Category Archives: Adventure Travel

Mindfulness on a Modern Camino

Posted on by under Adventure Travel, camino de santiago, CaminodeSantiago, Hiking, spain, spirituality, travel

As I left Santiago and headed down the Camino Frances, I thought of the struggles I might face on the way. Walking backwards might not only pose a bit of a navigation problem, but as a fairly introverted person I feared it might get rather isolated with no way to make a Camino family. Turns out neither of those worries would be a problem because a) turns out tracking 1000’s of people is really easy, and b) it was really easy to struck up conversations with people knowing I would never see them again. What I wasn’t prepared for was the sheer number of pilgrims on the trail and the logistical problems that resulted. Even at it’s busiest after crossing the Portugal/Spain border, the number of pilgrims on the Camino Portuguese paled in comparison to what I would face on the Camino Frances, and as I headed against the crowds, the number of pilgrims seemed to multiply by the day as I was headed straight into one of the busiest months on the Camino, not to mention by year end 2016 would mark the most pilgrims on the Camino in recorded history (~278 000). The official number of pilgrims that arrived to Santiago via the Camino Frances the month I was walking was 21, 309, meaning that on average I was crossing paths with 710 pilgrims per day!

The number of pilgrims walking the trail had doubled in a short seven years, and as I began the Camino Frances I quickly learned that the number of albergues and beds were hard pressed to keep up with the hundreds of pilgrims on the Camino per day. This shortage (or perceived threat of shortage) created a rat race culture on the Camino; pilgrims would wake up at ungodly hours in the morning and rush to the next albergue to ensure they got a good bed, and after 3PM I was lucky if I was to come across a pilgrim on the trail. While the Camino Portuguese had more of a laid back atmosphere, we rarely booked beds in advance, were in bed by 10PM, or out of bed by 8AM, the Camino Frances had a somewhat militant structure. The accommodation created a culture on the Camino Frances that to me, was all to similar to the culture than many pilgrims were trying to and needed to get away from in their daily lives. At home, many have a fairly strict schedule leaving little room for the unknown, and on the Camino with morning wake up, departure, and arrival times strictly planned out, many pilgrims were allowed to continue on with their habitual routines, allowing the Camino to pass under their feet in a haze.

My first stay in an albergue on the Camino Frances, I would be irritatingly woken up at 4:30 AM by the “bag rustlers” shining their lights and packing up to head out for the day, falling back asleep I would be rudely awoken at 7:30AM by the receptionist and informed that all pilgrims must be out of the albergue by 8 AM! This I had most definitely not signed up for. I am not a morning person so I was pretty peeved to learn that on my vacation I would have start setting an alarm. As I made no move to get out of bed calculating I could sleep for another 20 minutes and make it out by 8, the clearly thought otherwise as she looked dubiously at my belongings that were strewn on top of my bag. What she didn’t know that my bag was similar to a children’s puzzle, and while it may look like it would take a bit of time to put together to someone who hadn’t seen the picture on the puzzle box,  I could put my bag together in about 5 minutes.

The number of pilgrims on the Camino France route and resultant culture was so overwhelming, that after a few days on the trail some pilgrims would hop a bus and start down a different route to Santiago such as the Camino del Norte or the Via de la Plata. If you’re looking for a quiet enjoyable hike that may be a fine thing to do, but if you are doing a pilgrimage it is important to trust that everything on the Camino is exactly as it should be for your journey. For myself although there would be some growing pains and grumpy early mornings as I got used to the Camino Frances, I knew that if I was mindful enough there were lessons one could learn that could only be taught through crossing paths with 100’s of pilgrims everyday on the path. As I worked to change my perspective of the number of pilgrims on the Camino from negative to positive, I realized that the growing number of pilgrims in recent years was a reflection of our modern lives. With internet we find ourselves interconnected with more and more people than ever before, with social media we may interact with 100’s or 1000’s of people a day when pre-internet we would be lucky to talk to 20 people a day. It was only fitting that the Camino had changed over the years to mirror this. Much like the Camino, in our lives we can choose to distance ourselves from others and try to hack it on our own, or we can use the increased interconnectedness to our advantage.

On the Camino Portuguese I had learned not to rush from point A to point B, and the Camino Frances tested this as I tried not to worry about arriving to albergues early enough to ensure a bed. It was a practice in releasing control and having faith that everything would work out, something easier said than done. Luckily, I had brought an air mattress, so I knew if worst came to worst I could sleep on a floor or outside, and with this backup I was able to step away from the bed races and hike the Camino on my time. As it would turn out, despite some late arrivals after 6PM, I always managed to find a bed! I would end up using my air mattress to camp out some nights, but that was a result of deciding I would camp when I set out that day, not due being turned away at albergues. It was amazing how having a little faith could reduce so much of the stress and worry that many pilgrims had on the trail. Once I stepped out of the Camino rat race, I had very little worries and my Camino experience would transform for the better in other ways as well.

