I walked the Camino from May 18 to June 22 and continued from October 1 to 9 in 2022, starting from the foot of the Pyrenees in Saint Jean Pied de Port at the French border with Spain.

 When I started on my Camino I had other things in mind that I wanted to get from it. I wanted to have a deep conversation with my soul and with God in silence, that God would talk to me through my thoughts and intuition. But instead this conversation was given to me in other forms, in concrete forms. I learned and experienced more about friendship, I reconciled with our history of being a former colony of Spain, I became truly proud of my ancestry, and I experienced how it is to be truly grateful. All these I carry with me to continue living a meaningful life.

 The gift of friendship

I originally planned to walk the Camino alone. I had walked several stages of the Pieterpad (The Pieterpad is a long-distance walking route in The Netherlands, starting from Pieterburen up north in Groningen and ends at St. Pietersberg down south in Maastricht, with a total distance of four hundred and ninety-eight kilometers.) alone and I really enjoyed it very much. Especially the moments when I just silently enjoyed the landscape, and the moments that I would get some insights about just anything, as if I am having a conversation with my soul and with God.

 But when two of my friends asked me if they could come along and walk the Camino with me, I readily said ‘Yes’ in automatism, not really thinking about how it may change the nature of my Camino. And it did! For one, I was no longer alone as I had expected. The dynamics of three women, each having a strong personality, walking together and staying together in the same albergue for weeks was something that overcame me. I was not prepared for it, that suddenly ‘my Camino’ would also be ‘our Camino’ together. Finding the balance between these two sort of dominated the nature of my Camino. There were many moments when I would feel that I was no longer walking ‘my Camino’ but was just instrumental for my friends in their Camino. I even reached to a point when I thought to myself to continue walking and finish my Camino alone. But in all those difficult moments something was actually also going on inside me. Those moments taught me actually a lot of things about friendship. And all the while those irritations the three of us experienced with each other actually served as building blocks which brought our friendship to a higher and deeper level. Those irritations we had together, in-between our many moments of laughter and fun too, was something we had to go through together, which pushed our friendship further. What we underwent and shared together in the past several weeks was really special and demanded a lot from us – physical challenges, getting out of our comfort zones, claiming our ‘space’ but also granting each other their ’space’, etc. So in a way it put our friendship to a test. And we passed with flying colors! On my part, I learned how it is to be accepting. So yes, the Camino gave me the gift of friendship.

 The gift of reconciliation with history

The Camino also gave me the gift of reconciliation with history. The Philippines is a former colony of Spain. So my view of Spain and the Spanish Catholic Church has always been colored, especially influenced by Jose Rizal’s books of Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. The Spanish as our colonizer and oppressor, and the Catholic Church personified in Father Damaso. So when I entered the imposing and magnificent cathedrals in cities like Burgos I readily thought of the sacrifices of people involved in building such a cathedral. I would think about how the imposing cathedrals were built to awe people into believing in God. I would feel a certain resistance inside me. And honestly I didn’t really get a feeling of connectedness with God inside these cathedrals. Yes, I was awed with its beauty, but didn’t experience any spiritual feeling. I found my connectedness with God more in the small churches and chapels in the small villages. Until I came to Leon. The cathedral in Leon, like in Burgos, was also very imposing and magnificent. It was Pentecost when we were in Leon. So Ruby and I went to hear Mass in the Cathedral. Probably the Holy Spirit came unto me because it dawned upon me that this magnificent church, like a piece of great art, was and is actually a gift of the Catholic Church to the people! I got teary eyed. The cathedral is so beautiful. I was so awed by its beauty and grandeur. I felt so grateful to have the privilege of witnessing its beauty.

The association I have with the Spanish people in general still dated back to the time when the Philippines was still a colony of Spain. I saw the Spanish as our colonizer and oppressor. So outdated huh? But in walking the Camino I met and interacted with a lot of locals, the ordinary Spanish people, not as colonizers but just locals. And my, they were all so friendly! Nothing like the boastful Spanish colonizers I had in my mind. And I realized and experienced that the Philippines has somehow a special place in their hearts. Maybe because of our shared history, our connectedness in our history. In fact, many Spanish locals we met reacted very enthusiastically and their faces lighted up when they hear that we are Filipinos. “Ahh… Filipin! We are family!”, they would exclaim.

 My special gift, the gift of pride

And I got a special gift myself. When we were in the Basque country two separate hospitaleros (people who run an albergue), one in Azqueta and another in Boadilla del Camino, told me that my (maiden) family name Echaves is a Basque name. I got so excited and happy to know that I descended from the Basques. And I thought, my political activism runs through my blood, coming from the Basques. It gave me a sense of pride. My father was always against my activism during my student days. If he still lived now I would have told him jokingly that I was not to blame for my activism then, as it all came from him, he being a descendant from the Basques!

 The gift of gratitude

The moment I walked into the cathedral square in Santiago de Compostela upon the culmination of our Camino, I was overwhelmed with so much feeling of gratitude. Tears flowed from my eyes. For the first time I felt how it is to really be grateful. Before that, gratitude was to me more on an intellectual level, and something which I would always consciously remind myself to be grateful, because it is the right thing to do. But that feeling of gratitude I felt while walking into the cathedral square in Santiago de Compostela was something else. It really came from my heart. I was grateful for having experienced walking the Camino. That I was granted the time, the health, the physical endurance and the financial resources to do this. I really felt so blessed and utmost grateful. And since then I always have that kind of gratitude every day of my life. So, the Camino gave me the gift of gratitude. And God gave me an icing on my cake. He made me experience the Botafumeiro (giant thurible or censer) being swung in the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, dispensing clouds of incense. (The Santiago de Compostela Botafumeiro is one of the largest censers in the world, weighing 80 kg and measuring 1.60 m in height. Source: Caminoways.com)  I was really on tears when the Botafumeiro was swung. Swinging the Botafumeiro was something which is rarely done. So I considered it a special gift to be able to experience that.

Pilgrims who walk the Camino say that “the Camino provides”. Yes indeed, the Camino gave me special gifts, gifts I needed at that juncture of my life.