Live for free next to Caminho
There are opportunities on the Caminho de Santiago that are very useful for making a pilgrimage. Em The Blacksmiths of ValcarceIn the province of León and very close to the climb to O Cebreiro, we seek volunteers interested in spending a season along the Caminho and collaborating day by day with accommodation for pilgrims.
The purpose is to pay attention because it allows you to live for some time in two of the most popular places on the French Way, surrounded by pilgrims of different nationalities in an area where the Jacobean atmosphere is part of everyday life.
Living next to the Caminho in a collaboration path
This is not just free accommodation. It purposely works as a volunteer experience: participating, collaborating in the accommodation tasks, in the hours and in all the activities necessary for daily functioning.
In exchange for help, volunteers receive accommodation and three vegetarian meals per day.
The minimum requested stay is one month, so the experience is designed for people who can dedicate several weeks to the project and really integrate into the local routine.
Over 23 years old
The other two requirements indicated are at least 23 years old. This opportunity can be especially interesting for people looking for a different experience, a break in the routine or simply the possibility of seeing the Camino de Santiago from another point of view.
Living next to a road traveled daily by pilgrims from dozens of countries also means coming into contact with very different stories, languages and ways of understanding the journey.
Las Herrerías, on the doorstep of O Cebreiro
The Valcarce Ironworks are located on two of the most emblematic points of the French Way. For many pilgrims it is one of the last places before the demanding climb that leads to O Cebreiro and the entrance to Galiza.
For most of the year, backpacks, bicycles and pilgrims take part in the usual landscape of this small Leonese town.
It is precisely this location that makes the experience different from conventional volunteering. Here, or contact com o Caminho é permanent.
An experience that goes along with accommodation
To never walk again, participating in a project of this type can be a way to return without walking hundreds of kilometers again.
And so far as nothing is known, it can represent a completely different way of discovering the Jacobean phenomenon: not as a pilgrim of passage, but by living for several weeks in a place directly linked to Rota.
As is the case with any volunteer program, it is important to confirm all conditions, tasks and duration of stay before assuming any commitment.
It is clear that proposals of this type show another reality of the Caminho de Santiago: thousands of people do not barely travel every year. Some decide to stay for a while and do part of the life that exists at random.
