Ordinary Gente

April 5, 2022 — There are three main aspects of plans for walking the Camino de Santiago. These are logistics, physical training, and spiritual preparation. Arranging the logistics of flights, trains, hotels, and gear was fun and fulfilling. Each new detail confirmed brought us closer to the realization of this pilgrimage. Straddling the pre-digital world and the virtual ubiquitous world, I made folders with color-coded, flagged documents, a tangible representation of the travel, and created a shared digital folder on the trip for our travel documents. We’ve also both joined the Facebook group American Pilgrims on the Camino. Ah, and then there are the apps:

• Tripit app- a one-stop place for all arrangements that I can share with my sons and sisters
• Maps.me app – offline maps for the terrain
• AllTrails app – for Stateside and (I hope) Spanish hiking trails
• Renfe app – required for boarding Spanish trains
• Air France airline app – to habitually check in the hopes of being offered an upgrade to Business class
• Wise Pilgrim app – for infrastructure notes, step by step Camino guide, and suggestions for what is notable to see along The Way
• Buen Camino app – serving a similar purpose as The Wise Pilgrim
• XE app – currency conversion. It’s not so vital on this trip, but I love it still, especially when I’m jetlagged and can’t calculate the value of something
• Google Translate – yes, I speak Spanish, but in Galicia what’s spoken isn’t Spanish it’s Gallego (or Galician)
• Relive app – merging satellite maps with our geolocation and photos we take along The Way; my favorite during training

This snapshot of the tools for logistic preparation brings me to the physical training.

Walking and Getting Fit

Luis and I have been active for years. We first “dated” on a series of jogging outings at Stanford. And with varying degrees of consistency during our baby-raising years and the career-striving years, we have remained fairly active. The first year of the Pandemic flipped things and we spent time at home, watching too much TV, online shopping, cooking adventuresome recipes, and drinking wine. It was with a soft body and fear of catching Covid that about a year into the Pandemic I returned to walking in earnest with Luis at my side. My friend SandraDel Cid obliged kindly when I asked her for tips on training for the Camino. She sponsors the Marathon running club at school and I knew she’s a wise woman in the ways of fitness. With her suggestion taken to heart, Luis and I returned to the regularity of working out routinely, starting slowly and building every week. We slowly added walking sticks, then light, school kid backpacks, then real trekking backpacks, until we finally added the weight of all the things we will carry with us on the Camino. Following the training routine, we interspersed hills and distances until we could comfortably walk with our gear and food for 5 or more hours a day. One area of training we lack is that of cold or rainy weather walking. Southern California is still in a drought and we couldn’t put in the miles in the shower. So the anticipated rain in Northern Spain in April might come as a surprise to us.

Spiritual/Religious Development

Last weekend we made a last-minute decision to go on a locally organized camino from Mission San Gabriel to the Our Lady Queen of Angeles, otherwise known as the Cathedral in downtown LA. It was a 12-mile opportunity to connect with other faithful pilgrims. Some of them were not aware of the Camino de Santiago, others had made the pilgrimage multiple times, such as a new Camino friend pictured here. I think his name is Felipe. Regardless we connected about deeper issues than just trekking. Luis, meanwhile, ended up walking for miles with Fray Lucello from Brazil. These companions on our day were just two of 3000 people processing along with their 3000 reasons for doing so on a cool and overcast morning.

Mostly, though, Luis’ and my spiritual preparation has been the two of us, getting to deepen our relationship. We’ve been reading about the history, and the myths surrounding St. James, and the modern-day community of pilgrims. To be fair we haven’t been church-goers since the Pandemic hit. The church has been transformed, at least for me, into a community that strives to walk the way Jesus walked and the way St. James and other disciples did, getting to know the people on the ground. We still work toward fairness, peace, and community in this world challenged with so many things, from the ongoing Pandemic to war in Eastern Europe, and inequities right here at home. Today we are 3 days away from our flight to Spain. A week from tomorrow marks our first day of pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago with the logistics and training behind us. Remaining is the spiritual experience along the Way.

RoMA