Diary of the Way to Santiago: The French Way From Saint Jean Pied de Port to Santiago de Compostela

Por Jose Maria Burone Mendez

Diary of the Way to Santiago is a gift from its generous author in two ways: first, it addresses practical questions of the pilgrimage, ranging from giving recommendations of hostels and of basic care for the traveler, to provide answers to worries and concerns, to facilitate daily life on "the way." Second, it gives us a deep reflection not only of how to achieve our goals in life, but it shows us that life in general is like "the way" in various aspects, like there will be spectacular sunrises but also contingencies to solve.

• Idioma: Español
• Editorial: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Fecha de lanzamiento: 26 abr 2022
• ISBN: 9781662492617

Vista previa del libro

Everything Is Born as a Dream

The possibility of realizing a dream is what makes life interesting.

—Paulo Coelho

Achievable dreams are part of our life. We could not live without them since they are food for our soul and motivate us to look to the future with faith and hope.

For many years, from a very young age, I felt the need that one day, when I became the master of my time, I would do an activity that would take me away from all the mundane things of my existence and would allow me to have a deep encounter with God, with myself, and with nature.

It was not clear to me what I wanted to do to accomplish that dream until 2002, when the book El Peregrino (Diary of a Magician) by Paulo Coelho fell into my hands. When I finished reading it, I had no doubt that the Camino of Santiago was my great dream and challenge for the future. Fifteen years more would have to pass by before that dream could become true.

During those fifteen years, I was feeding my dream with readings, photos, and movies. Finally, when I turned sixty, the long-awaited date arrived, and I started with my wife, who wanted to accompany me in this adventure, the preparation for such a big enterprise: walking 497 miles (800 kilometers) carrying our belongings in a backpack, sleeping in hostels or albergues, and going without many things that were part of our daily lives.

For eight months, we did prepare for that journey. There were several issues that we needed to consider, including physical training, the purchase of the backpack, footwear and appropriate clothing, and the purchase of travel tickets, both airline tickets to arrive to Spain and train tickets to get to the Camino starting point.

Our initial idea was to walk from Monday to Saturday and rest on Sundays, so we started our training walking from Monday to Friday. At the beginning of our training, we walked two hours, and little by little, we lengthened the route until we were able to walk for at least four hours in a row, following flat and sloped roads. We did it at an average of three miles per hour (five kilometers per hour). One month before we departed, we started wearing the walking shoes that we were going to use on the Camino. What we did not do, and it was a mistake, was to do the training carrying the fully loaded backpack.

Another thing I did was to prepare a notebook with general information about each stage of the journey. Reading the comments on the page www.gronze.com, regarding the hostels, I selected and prioritized three of them per stage with their respective data (address and phone number). I was not aware at that moment of how useful that was going to be during the Camino.

The help of my dear friend Antonio, who lives in Madrid and had already done the Camino, was essential during the time of planning. He gave me a very detailed list of what we should carry in our backpacks, and I remember his repeated recommendation regarding the maximum weight of the same: the loaded backpack should not weigh more than 10 percent of the personal weight of the carrier. That was not easy to accomplish, and from the beginning, we started carrying a few extra pounds.

STAGE 1

Arrival at Saint Jean Pied de Port

Sunday, September 3

With everything ready and proudly carrying our backpack for the first time, we flew from New York, USA, to Madrid, Spain.

Once settled at the hotel in Madrid, Antonio took us to the Association of Friends of the Camino to fill a registration and to get our Pilgrim Credential Booklet (Credencial del Peregrino). That booklet—daily stamped at the hostel—would be the proof of completion of each one of the stages of the Camino to Santiago of Compostela. Without it fully stamped, you cannot get a Compostela¹ or Certificate of Accomplishment. At each of the albergues where we stayed, we asked the host to stamp our Credencial as a proof for that finished stage.

Among the questions on the form that we had to fill out at the Association of Friends of the Camino, there was one referring to the reason that encouraged us to walk it. The options were religious, mystical, or sports; ours was the religious one. After having filled out the registration form, we attended an informative talk in which they also answered all the questions that we the pilgrims had. I believe that the credential booklet can also be obtained at Saint Jean Pier de Port, but I recommend that you verify that in advance.

