The Camino Gypsy Chronicles: Day and Night

The difference between the Voie d'Arles/Camino Aragones routes that took us through the Pyrenees to Puente la Reina and the Camino Frances, of which we now walk upon, is night and day. Like comparing a Sunday jog to the Boston Marathon. Or Amy Grant to Lady Gaga. The first was a quiet pensive time where days flew by without seeing a single other human being on the trail, let alone another pilgrim. You could pee freely in a bush by the side of the road without fear of mooning someone. Communal gites were often entirely empty. On the trail you felt like a discoverer - following a path that few others chose (the Voie d'Arles is one of the least trafficked Caminos) and proud of yourself for finding the next town without getting lost.

But as soon as we stepped foot in Puente la Reina where we intersected with the popular Camino Frances, we knew things would be different. Not only is the trail pilgrim-friendly with an abundance of Pilgrim Albergues, food, bars, water stops, shops selling plastic scallop shells for backpacks and Camino 2011 t-shirts and other pilgrim-centric facilities, but pilgrims are EVERYWHERE, like an endless stream of ants snaking down the trail. You look in front of you - pilgrims. You look behind you - pilgrims. You look next to you - pilgrims. Hundreds of us descend upon these villages at the same time for lunch or a bed like a plague of soul-searching locusts. And peeing on the trail has become a game of 'how much dignity can I afford to lose?'

From mainly French and Spanish pilgrims, we now meet a new country daily. Pilgrims from Japan, Holland, Australia, Germany, Brazil, Italy, Hungary and Canada. Just last night we had Pacharan (a local liquor) with a chef from Noe Valley in San Francisco! A big world has been compacted into a few miles of road. In the albergues we cook together, compare blisters together, dance to Bob Marley together and complain together about the morning's pilgrim breakfast of dried packaged toast and watered down coffee, often times without knowing a word of one another's language. On the wall outside tonight's albergue (where we opted for a private room after Lizzie spent the night on a wooden bench in the lobby to avoid the snorers) are written scribbles in every language of life epiphanies uncovered on the trail. The English one reads, "We are all looking for the same things, on the same road, but in different ways."

The age range has undergone a drastic change, as well. When mom and I would sign into the gites and albergues, I was always the youngest on the list by about 30 years. Now the trail is filled with young people. Like Joe from Liverpool who is walking the Camino on 10 Euros a day, eating throwaway food from the bar and relying on the kindness of villagers for a blanket to keep him warm on the streets he calls a bed. Or the three young women who sang a Catalan lullaby for Rick as they walked together under the hot Spanish sun. Or the Australian girl who I heard exclaim to her new hippy German friend under my bedroom window, "Today was a game-changer. It hit me for the very first time, that man I'm on the freakin' Camino!"

Yesterday felt like a culture shock as mom and I realized how greatly our Camino lives have changed. At first, I didn't know if this Disneyland Camino was something I could get used to. All the people. All the noise. All the yellow arrows leading you every few feet in the right direction. But something changed in me today as everyone we passed gave a "Buen Camino," as we began to gather a tableau of people's goals and desires for their Camino experience, as we shared shady patches with smiling strangers, as we ate omelette sandwiches in a sunny plaza filled with excitement and laughter and bare feet and as we watched fellow pilgrims with teary eyes as they took in the beauty of the landscape. Being alone isn't more noble. Nor does it make the journey more profound. Or you a greater discoverer. It's simply different. And after a month and a half of hearing our sole voices echo in empty gites, pilgrim Disneyland and the excitement and camaraderie it brings sounds pretty darn good.

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Pics from Puente la Reina to Estella to Arcos...