November 8th

When I knew I was staying in Panama with ample room for visitors I sent out an invitation to my family members hoping a few would be able to take time out of their busy lives and come for a visit.

My cousin Manolo was up for the trip and as I had visited him in January I was really excited to be his host. Since he was coming from Spain and mentioned he'd be stopping in Almuñecar, I asked him to bring a small shoe box with him that I had left at my Abuela's house. When I had left Almuñecar for Paris I had no idea how long I was going for and I had some Camino tokens that I wanted to keep well preserved.

Well he arrived in Bocas today, November 8th, and I picked him up at the airport and brought him to my home here in Panama. Before we had dinner he brought out the box. I got tears in my eyes as I had thought I'd find a few shells but also found my camino passports. When you walk the camino you have a passport stamped at every Albergue where you spend the night. As I flipped through, November 8th had a very special stamp: Santiago. They don't call it Camino de Santiago for nothing, that is the destination for most pilgrims. I had finished my camino a year ago today and was reunited with the most momentous part an exact year later. It's hard to believe that a flimsy piece of paper with ink stamps could make me feel so much.

A special heart felt thanks to Tom and Mike, there was a day I wasn't sure if I'd continue and you saw me through to the very end. You are both very much in my heart and I like to wonder what part of your camino's you're on now. For the rest that I was fortunate enough to walk with for a day, a week, an hour, you made it one of the best journeys I've ever taken. I so look forward to doing it again and have someone very special in mind to do it with, my grandfather. After reading my posts he said he'd be interested in doing it with me sometime and I hope 'sometime' is sometime soon.

After a big hug of thanks to Manolo and a light supper we headed out to the dock and thankfully the bio-luminescence were there to welcome him to the neighborhood. If you have any questions about the camino, don't hesitate to ask as I love reliving it and giving suggestions. If you're on the camino now, take the alternate route to Burgos!

Buen Camino! and COOoooooEEEeeeee!

The morning of November 8th and the imminent Santiago arrival!!

We had stayed in an Albergue just a few Km away so we could watch the sun
come up but really we wanted an excuse to draw out the camino as long as possible!