Following the Flechas

I walked the Camino de Santiago, a Catholic Pilgrimage route in Northern Spain. The 450-mile journey from Pamplona to Santiago de Compostela took twenty-four days at approximately twenty miles per day. Named after Saint James, an apostle of Christ that spread Christianity to a Muslim Spain near AD 40, the Camino once functioned for pilgrims to trek to Santiago to pay homage to the remains of Saint James supposedly buried in the cathedral. Today, the Camino holds a very different meaning to many of its travelers. People choose to walk for a myriad of reasons: to lose weight, find Enlightenment, change one’s ways, experience the adventure, challenge oneself, grow closer to nature, etc. Participant observation and interviewing travelers on the Camino shed light on these reasons, introducing the Camino to the world as a way to find one’s own path. This book follows my journey chronologically and shares the stories of other pilgrims on the trail.