Antonio gave us as a gift the Credential Booklet and the scallops or shells, which are the symbol of the pilgrim and that we proudly carried hanging from our backpacks during all the pilgrimage; those shells now are displayed on one of the walls in our home.

From Madrid, we took the train to Lourdes, France, and went to visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes where we entrusted ourselves to Her to be our protector and guide during the Camino.

Something I was noticing in the short walking trips we were making was that the backpack felt very heavy, so I carefully looked at everything I was carrying to reconsider what was essential and what was not. After doing that, I got rid of almost five pounds of stuff that I sent by postage mail to Antonio’s home in Madrid. An excellent decision!

From Lourdes, we arrived by train on Sunday, September 3, 2017, to what would be the starting point of our first stage of the Camino, Saint Jean Pied de Port, a small village at the base of the Pyrenees Mountain range.

On the train were many pilgrims of different nationalities and with some of them we met again during the journey. I remember that we shared some chocolates with two ladies who were sitting in front of us; days later, we met them again somewhere in the Camino, and they said they remembered us because of that kind gesture.

We stayed at Albergue de Peregrinos (Pilgrims’ Hostel), and this was our first contact with this form of lodging, which for us was also a novelty. We were assigned the lower beds of two bunk beds. At the top were resting two young persons from Korea. The room had about ten bunk beds that accommodated twenty people. Estefany, the innkeeper who treated us very kindly, was a young woman from Peru who had a young child and was expecting a second one.

Once installed in the albergue, we went out to buy something to eat. On the same street where the albergue was, we saw a store that had all the necessary equipment to walk, highly recommended for last minute purchases, particularly for things such as walking sticks and raincoats. On the same street, there was also a Pilgrim Customer Service Center where the credential booklet could be purchased.

At night, in the dining room, we met Cyntia and Sebastian, a young Argentine couple who were going to walk part of the Camino. We met them again several times during the following stages.

Early we went to bed that day. Although we had read that the first stage was the most difficult, we were not aware of what really awaited us the next day.

STAGE 2

From Saint Jean Pied de Port to Roncesvalles

Monday, September 4: 14.9 miles (24 kilometers)

Hard and spectacular like no other, is how the Gronze.com webpage described this stage; from my part, I would call it extremely hard and exceptionally beautiful. The original itinerary, known as the Napoleon Way, crosses the Pyrenees Mountain range. Ahead, we had 14.9 miles to climb the hill of Lepoeder and go from an elevation of 564 feet to 4,692 feet. Then we would have to descend to Roncesvalles located at 3,100 feet high.

When we arrived to Orisson, we had only walked five miles and we felt already tired. The lack of oxygen we sensed due to the steep height we were climbing and the permanent sloped terrain contributed to our doubting if we would be able to finish that first stage.

We wanted to stay for the night in one of the hostels at Orisson and resume the stage the next morning, more rested. Unfortunately, this option was not viable because the shelter was fully booked. They told us that we could wait until 1:00 p.m. to see if there was any cancellation, but if that did not happen, we would have to continue to Roncesvalles, which meant that we would be caught on the Camino by the night or that we would have to return to the starting point.

We saw then what was the magic solution to the problem: a van that carried pilgrim backpacks to the next destination. We did not know about this possibility, and Magdalena did not hesitate for a moment to send her backpack. I decided to continue carrying mine as I did every single day of the Camino.

Although the difficulties of the road continued and even worsened in some sections, we were able to continue advancing, encouraged by the beauty of the green mountains that surrounded us or by the tinkling of the cattle cowbells that freely grazed there. Whistling is a natural part of me, and during the Camino, I was frequently doing it for long periods of time and that helped Magdalena and me to keep going.

Before reaching the top of the hill of Lepoeder, we found in the middle of that solitude a place where they sold juices and fruits. It was like seeing an oasis in the middle of the desert since we thought that we were not going to find anything to eat or drink until Roncesvalles. For two euros, Magdalena had a juice, and I ate two slices of the tastiest watermelon I have tried in my life.

Having regained strength after that short break, we resumed the walk. We still had 2.5 miles to go, although this time we would be descending the mountain.

The road offers here two options: a very steep descent that goes almost directly to Roncesvalles, or a path with a less pronounced but