Along “The Way”

This is the Camino:

In a tiny village, a very old woman is walking her dustmop of a dog. A wind gust catches her funny little hat, and it goes sailing up the narrow cobblestone street. A tall, thin Spanish man, a peregrino with an outsized mochila strapped to his back which must weigh close to 50 pounds, runs uphill to grab the hat, brings it back to the lady, and places it on her head.

Many kilometers from the nearest village, a woman stands by the side of the Camino holding large paper sacks in each hand. They are full of pears and figs she has just picked. She calls to us as we pass by and insists we take some, more than we can carry. We find spaces in our mochilas. We eat the figs we have no room for.

I walk for days on the Norte with two Spanish men in their fifties, friends since their teens. I marvel at their ease with each other, their gentleness, their playfulness. Sometimes they lean in close to talk quietly to each other. Sometimes, when we set our packs down or when we stop for a café con leche, they fling their arms around each other’s shoulders. It is important for me to say—and I am sorry I have to say this—that these men are not gay. They are friends. That they express this physically, the way women do in our culture but men do not, both gladdens and saddens my heart. I love to watch them.

Poli and Christina—both Spaniards—and I are trudging up a big hill in the hot afternoon sun. Christina is limping from shin splints. I am limping from an inflamed tendon. The Norte, with its pavement, its unrelenting ascents and descents, its long stages between rest stops, exacts its toll. We are all counting the kilometers until we reach the albergue. The last three or four kilometers always seem endless.

Poli is just ahead of us. He starts to whistle. I immediately recognize the tune but can hardly believe it. He is whistling the theme from The Bridge Over the River Kwai. I laugh so hard that I cry. Or maybe that’s the knee pain. I hum along, and we make it, all three of us, marching, to the albergue.