While many pilgrims on the trail could be heard complaining about the sheer mass of people on a narrow trail (especially after Sarria, the 200 km point and last place to start the Camino to receive a compastella). As I was hiking in the reverse direction, if anyone was going to have a right to have an annoyance at the number of pilgrims on the trail it would be me but I was having a completely different experience! Though I had to leave most albergues by 8AM, I would usually only hike to the nearest cafe to get a tea, only really starting on the Camino by 9AM and being out of the bed races meant I could hike well into the afternoon, often stopping between 5 and 6PM. While I would pass many pilgrims in the morning, often getting weary of the pilgrim’s greeting on the trail when passing of “Buen Camino” as going in reverse I passed every single pilgrim, after 12PM pilgrims on the trail tapered off significantly. By 2PM I often found myself hiking in solitude for hours, enjoying the mild May temperatures and beautiful scenery in complete silence. One didn’t need to uproot and head to Santiago on a completely different route to find solitude, all one really needed to do was change their approach and one could find all the solitude in the world on the Camino Frances.

Potential pilgrims often find themselves turned off of doing the Camino Frances route because of the numbers and stories that circulate the internet. For myself, the Camino Frances was exactly as it needed to be for me to learn what I was supposed to learn on it. It is challenging to maintain mindfulness on the modern Camino Frances, more so than quieter routes such as the Camino Portuguese, but not in a bad way.  If one can learn to maintain mindfulness on the Camino Frances, they will be better prepared to maintain that mindfulness as they return to the hustle and bustle of their homes. For some it may be too overwhelming to start on the Camino Frances and like myself it may be better to start on a quieter route before heading down the Camino Frances, but I strongly recommend not to completely discount it based on the number of pilgrims walking it. Even if it is not clearly describable why, there is a reason it was in medieval times and still is the most traveled pilgrimage route and the Camino Frances will always be a special experience whether there are 1, 1000, or 100 000 pilgrims on the way.

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It’s Not the Destination

Posted on by under Adventure Travel, camino de santiago, CaminodeSantiago, spain

Although Santiago was never my end point, as I neared Santiago I started to think about what might await me at my destination, that something might await me at my destination. Millions of pilgrims had traveled for 100’s of miles for 100’s of years to Santiago, there must be something spectacular at the end that people continue to make the journey. I knew inherently, that anything I expected to happen would not happen. Traveling to new places taught me that very quickly, things would never turn out as I expected them to. Sometimes for the good, sometimes for the bad. Regardless that didn’t stop me from thinking about what might happen when I got there. While many Pilgrims that I talked to who had already made the journey once said that it was often a let down (if I had actually bothered to finish watching the movie “The Way” I would know that), still there was the odd story of pilgrims who upon arrival burst into uncontrollable tears, experienced bliss beyond their wildest dreams, or had a spiritual awakening. I thought since I had done all this spiritual work in Peru and India beforehand, I would be a shoe-in if any pilgrim was to be chosen to have a strong experience upon viewing the Cathedral. I was very wrong.

My arrival into Santiago was about as anticlimactic as it could be. The last 20 km started on enjoyable natural pathways, but as with all urban centers on the Camino, the path quickly turned to asphalt and trudging along the shoulders of busy roadways. There was very much an upside though, the path into Santiago was on an enjoyable gentle down-slope, with one final uphill push as you neared the cathedral. The day was grey and dreary, and as was within a few km of my final destination for the day, it started to rain! I can’r remember if it was just plain hardheadedness or for some unknown spiritual reason, but instead of stopping to take my raincoat out my bag I plodded on unimpeded, rain slowly soaking through my cotton sweatshirt. Needless to day, I arrived at the cathedral cold and sopping wet. To add even more to the anticlimacticism, upon my arrival at the cathedral I was quickly turned away at the door, no one was allowed inside with a bag. Maybe a way to avert terrorism or theft, but I think it had more to do with getting pilgrims to go to their hostel and and showered before showing up. As a pilgrim we had all grown accustomed to the musty smell of sweat and body odor that took on not only us but our bags as well, deodorant long ago used up or abandoned in hopes of reducing weight, and though we no longer recognized it, the smell was often found offensive by the general public.

