June 27, 2011 back in Alaska

June 23 and 24 in Santiago went by so quickly! The weather was perfect making the time all the more magical.  I saw so many friends from the last part of the Camino and a couple of good friends from the beginning of the Spanish part.  Each encounter was a new gift.






Although I arrived on June 22 and received my compostela that day

I was able to wait until Friday's Pilgrim Mass for my official acknowledgment.  I did this because German friends were coming in on the 23rd and I wanted to walk in with them (because walking 40.5 km on the 22nd wasn't enough) and would thus miss the mass on the 23rd.

When you check in at the Pilgrim office they review your credential to make sure you have daily stamps - and from 100 km on two stamps per day - to prove that you walked the distance you  claim.  They record where you started and your nationality and, except in cases like mine where you ask for delay, they announce starting points and nationalities at the Pilgrim Mass the next day.
Unfortunately for us there were a number of seminary students from various schools who also arrived on June 23 so they were given preference when it came to announcing people who had arrived. The priest then ran quickly through a list and seemed to be lumping all nationalities and the later starting points together.  However I did hear him announce that an American had started from Le Puy!

I departed Santiago at 11 pm on June 24 arriving in Madrid at midnight.  My Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt departed at 6 am on the 25th with check in at 4 am so I opted to sleep on the very hard floor along with quite a few other people.
The Condor flight was delayed out of Frankfurt so we didn't depart until after noon (still June 25).  The flight to Anchorage was only 9 hours and 36 minutes.  There is a ten hour time zone difference.  So, I arrived in Anchorage before I left Germany.  Still on the 25th.
The afternoon of the 25th I went for a hike up at Hatcher's Pass in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley with the friends I am staying with in Palmer.  It was a perfect way to begin my transition from the Camino and Europe back to Alaska and the USA.

I wish I had some words of wisdom to impart from my almost three month journey.  Maybe I'll come up with some later.  From Villafranca on I ended up walking with Celina from Brazil.  One of the things I enjoyed about walking with her was focusing on the "spiritual" aspect of the Camino.  In every village were we ended the day we always sought out the church and attended the Pilgrim Mass and Benediction. 

And as we walked we talked about "Lessons of the Day" - what lesson we might be learning that day.  It didn't have to be profound but could be.  For example the closer we got to Santiago the more signs you saw for taxis willing to transport your backpack to your next stopping point at very inexpensive rates.  Celina said that while it was tempting to send her pack on ahead to make the walking easier she had become very attached to her backpack and couldn't bear the thought of it getting lost.  And thus a lesson for the day was "material objects that you become attached to are a burden that you must carry." Applicable in terms of the Camino where you literally carry the material objects but also in real life where material objects can become an emotional burden.

On the Camino finding the way is generally quite simple: yellow arrows painted on the road, rocks, trees, buildings and anything else available point you in the right direction. 

When in doubt locate the yellow arrow and you know which direction to go. 


In Santiago Paulo, a Brazilian friend of Celina's, talked about how good he was at following the yellow arrows.  Then he added "the problem with the Camino is that in Real Life there are no yellow arrows."

More later!