My Best Advice

Many of my readers have already walked the Camino Frances at least once, some recently, some a few years back. If it's been more than a few years, you may be surprised at some of the changes, the biggest of which is the high number of pilgrims walking and the need to book lodging. Due to social media, an influx of self-published books and YouTube videos, as well as some professional films, more and more people know about the Camino and are walking it, pushing it to its limits.

Whether that is a good thing or not depends on who you ask. It also depends on when you ask. At the beginning of the season, pilgrims are welcome. By the end of the season, they are thought by some more as rude, demanding locusts, destroying the land in their path. 

The truth is, walking the Camino has become a bit of a fad. But even if a person is walking "just because everyone else is," the magic is there. Almost all come home changed. 

The Camino has been known for hundreds of years as a spiritual pilgrimage, a route for penitents. 

Penitence: the action of feeling or showing sorrow and regret for having done wrong; repentance. 

The hardships of carrying what you needed on your back, of never knowing where you'd find food and safe lodging, of dodging thieves and surviving the elements were often payment for sins or crimes, and there to teach important and sometimes hard lessons in living a good life.

No longer just a route for known penitents, pilgrims now walk for many reasons, religious, spiritual, touristing, sport, health, and just to say they did it! 

What remains constant are those magical moments, those teaching moments, along with the adage, "The Camino will provide." A pilgrim may not LIKE the provisions, but they will be there, along with those lessons in community, humility and patience. 

Nobody can promise you a perfect Camino. Not many will walk without experiencing some hardship, whether it be blisters, weather, illness, injury to body or spirit, or just extreme inconvenience.

What I can promise is this: you will return a changed human being, and hopefully a better one. 

If this is your first Camino, this is my advice, "Have no expectations - Be prepared to just buckle up, ride the wave, and look for the lesson in every inconvenience, large or small." With an open mind and a bit of preparation, you can have a very Buen Camino! 

Love,
Annie