Day 17

Who is on the Camino?

Everyone. Everyone is on the Camino. There’s a few gap-year looking youngsters (gosh they are fast), a lot of recently retired folks, mid-career people who just quit a job, self-employed idiots (like me) with flexible schedules, and normal people doing a two-week section of the trail on their vacations. There’s combinations - a father/son, a brother/sister, a mother/daughter - and lots of friend groups, of course. But I am *guessing* that about half the people here are on their own. It’s easy to see why when you look at the calendar... it’s hard enough for one person to take a month of their life, much less coordinate that time for two people.

We are also FROM everywhere, too. The majority of pilgrims are not surprisingly from Spain or France. I meet a lot of Americans, actually, which really surprised me. (Mostly older people.). Quite a few from the UK, Australia, Canada, and Ireland. The Scandinavians are well represented. My new German friend the other day was telling me there are so many Germans on the trail now days that community colleges or night schools in Germany have “Spanish For the Camino” courses. The most religiously minded seem to be the Koreans, who are often traveling in organized church groups of 25 and play church music on little speakers while they walk. (We don’t have much common language so this is what I THINK is going on. I wish we could talk more though because those groups seem so sweet and so happy to be here. They are always the first to wish you a smiling “Buen Camino!” in the morning while they’re doing their group stretches in a still-dark parking lot.) I’ve also met pilgrims from Japan, Brazil, Guatemala, Argentina, Italy, and Poland.

There are quite a few people who have done the trail multiple times, some who do it on an annual basis. Most are first timers like me.

So pilgrims if can be any age, be from anywhere... how can you spot one in the wild?!

Just look for anybody with a faint limp and a relaxed grin (carrying snacks).