We made it to Santiago de Compostela. I am feeling a sense of loss that this journey is over. I will miss starting the day with a challenge and ending it with a sense of accomplishment.  I will miss the intimacy of walking for hours in silence with Paula.  I will miss the unexpected surprises the Camino unfolded for us.   

If my doubt at the beginning of the walk was whether it would hold the same attraction as our other 3 walks the answer is a resounding yes, but this one was very different. It was much harder than we anticipated.  No doubt the monsoon rains and hurricane force winds contribute to that perception, but the pace and effort were more challenging.  The guidebooks don’t warn you of entire days walking up hill, sometimes at a 15-degree angle.   But we did it.

The question “Why Compostela” still agitates.  St. James the Greater was an Apostle, Brother of John the Evangelist, some say he was a brother of Jesus Chris.  He evangelized in Galicia, returned to Jerusalem in 40 CE where he was beheaded, and his remains were taken back to Galicia where they were discovered around 800 CE.  He wrote the Epistles to the Galicians and was the first apostle to be martyred.     Alfonse II can be credited with starting the Santiago cult when he built the first iteration of the cathedral in Compostela, around the time of the Reconquista, a Cathedral that has been embellished, adorned, monumentalized through the centuries.  The one common thread is that for the last 1000 years it has been one of the most well known and frequented pilgrimage destinations.   We are talking millions of pilgrims.  It helped that in 1122 Pope Callixtus II endowed plenary indulgence to those who pilgrimaged, on a holy year,  to Santiago de Compostella. 

These days pilgrims are looking for fellowship as much as indulgence.  Joining the River is to join that global fraternity that grasps the spark ignited by Alfonse II to light their path and give them purpose.  Arriving to Compostela must measure up to their expectations to experience a world beyond their diurnal existence.

The Compostela spectacle does not disappoint. The exterior baroque façade is a flight of fancy, the interior is extravagant.  We were fortunate to be in the cathedral when they lit up the botafumeiro, a 160 lb incense burner, and let it swing at 40 mph. .  An odd ceremony, originally intended to fumigate the smelly pilgrims, these just days adding to the majesty of the setting.  Ritual perpetuates legend.

Our walk is done.  643 Kms.  We are grateful we were able to do it.  We yearn to do another. And now a Lenny Bruce joke:

“If Jesus had been killed 20 years ago, Catholic school children would be wearing little electric chairs around their necks instead of crosses.”