Today We Walk into Santiago - Day 9

We are up early and now are waiting for a taxi to take us back to the place we walked to yesterday afternoon! Taxi? Yes, a taxi. Yesterday in extreme heat we walked 4.2k beyond the town of Arca where we had intended to stay. It´s the last place before Santiago with any albergues or refugios. So we came back and had a great night of resting and sleeping.

So today we go back to our shady little rest spot where we figured out what we had done, and start again. Maybe I will find my sunglasses that I somehow missplaced there.

It is very bittersweet to be completing our Camino today. But like childbirth, truly this is just the beginning. An ending of walking the Camino, and a beginning of life with the Camino in me, under my feet.

By the time we finish today, we will have walked 168 kilometers. Pretty amazing, eh? And while it has been challenging at times, hot, cold, flat, hilly - all of the above, we have all done it. All 6 of us. My great group from Canada - Sue Kenney (see www.suekenney.ca), Linda, Vanda, Wendy and Paul. I know that I have not shared much about them - I will more later. They are wonderful and it has been the perfect group to walk with. We have created our own Camino. Other pilgrims get up at 6am; we get up at 7 or so, and have cafe con leches and bread before we even start, and then walk until 8pm. It has worked for us.

And today we are up early so that maybe we can arrive in Santiago by noon and go to the noon Pilgrim´s Mass at the Cathedral. We will see. If we do, we do. If not, we go tomorrow.

Must go...

xo

Day 8 Begins!

Good morning! I actually have a chance to write as I am ready and rather than just wait, I remembered that we have Internet access here. We are in Arzua, just about 42 kilometers from Santiago. We have walked over 120 kilometers over that past 7 days...

We have walked through mist, rain, cold, heat, sun, shade - over mountains, through river valleys, up and down rolling hills and along some highways. We are in the area called Galithia - I am not sure if I have spelled it correctly, that is known for it sausage, Caldo soup (made with ham and kale), a delicious white wine that we had yesterday for lunch with ¨polpos¨ - octopus -in Melide. I have some great pictures of the woman taking 2 octopuses out of a huge pan filled with them and then snipping the legs up into bite size pieces and heavily drizzling them in olive oil. And, they were delicious.

Yesterday afternoon I got to really own being a ¨peligrina¨ or pilgrim. In the late afternoon, after we stopped for ice cream and got our 2nd pilgrim stamp of the day in our passport book, I took off thinking that I was following Vanda, our young (40 year old) and fastest walker. While I thought that she was really cruising, I thought that as long as she was ahead, then I would just keep on going. So I just kept on going. I found my own speed, my own rhythm and for 6 or 7 kilometers I just moved, sang my way up the big hills, delighted in the scenery, marveled (again) that I am actually walking the Camino, and walked, and walked. I was in my own space, in my own heart, in my own walk.

I am a pilgrim. I am a pelegrina.

I arrived in Ribadiso, a sweet little hamlet down by the river Iso, only to find that Vanda was not there. Oh. I guess she wasn´t ahead of me after all. So, I knew I had a little while before the others arrived. I called home as I had been looking for a phone at around 4-5pm for the past couple of days. We are 8 hours ahead of Colorado here. I got to talk with Alea and Michael which was so wonderful. Great to hear their voices and be with them over the phone and to hear about the end of school. I then got myself a large cold beer and sat down in a very visible spot. I got my journal out to start remembering the day. I was totally happy, totally content, and feeling so much gratitude and awe at this journey called the El Camino de Santiago.

I am a pilgrim. I am a pelegrina.

We arrive in Santiago tomorrow. While I am excited that we will be arriving, I am sad because this journey is going so fast.

I love getting up, walking, eating, laughing, sweating, walking, drinking, resting, walking, meeting other pilgrims. We keep meeting up with a group I call the Canadian Quartet, even though there is one Aussie in the group. A group of delightful women in their mid 50´s who have walked the whole thing and who met us literally as we took our first steps in Vega de Valcarce. And it turns out that Judy is walking because of Sue Kenney, with whom I am walking and who wrote ¨My Camino¨. They are all from Toronto.

What a gift. What a blessing. What a journey. What a path. I am so blessed. Thank you to all of you for your love, support and encouragement. Because of you, I am here.

Today we walk. And it is time to go.

Buen Camino.

Day 6 on the Camino

Leaving Vega de Valcarce feels like lifetimes ago...we have walked over half way and right now we are in a small village that actually has internet called Eirexe. We stayed last night in a great albergue with a room to ourselves. Dinner tasted so good - salad, huevos frites and potates frites with red wine. After walking 20+ kilometers yesterday, food and wine and a shower finish a day off perfectly.

The countryside is beautiful...patchworks of fields and forests, rolling hills. I have several times looked back over my shoulder to take in the magnitude of what we have walked, especially the mountains. We actually walked over those! Wow. Walking slows down the tempo. There is so much to take in - the beautiful wildflowers, hedgerows, trees, cows, chickens, horses, even the old, old stone houses and barns. I feel as though I have stepped back in time.

