El Camino de Santiago. This hiking journey will always hold a special place in my heart. For the past 10 days, we have been hiking from 15+ miles a day from small village to small village in northern Spain. We only completed a small leg of the hike. Most people start on the border of France and Spain and hike all the way to Santiago (city in western Spain near the coast). To give you an idea of our path, here is the order of our towns: Pamplona, Puente la Reina, Estella, Logroño, Nájera, Santo Domingo de la Calzada, Belorado, San Juan de Ortega and finally Burgos. The history and beauty in these cities is hard to explain. There are churches and castles that date back to 800 AD. In America we tear down buildings to rebuild new. In Europe, they preserve buildings to hold onto the history. It is beautiful beyond words.
We began the hike in the city of Pamplona. We stayed in the streets where “Running with the bulls” takes place. That was one of many fun experiences we had. The small streets of Pamplona are where a shell and a saying began to change my life. Throughout the entire Camino trail, the symbol to lead you in the right direction is a shell. Any time you are walking through a city, all you have to do is look down at the ground for shells made of metal, brick, cement, etc. When you are in the middle of the country, there are small cement pillars or signs with shells and yellow arrows to point you in the right direction. The Albergues that we stayed in had shells on the doors or signs hanging with shells. We all bought baseball sized shells at the beginning of our journey. This shell hangs from your pack to let people know that you are a pilgrim of el Camino de Santiago. It also is used for the wine fountain that is along the path. Pilgrims stop at this wine fountain to fill their shell for a drink. You will see the the joy in my facial expression below. The symbol gives you hope. When you feel lost, look for the shell. When you don’t know who to talk to, find someone with a shell. Being a pilgrim is like being part of a fraternity/sorority where you are instantly accepted.
Along with the shell symbol, there is a popular saying while on the Camino. Buen Camino! This saying is used to encourage the pilgrims on their journey. It means good way and/or safe travels on the Camino. It doesn’t matter what language you speak, every person you pass says it; even people that live in the villages! It was also a good way to try and communicate with people. Every pilgrim hikes this trail to soul search. It has a very religious background to it. Some people do it for recreation, some because they are hurting and some because they are searching for something more. Buen Camino gives you a chance to open up conversation with these people and then use google translate to finish the conversation 🙂 I met some amazing people from all over the world and it was so fun trying to carry on conversation with the language barriers. We heard people’s stories. We laughed with them. We hurt physically and emotionally with them. We prayed for them. Some were caught off guard when we asked to pray for them. One lady had the biggest smile on her face and said, “No one has ever asked if they could pray for me before!” We quickly learned we weren’t on the Camino to finish a long hike and be prideful. We were there to see the smiles and tears of others that saw Jesus in our squad.
I wrote a letter to Jesus at the end of our 10 days. We hiked together for parts and sometimes we hiked alone. This provides a lot of alone time. A lot of time to reflect and think about what this hike was really doing for us. We did our best to help change others, but we were changed so much more in the process:
Jesus,
Thank you for allowing me to be a pilgrim on el Camino de Santiago. Hiking 15+ miles for 10 straight days is challenging but You taught me so much. People that do this pilgrimage journey multiple countries to soul search while hiking. Having conversations about You and praying for others was amazing but I realized You were teaching me much more in the process. I don’t wanna gain this world but lose what matters. I’m giving up everything because I wanna be different. I wanna be changed. Until all of me is gone and all that remains is a fire so bright the whole world can see that there’s something different. When they see me, let them see Your love, even if I’m not speaking. I hope everyone gets the chance to do this one day; to hike el Camino de Santiago and become a fire that resembles You.
Love You Papa
Tyler
(Pics coming soon when I get better WiFi)
