The hundreds of pilgrims in transit sometimes make it difficult to find room availability. At times this requires walking additional kilometers in the early evening, with wornout feet. These are humbling challenges which serve to strengthen our faith in the human spirit and powers that be.
Although each pilgrim will have a very personal adventure, I will say that by the end one is sure to experience transformation in facing multiple levels of challenges.

French website for Pilgrims

Please visit the following French website to learn about Le Chemin de Saint Jacques de Compostelle (The Way of Saint James of Compostela), the pilgrimage hike I am about to embark on -- leaving from the French side of the Pyrenees in an area called Bayonne, a village called Saint Jean Pied de Port. After registering as a pilgrim and receiving my credentials, I will cross the mountain range, through the Basque region (an ancient and isolated valley civilization), hopping from one refuge to another, walking alongside other pilgrims hailing from around the world. For Spanish websites, google: El camino de Santiago de Compostela.

http://www.aucoeurduchemin.org/spip/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=161

This website is helping me in my initial planning. I find it to be well organized, thorough and pertinent to my particular route, El Camino Frances.
More websites to come!