Who said that the greatest prize of the Camino was the Compostela? There are those who return home with something much more valuable: a love story.
They say that the Camino de Santiago transforms people. What no one tells you before going out is that it can also transform your emotional state.
Thousands of pilgrims begin the adventure saying:
"I come to walk, to disconnect and to find myself."
Three days later they are already asking at reception:
«Has the Italian girl come out yet?»
O…
"Do you know where the German boy sleeps?"
And the Camino has a strange power. Here the conversations start by asking about the blisters and end up talking about childhood, dreams, family and even what it would be like to live together.
Everything... walking.
There is no more effective dating app than sharing twenty miles in the sun.
On the Camino it is not necessary to impress with a car.
Just offer a band-aid.
Or some foot cream.
If you also share a banana on a climb... you're practically engaged.
Veterans know the symptoms perfectly well.
The first appears when you start to speed up your pace to always catch up with the same person.
Then you discover that, coincidentally, you both want to sleep in the same hostel.
Later you realize that you always meet at breakfast.
And when the last hundred kilometers arrive... no one walks alone anymore.
The curious thing is that on the Camino many of the barriers of everyday life disappear.
Age doesn't matter.
The language doesn't matter.
The country doesn't matter.
Here you can see a Japanese man talking for hours with a Brazilian woman using only four words in English, many smiles and a mobile translator.
And it works.
Because on the Camino a universal language is spoken.
That of people who walk together.
There is also another very curious phenomenon.
There are pilgrims who travel thirty kilometers on the first day.
But when someone special shows up...
Miraculously they start making fifteen.
Yes indeed…
With eight stops for coffee.
Five to take photographs.
Three to contemplate the landscape.
And another six because "what a beautiful bench to rest on."
Saying goodbye is probably the hardest moment.
After sharing a week, ten days or even a month walking together, Santiago arrives.
One returns to Canada.
The other returns to Seville.
Another goes to Korea.
And a pilgrim heads to Argentina.
Then the promises appear.
"We'll see each other."
"I'll come visit you."
«Next year we will do the Portuguese Way.»
Some stories end there.
Others are just getting started.
What is proven is that many current couples met precisely on the Camino de Santiago.
Some even return years later with their children to show them the shelter where they met or the bench where they shared their first breakfast.
Perhaps that is why many pilgrims say that the true miracle of the Camino does not consist only of reaching Santiago.
It consists of discovering people who appear just when you need them most.
Because some find peace.
Others find answers.
And a few... find love.
So, if this summer you decide to do the Camino de Santiago and someone asks you:
“Are you coming alone?”
Don't respond too quickly.
On the Camino… that may change in the next stage.
