Hiking a pilgrimage is a rewarding adventure where each day brings new challenges, but hiking a pilgrimage as a student brings its own set of complications. On the Camino de Santiago, we had to adjust to the pace of life as a pilgrim while maintaining good academic habits. This account of one day on the trail–hiking from the town of Estella to Los Arcos–provides a glimpse into how I struck a balance between enjoying the experience and prioritizing academics.
We were on the trail by 6:30 most mornings, and June 9 was no exception. To make sure I had ample time to get dressed and prepare my pack, I woke up at 5:30. There was a flurry of activity in the hostel as everyone scrambled to prepare for the day ahead. I met my peers outside for stretches at 6:20. We had a designated leader, navigator, and social media each day. I was assigned the role of social media manager, which meant I would take pictures and film videos to upload to the @uaonthecamino Instagram account. Our leader for the day took us through stretches, outlined our route, and advised us to put on raincoats and backpack covers just as the rain began to come down.
Before we embarked on our journey, we trekked to Estella’s Church of San Pedro de la Rúa. There, I gave a presentation on the history of the church and Estella during the Middle Ages. Everyone had to present at a location of historical significance at some point in our journey. We tried to enter them when possible, but San Pedro de la Rúa was holding a Sunday service, so we set off toward Los Arcos after I finished my presentation.
Along the way, we passed through the town of Irache. There, we saw the famous wine fountain of the Bodegas Irache, where each pilgrim collects a refreshing sip of wine in the shell that they carry on their pack. Another student gave a presentation about the town’s former monastery and military hospital of Santa Maria la Real.
About an hour after our stop in Irache, we stopped in another town for “second breakfast,” a typical meal for UA on the Camino students. Although we ate a hasty early-morning breakfast, we often paused to enjoy heartier fare from a cafe after a few hours of hiking. I got my go-to–a café con leche and a Spanish omelet.
We continued walking for a few hours, breaking every so often for water. The terrain was fairly flat so we made good time, taking only one more long break to eat lunch and refill water bottles. We reached Los Arcos, a smaller and more rural town than Estella, just before 2 P.M., an early arrival for us. We waited outside the hostel while our professors took our passports and checked us in. They showed us to our room: typical hostel accommodations with rows of bunk beds.
Later, we went to the main plaza for dinner. There was only one restaurant open because it was around 7 P.M., an early dinner time in Spain. While we were eating, it came to our attention that the town’s Church of Santa María was open to visitors. We peeked inside, where we were greeted with a rich Baroque interior, shockingly extravagant in a town of just over 1,000 residents. A member of the church told us about a medieval tradition that the local population had recently revived. The church displayed a life-sized, articulated mannequin of Jesus in a glass coffin for most of the year. On Good Friday, however, the people of Los Arcos removed the mannequin from his coffin, put him on a cross in the front of the sanctuary, and then performed a ceremony in which they removed him from the cross. This is just one of the unique religious practices we learned about along the Camino.
When we finished exploring the magnificent church, we met up in our hostel room and held a debrief, where everyone shared their highs and lows from our hike that day. There was also a competition that evening to see who had taken the best photo of a flower on the trail. The competition was not only fun but allowed us to learn about the local flora. Everyone had to figure out the type of flower they had photographed and share with the group.
I ended the day on the balcony of our hostel completing my assigned journal entries. I had to reflect on my experiences as they related to course content, including how I was developing as a leader and what my experience hiking the Camino de Santiago in the twenty-first century could teach me about the experiences of medieval pilgrims on the same journey. Since we could not carry computers on the hike, our journals were critical to our coursework. Our professors also encouraged us to keep a personal record of the day so we would have something to look back on in the future, and I am so glad they did! Although I am less than two weeks out from the end of the trip, already reread my journal entries and look back fondly on the experience. I highly encourage anyone planning to go on a study abroad trip to keep a daily journal. Memories are often the most valuable keepsakes.