When moving along the Camino it soon become obvious that you and your immediate party are surrounded by many many interesting people.  It becomes a traveling, “all the world’s a stage”  situation.  I don’t mean that people are playing anything other than their selves but as we all got ground down our inner selves began to show.  And these characters began to interact with each other.  This was after the beginning when we were settling into the rhythm of the daily routine and developing a passable pilgrim’s walk (limp).  And shedding makeup, deodorant, more than one kind of soap and other niceties which gave us that really cool pilgrim patina on our skinwind blown hair and that natural aroma.  Which didn’t seem to matter much with all that fresh air.

This is when we were really doing it, and when we greeted each other with the “Buen Camino”  it wasn’t a cliche but had a meaning that, “yes we have sunk our teeth into it and we are still here”.   “Still here” should probably be written with caps to express the idea that we understand and are committed.

So, I am trying to keep in touch with the various characters that impacted me on my walk and influenced you if you were closeby.  In the late afternoon after getting a bunk, showering, laundry we would be really for tapas and liquids at the daily dilly dally.  A chance to say to each other the same thing, that we understand and are committed.  All with a splash of fun and banter.  We rehashed the day’s journey and put it into context. So, during this process I would be blogging and encourage people to write along with me.  Great stuff came out of that and one thing that came out was in the following paragraph by Alvaro a man from Madrid who had studied and worked in the States and was currently was on his way to work for an event planner in Peru.  Kelly nick named him Big Al and I thought about him as the man with the smiling eyes.  Would someone translate this for us please.  And does anyone have contact info for him?

Maybe I can talk some of these characters into giving some of their comments on their day: Hoy ha sido um dia muy especial en el Camino. Conocer a esta gente y poder compartir grandes momentos con ellos te muestra el autentico significado de la vida.

Thank you all for your impact on me,  love, Felipe.