Zoom Call 7.18.23 Nick Vandekar Walking the Camino De Santiago
The presentation this week by Nick Vandekar was his personal recount of the pilgrimage he took walking the path of St. James through Portugal and Spain to get to Santiago de Compostela.
He was introduced to the Camino through a movie he had seen, titled The Way. It spoke to him as he was at a stage of life where his issues seemed to be reaching crisis point. His then wife set up his travels to Lisbon so that he could start his pilgrimage.
It was 2018, and his real estate business was well within satisfactory. The Camino de Santiago has many routes across Europe, but he was familiar with Lisbon as his family had visited there when he was younger.
He bought a guide book titled Camino Portuguese which detailed a daily route, map, and a reading to set the day's tone.
He set about preparing for the trek and shopped to get his essentials. His preparations were minimal as the Camino was detailed with where to eat, sleep, and markers. His daily preparations were to get up, have a breakfast. and start the trek. At the end of each day's hike, he would find a hostel to spend the night, wash the day's clothes and go find dinner.
He spoke of the people he had met along the way as well as the friendliness of the people he encountered and the help he got when he missed a trail marker.
Dinners at night were always with fellow travelers, and each would recount their experiences of the day.
The pilgrimage is a personal choice. Some people do it for the challenge. Others do it as a response to a prayer that was granted for a loved one with the intent to cure. Each does their individual route and at night those that wish will discuss their days.
As part of the guidebook, there was a 'Passport' in which a stamp would be marked as a point on the route was reached. These were important as they allowed entry into a hostel and at the end of the trek, a certificate would be awarded to certify completion of the pilgrimage.
As he was completing the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, he still wasn't quite resolved with completion of his journey. He then went further to Finisterra, which translates to end of land, and then felt comfortable with his trip being over.
For him, it was highly emotional as it was the end of his adventure.
The last day of the venture he was overwhelmed with the sense of high spirituality and looks at that day as the beginning of the next phase of his life.
It was at that point that he made his decision as to how he would take the next phase of his life, which included a divorce.
The trip was simple with the day-to-day walking and he recognized that having excess was not important as he had proven that he could get by with minimal.
He was very pleased to discuss his adventure and on his blog roll, he has an almost daily account of his adventure,
It was a quick hour, and all were quite happy to listen to Nick retell his pilgrimage.
Nick Vandekar Walking the Camino De Santiago
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