A Petaluman’s pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago

Known in English as the “Way of St. James,” the Camino de Santiago is more than just the path depicted in the 2010 Martin Sheen/Emelio Estevez movie “The Way,” which seems to be the most prominent introduction of the pilgrimage to the American people. Presently, most people walk one of about a dozen Camino routes that span Spain and Portugal, all leading travelers to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, in Santiago, Spain.

Depending on where you start, however, there are over 250 recognized Caminos.

Today, peregrinos – which is the Spanish and Portuguese word for “pilgrims“ – make these treks to the cathedral in Santiago for many reasons, but 1,000 years ago it was a religious pilgrimage to visit the tomb of St. James.

When choosing a Camino, the biggest consideration is timing. The lengths of the Caminos range from five days to months and months, depending on where you start and how many miles you wish to cover each day. The most popular are the Camino Frances, Portuguese, Del Norte, Primitivo and the one I recently traveled – the Camino Ingles. However, regardless of which Camino and how much of it we walked, we had to complete the last 100 kilometers (or bike the last 200 km) to qualify for an official “Compostela,” the certificate proving we walked one of the Caminos.

To prove our mileage, we peregrinos must procure two cellos (“stamps”) per day in our peregrino passport over that last 100 km. Pronounced “say-joe”, these stamps are obtained from all the churches, hotels and various tourist attractions along the way.

This particular peregrino may have broken a record by filling his entire passport with food related stamps, from all the bars, cafes, restaurants and gelatorias (ice cream shops) we visited during our walk. I may also be one of the few peregrinos who figured out how to gain weight during his Camino, even though we were walking somewhere between 11 and 16 miles per day.

For better or for worse, the human body is very efficient at walking, burning far fewer calories than most of us think.

Why we did it

Everyone’s impetus to walk the Camino is different, but for many Americans, it is simply an excuse to get over to Europe and enjoy their amazing food and wine, while also getting to see the countryside from a different perspective, on foot. Although it is hard not to gain some spiritual enlightenment or perspective while walking historic trails and less traveled roads for five days straight, the amount of Galician food we were going to devour certainly helped drive our interest in taking the trip.

The idea to walk the Camino was originally sparked when my wife Andrea watched the movie “The Way,” proclaiming that the journey was immediately going on our bucket list, already overflowing with far too many “exercise” related experiences – and not nearly enough eating experiences for my liking. Not knowing that there are shorter routes than the Camino Frances depicted in the film, I figured I was safe until at least retirement age, when we might have enough idle time to attempt such a long walk. Unfortunately, Andrea later discovered the existence of shorter routes, moving this goal nearly to the top of our travel list overnight.

Originally, we had planned to walk the Camino Primitivo, but that route takes roughly two weeks, so we opted for the shorter – and arguably the more scenic – Camino Ingles, which starts in the port city of Ferrol, Spain, and is historically where the British would land to begin their pilgrimage.

Our group grew from two to four when, during one of our regular Sonoma County weekend walks with Andrea’s two older brothers, we mentioned the trip. One is a natural hiker, but both enjoy great food, which was my main selling point. Plus, I would relieve them of the burden of planning as I was going to be doing it anyway for Andrea and myself.

We chose late September of 2022 in the hopes that we would miss the Spanish summer heat, while not getting too deep into the rainy season. This worked out so perfectly that we are planning to return next year at roughly the same time.

We started training months in advance by walking anywhere from 5 to 15 miles each weekend, with some sorter walks during the week. Unlike a real hiking trek into the mountains, however, all we had to carry was clothing and toiletries, so our packs were relatively light. (Peregrinos can opt to have their packs transported forward each day.) Because the Caminos have been around for so long, lodging and food are easy to find along the route, negating the need to pack camping gear and food.

The trek itself

We flew from San Francisco to Porto, Portugal and then spent the day making our way to our starting point in Ferrol, an industrial port along the north coast of Spain. Once in Ferrol, we settled into our hotel, slept off some of our jet lag and then headed out for an incredible dinner at a Michelin-mentioned restaurant. The food was fabulous throughout the trip, ranging from seafood to lamb to ice cream and everything in between.

