My Camino April 2 2016

This is the start of my preparation for the Camino De Santiago. After a winter in the casa in El Sargento, Baja California Sur Mexico, a winter filled with many personal challenges, lots of soul searching, and a quest to find my personal truths. I have decided to walk the Camino De Santiago starting in Mid to late May 2016. The “Camino” as it is called, is a pilgrimage from St. Jean France in the Pyrenees mountains, across all of Spain, and ending in Santiago, Spain.

Once I decided to walk the Camino, I had the stark realization that this old body is not in shape to walk 800 KM, almost 500 miles, of the Camino De Santiago. So, I have changed my carnivore, fat filled, pizza eating, ice cream loving, cheesey mexican food loving diet, to a more healthy diet of, fresh fruit, yogurt, smoothies, veggies, and fish. I do allow for the temtation of a fat juicy rib eye steak, and a fully stuffed baked potato, including sour cream and cheese and bacon bits, once in a while. Basically, low fat, no or limited dairy, no sugar, no bread, no soda pops, and drinking lots of water. I have not stopped , beer , rum or tequila.

I started exercising three weeks ago, hiking here in El Sargento, My first walk was about one mile, I was huffing and puffing walking up hill, and needed a nap when I got back to the Casita. Day two I doubled the extreamly long distance of day one, and needed two naps, and a beer. after a week I was walking 5 miles or more in the morning, on the beach and then up into the mountains , using the single track mountain bike trails that twist and turn thru the cactus filled area of the Cacachilla mountains here in the Baja. As of this date I am walking 6-9 miles a day, today I did the mountain, and beach walk, a total  of 8 miles in 2 hours and 15 mins, with a fair amount of vertical climb. I am walking 5 or 6 days a week and have lost about 10 pounds, would be more, but I fall to temptation , beer , Margaritas, and ice cream, with a filet mignon thrown in. all in due time , I will corral my temptations.

 

My Camino De Santiago 2016

April 1 2016

The Camino De Santiago, known in English as “The Way of St. James,” is the name of any of the pilgrimage routes to the shrine of the apostle St. James in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain. The earliest records of visits paid to the shrine dedicated to St. James at Santiago de Compostela date from the 9th century, but it wasn’t until the 12th century that large numbers of pilgrims from abroad were regularly journeying there. The route is now one of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites.

The Camino Francés or French route is the most popular pilgrimage route to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. It runs from St. Jean Pied de Port on the French side of the Pyrenees to Roncesvalles on the Spanish side and on to Santiago de Compostela for a total of 791 kilometers or 490 miles. This is fed by three major French routes: the Voie de Tours, the Voie de Vezelay, and the Voie du Puy. It is also joined along its route by the Camino Aragones, the Camí de San Jaume, the Camino Primitivo, and the Camino de Levante. Other Spanish routes are the Camino Inglés, the Via de la Plata, the Camino Portugues, and the Camino Norte. This Camino network is similar to a river system with small brooks joining together to make streams, and the streams joining together to make rivers, most of which join together to make the Camino Francés.

Many of those setting out on the Camino de Santiago give a religious or spiritual reason for going. Others find spiritual reasons along the Way as they meet other pilgrims, attend pilgrim masses in churches and monasteries and cathedrals, and see the large infrastructure of buildings provided for pilgrims over many centuries.

Some people travel the Camino on bicycle or on horseback, but the traditional way is to walk. Walking the Camino is not difficult, with most of the stages being fairly flat and on good paths. The main difficulty is that few of us have walked every day for a month or more. You learn more about your feet than you would ever have thought possible! And you also learn a lot about life.

The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela is a Romanesque structure with later Gothic and Baroque additions. There is a statue of St. James at the altar, and his relics lie beneath the cathedral’s high altar in a silver coffer; they can be viewed from the crypt. In the cathedral’s Capilla del Relicario (Chapel of the Reliquary) is a gold crucifix, dated 874, containing a piece of the true Cross.

The most impressive tradition of this cathedral is the fast swinging thurible, an ornate, 1.6 metre high censer which is the largest in the world. This censer is named Botafumeiro and is used in specific ceremonies. It swings with a speed up to 80 km/h, leaving trails of thick fumes. It is considered that this powerful “air freshener” was used in order to mask the stench from the crowd of pilgrims who entered the cathedral after weeks long, exhausting pilgrimage without washing. Copy and paste this link into your browser for photos and more information about the cathedral: http://www.caminotravelcenter.com/do-you-know-santiago-de-compostela-cathedral/.