We wash our clothes by hand because we get to as we walk our Camino. Today we passed an older woman washing clothes by hand and beating them with a stick...she has to. Different worlds.

Everyone we pass and see says ¨Buen Camino¨ - ¨Good Camino¨ -such a generous sweet blessing from all of the locals as we walk through their villages. We are not the first peregrinos (pilgrims) who pass through their town, and far from the last. We are one of many -today, yesterday and tomorrow.

I am walking the Camino and loving it. I am here now. And I will be back to walk the whole thing. What a blessing. What a gift. It is the way. It is my way.

Buenos dias, and mucho amor.

xo

today we start walking

I am on the bus from Leon to Ponferrada. We arrived in Leon yesterday. I walked into the Plaza de San Isodoro to see Sue sitting in the plaza drinking a cafe con leche. As we sat together and talked, the other pilgrims from our group came and joined us. I got to meet Paul and Wendy for the first time. I then also got to meet Kathy who has done all of her Ph work on the Camino. She is staying with Elyn and Gary. Gary also joined us. Now here is the smaill world - I read Elyn´s book,¨Following the Milky Way¨as one of the first books I read on the Camino. Elyn and Gary used to live in Boulder, before moving to Santa Fe, and most recently, t hey just moved over here to Spain. I was given the book by Barry Sensenig, a local Boulder chiropractor, who had been given the book by Elyn, who was one of his chiropractic patients. When I mentioned his name to Gary, he laughed and said he hadn´t heard Barry´s name in a long time, but obviously knew it and appreciated Barry. So there I was in Leon, and meeting the husband of the author of the book I loved on the Camino who used to live in Boulder. WOw.

We are in Varge de Valcarce waiting for lunch at Christina´s and then we begin our walking up into the rainy mountains. Today will be a steep walk - I trust my training at altitude will support me as I walk. I will let you know.

I am here. And I will be walking here shortly.

Still in Toronto

I thought that I would be in Madrid by now, but when I got to the airport yesterday, I found out that only my flight to Toronto was on the 21st. My flight to Madrid is on the 22nd! Hmmm...so I made the decision to keep moving forward and here I am in Toronto, in my little hotel room downtown. I fly out tonight so I am going to spend the day walking and exploring. It's all good. I got a really good night's sleep, and I woke up feeling centered and strong. Last night I was feeling sad and scared. It was so hard to leave my family, especially my youngest two children. I had cried myself to sleep the night before, and then we all cried hard at the airport.
So today's a new day and I take the next step forward on my camino. Oh, yes..and as providence would have it, I now get to meet the group I walking the El Casino with at the airport this evening and fly over with them, rather than meet them in Leon, Spain. They are all from Toronto! Synchronicity is already occurring! Next time I will write from the other side of the "pond"

Two Days Until I Leave for the El Camino de Santiago

Wow...I am getting down to the wire. I leave for Madrid on Thursday, arrive on Friday and then take a train to Leon in the afternoon. I then have the evening and most of the next day to myself before meeting up with the crew from Toronto with whom I am walking the El Camino de Santiago.

I will be assisting Sue Kenney, an experienced Camino pilgrim - see http://www.suekenney.ca/ for more information about her and her books and movie - to lead a small group of 4 pilgrims from Vega de Valcarce, west of Leon, to Santiago de Compostela. We are walking about 100 miles over ten days, planning to arrive in Santiago on June 1st.

I am so excited, and admittedly, a little nervous as well. I walked about 6 miles along the Mesa Trail along the edge of the foothills just west of Boulder down to Eldorado Springs on Sunday. I felt great, and even went to Pilates class that afternoon. If nothing else, I will have my Colorado altitude training on my side! Plus I have been walking with about 20 pounds on my back for the last 3 weeks - 20 pounds of popping corn and dried beans!

Tomorrow I pack my pack with clothes and other traveling items. Then I get to weigh it. They say I should take about 10% of my weight, which thankfully is way less than 20 pounds, but I am already nervous about how much I am bringing. I have actually been cutting travel books in half so that I bring only the part of the books that I really need. Feels so funny to cut a book up...isn't there a rule about never doing anything like that to a book?!

I will be writing more when I am in Spain...stay in touch to continue hearing about my adventures. Walking the Camino is just the beginning - the preparation - for the pilgrimage that follows!

Facebook | Tori Hoskin Zegel

Here are some great pictures from my 50th birthday party! While the party was not a surprise, having my sister, Tori, and my dad show up and be there was the best surprise of all!
Facebook Tori Hoskin Zegel

Learning to use my blackberry to send blogs

As part of my preparation for the Camino, I am learning about blogs and writing them using my blackberry. It is not as quick and easy as I want it to be. A lot of re typing