Well, except vegetables, which rarely make appearances in Spanish and Portuguese cuisine. You can read more about the food part of our trip in my article in this week’s Food & Drink section of the Argus-Courier.

We clocked in about 12 miles on first day, starting in Ferrol and ending in Pontedeume. The initial walk was nothing spectacular, but once we crossed over the neighboring bay and made our way up into the hills, it was beautiful and quiet. Our first day was a great introduction to the Camino, especially because the last couple of miles gave us a view across the water toward the port town of Pontedeume, where we would stay for the night.

The guidebooks are a bit misleading in that they only split the hikes between paved and non-paved paths. The reality is that even the paved roads we walked along were rarely-traveled back roads, some of them extremely quiet logging roads.

There are a lot of sleeping options along the Camino, with “albergues” being the historic choice. However, staying in hostel style dorms was not part of our bucket list experience, so we opted for hotels for all our nightly accommodations, as do a lot of peregrinos.

Our second day was only a little longer than the first, at 13 miles, and took us to the town of Betanzos, another small Galician fishing village. This day’s route was a bit hillier, starting with a long climb up and out of Pontedeume. Again, the guidebooks make a mountain out of a molehill, presenting this first hill as if it is Mt. Everest, but taken in stride, and at our own pace, it was no worse than any other part of the route.

The route from Bentanzos to O Meson do Vento was long but as picturesque as the first two days. We were warned to pack food for this day, but even though it was Sunday, we ate better on this part of the walk than any other – so lack of food-stops is clearly not an issue on the Camino Ingles.

Our fourth day took us from O Meson do Vento to Sigueiro – where it was hard not to start celebrating that we were only 11 miles away from finishing. My feet did start bothering me on this day, but this was due to an unfortunate choice of untested socks and shoes on day two, which left me with some blisters, but nothing that would stop me from finishing the Camino.

The end of the journey

At just 11 miles, our final day was the shortest, and had us into the square in front of the cathedral of Santiago before lunch. The end of this route was a bit industrial, like the beginning of the route, but was still picturesque for most of the way.

Once we got the photos out of the way and texted our families that we had made it safe and sound, we headed over to the Compostela office in order to show our peregrino passports and collect our certificate of completion. We then headed off to lunch at a restaurant every bit as impressive as the one we visited the night before our journey began.

Along the way, we met plenty of other peregrinos, spanning in age from teenagers to a group in their 80s. We also interacted with a lot of locals, who will wish you a “Beun Camino” or “Bom Camnho,” no matter what they are doing at the time. In the restaurants and bars, the patrons and staff were genuinely excited to see and interact with us. And language was never an issue. Between our limited Spanish, their limited English and a lot of pantomiming, we never had a problem communicating with the locals.

The scenery along the Camino Ingles is said to be the most beautiful of all the Caminos and was a mix of forests, crops, streams and tiny villages. The route looks a lot like eastern Iowa, but that is meant as a compliment to Iowa, not a criticism of Galicia. Eastern Iowa is beautiful, but Galicia beats them hands down when it comes to food. The Galician terrain is covered with rolling hills covered with trees or corn, with small streams cutting through wooded gullies all along the way.

Our total distance was somewhere in the 70-mile range, which looks more impressive as 112 kilometers. This did not include the bonus 3-to-5 miles we inadvertently walked each afternoon and evening while exploring the towns we stayed in. None of our days were rushed, leaving us with plenty of time to stop whenever we wanted to rest, take photos or try the coffee, sandwiches or ice cream at the various shops along our route. In fact, we always made it into our nightly accommodation in the early afternoon, which gave us enough time to shower, siesta for an hour or two, and then hit the town to see the sites and try their food.

The Caminos are a great way to see the Spanish and Portuguese countryside at a slower pace, giving you more time to interact with locals, if that is your interest. However, they also offer great meditative experiences as you can chose how little or much interaction you have with those around you. Although the mileage may seem intimidating, we quickly realized that when you are simply walking from one meal to the next – and enjoying the sites along the way – the mileage seems like nothing by the end of the day.