Hello Camino friends! Here’s what’s in this issue:
📆 “Reasons I Love the Camino: Part 1 of 557”
📸Scenes from the Camino: Animals
🎧What I’m Listening To
🎥Got a Camino Question? Join me live on Substack to get it answered!
🥾How to get help planning your Camino.
Are you getting my posts directly to your email or Substack feed? If not, click here to join us.
“What’s the Camino?”
❓Not even sure what the Camino de Santiago is? Start here.
🤔Heard of the Camino but not sure if it’s for you? Read this.
Let’s get started!
🌟 Reasons I Love the Camino: Part 1 of 557
Are there really 557? 🤷🏻♀️ I have no idea.
I just have a feeling that every once in a while I’ll post something about another reason I love the Camino.
Another reason I keep going back year after year.
Another reason I keep volunteering on it.
Another reason I keep helping others plan their Caminos.
Another reason I keep guiding people on the Camino myself.
So here you go…
Reason #1: 💬 Genuine Human Interaction
Face-to-face.
With strangers.
Who are kind, helpful, who listen, who cheer each other on.
If you’re looking to get out from behind your screen, go walk the Camino. 🚶♀️ Or bike it. 🚴 Or do it on horseback 🐎. Or in your wheelchair ♿️ or on your crutches (you wouldn’t be the first).
Yes… even you ✨
People who have never done anything like it do it.
Yes, there’s some preparation needed. If you’re sitting 12 hours a day, it’s not going to be easy.
Even if you’re active, it’s not easy.
Who in this world walks 12 miles in one day… and then does it again the day after… and the day after that?
Sadly, the only people I can think of who do that are those trying to escape a country in conflict.
But for the rest of us…
We are privileged that we don’t have to do that.
And it’s amazing what happens when you do it by your own volition — with people from dozens of countries, all with the same goal.
If you need to reset, if you want to be re-inspired by humanity, get to the Camino de Santiago.
✨ It won’t be easy.
❤️ But you won’t regret it.
With love,
Rebecca
p.s. The Camino Francés from Astorga to Ponferrada is closed today due to forest fires. If you know anyone on the route, please remind them to check with local authorities regarding closures and alternatives in the coming days.
📸Scenes from the Camino
This weeks photos are in honor of my new Camino friend Jette who, as a young woman living in a big city, stopped every time we saw an animal:)
🎥Join me for live!
Apologies to those of you who tried to watch my interview with Hana this past Wednesday—we had technical difficulties. But she’ll be back in September!
I’m back this Wednesday, but without a guest. Why? To answer your Camino questions. If you can’t join me live, respond to this email/comment below and I’ll answer them on Wednesday.
Wednesday, August 20, 11-11:45 ET: Your Camino Questions—Answered Live
Wednesday, September 10, 11-11:45 ET: Hana Maris — Last August, at age 65, Hana walked the Camino Primitivo.
🎧What I’m Listening To:
I was delighted to interview Dave Whitson a couple weeks ago—author, host of The Camino Podcast and walker of pilgrimage routes around the world. He just left to walk 3200 km of pilgrimage routes in Italy, but not before publishing a great interview with Fr. Brendan McManus, SJ.
As a graduate of a Jesuit university, I was surprised to learn how the pilgrimage of St. Ignatius (the founder of the Jesuits) was so connected to what they stand for today. Fr. McManus explains that, “The whole Jesuit system was born from that pilgrim experience and it is a pilgrim spirituality. And it’s really practical. It’s really down to earth and rooted. . . He (St. Ignatius) walked the Caminos of Europe and he put this pilgrims spirituality into action.”
I’m also looking forward to reading McManus’ book, co-authored with Kathleen Flynn, Living the Camino Back Home as it’s only the second book I know of that talks about life post-Camino. (The other is the wonderful Returning From Camino by Alexander John Shaia.)
🥾Ready to start planning your Camino?
Rebecca Weston is an American who walked her first Camino in 2012.
She helps people 45 and over plan their own walks on the Camino de Santiago through her business The Camino Calls.
She and her husband live in Spain in a town of 6500 people on the Camino del Norte. She’s walked more than a dozen Caminos, spent many days volunteering along the trail, and if she’s not walking one now, she’s planning the next—and would love nothing more than to help you plan yours, too.
Can't wait to read all the other reasons! Cute and unexpected animal photos!
The cutest pictures! Loved stopping on the way with you🤗