 It would turn out that the most climatic event of my arrival into Santiago would be my accommodation for the three nights I would be there. Tipped off by a fellow pilgrim along the way I had called and booked a room at the San Marinto, a beautiful monastery converted into a hotel adjacent to the Cathedral. With regular rooms ran upwards of 100 Euro, I learned one could book a special “pilgrim room” which for 30 euro included a buffet breakfast, a private room, and one’s own shower! Though the room was small and basic compared to the ones I had seen on the website, it did little to ebb the ecstatic feeling of finally being in a private room! It was the first time I had been in a private room since India, and the first thing I did was there my bag on the chair, stripped down and just lied in bed. Seeing the Cathedral could wait, as for someone who regularly sleeps sans pyjamas, being able to strip down after weeks of sleeping in the confinement of clothes was nearly enough to bring me to the tears of happiness that pilgrims of legend had upon entering the cathedral.

The next day after gorging on the buffet breakfast and obtaining my pilgrim credential (I would somehow be blessed with only three people ahead of me in line at 9Am, other days at this time the line would extend out the building and require a wait of hours) I saw a sign in English for a meeting called “Camino Companions,” a time to reflect with other pilgrims about the journey. Eager to discuss with others their thoughts upon completion of the pilgrimage (and the sign promised free tea and cookies!) , I attended the meeting that afternoon. Run by a order of Irish nuns, we were given a few questions about our pilgrimage to reflect on and then discuss as a group including why we had walked the Camino, what was the most difficult part, and what was a significant moment. It had been easy in the excitement of reaching Santiago, and the subsequent disappointment upon arrival to forget everything I had learned in the four weeks it took me to reach there. Sitting down and reflecting with the Camino Companions and fellow pilgrims reminded me how much I had learned along the trail.

In the four short weeks it had taken me to reach Santiago from Lisbon, I had increased my present moment awareness tenfold, more so than mediation in India and ayahuasca in Peru had. I had begun to observe how what I surround myself with affects my thoughts, and how my thoughts affect me physically, while also making lifelong friends along the way! I realized that the actual city and Cathedral of Santiago had very little to do ones spiritual grown on the Camino. Other than providing a direction to walk, a place to stop (or one might cont me walking forever), and the opportunity to receive a piece of paper stating how far one walked to show their friends, reaching Santiago was not the point of the Camino. Though the remains of Saint James could be viewed there, kneeling down before them did not bring one any closer to him even if they had walked 10, 500, or 2000 km to get there. Saint James was present during every step on the Camino, if one took the time to look.

I still couldn’t shake the idea that something miraculous should happen in Santiago, and on my final day I found myself wandering around the city aimlessly, trying to let my feet guide me to something I might have missed. I wandered in and out of the many old churches throughout the city, appreciating the 500+ year old architecture at a level only someone who grew up in an area where the oldest building was only around 100 years old could. As I strolled through an open garden I found myself looking to the hills of Galicia on the horizon, and in my heart grew that familiar feeling, the itch to be back on the trail. I didn’t know what I was looking to find or where I would find it, but I knew it would not be found within the stone walls of Santiago. The Camino beckoned me onward, I still had almost 800 km before I would cross the Pyrenees and reach my end point at St Jean Pied de Port in France. Though it’s not the destination but the journey that would be the truly exciting part.

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What I Learned

Posted on by under Adventure Travel, India, spirituality, travel

When I decided to make India a stop on my tour this year, it was to try to find out why Steve Jobs and other famous people like the Beetles attributed their time in India so much to their successes. On the day I was flying out to India, I was discussing with my friend who was giving me a ride to the airport why I chose India. They asked me, if Steve Jobs was so successful and spiritually in-tune, why did so many people not like working with him?  At the time I didn’t have a good answer, but the question stuck in my head. Was it that Steve Jobs didn’t find his success by following his interests and passions, but by using and abusing people like many CEOs of large corporations? I based my trip to India on the fact that Jobs had said it was influential for his career and I was desperately seeking some type of insight into my career path, but was I idolizing the wrong person? Through my time in India, I found an answer to my friends question of the validity of Steve Jobs’ success, an answer which would also prove insightful at a scale beyond just my career path.

First, what comes to mind when you think of someone who is successful? People’s answer to this question will vary slightly but most likely involve an aspect of 1.financial security and status 2. physical appearance and 3. having a spouse with the first trait (if you’re a woman) and the second trait (if you’re a man).  To be a success, one must be head of a multi-million dollar company, liked by all who meet them, have invitations to dinner with royalty, married to someone deemed physically attractive, and have 2.5 kids, all who are in the 95th percentile, and master’s at the cello and signed by a professional sports team at age 12. We rarely judge someones success based on their personal fulfillment, society will always see someone who lives in a log cabin without electricity as less successful as someone in a multi-million dollar house.

I spent a year living in the UK and couldn’t believe how much people were limiting themselves based on societal ideals (probably a problem in every first world area including my home, but easier to see as a foreigner coming in). From going to a proper pre-school to living in the right neighborhood to having a specific accent to looking to the royals for what to wear, lives were cookie cutter and full of how things needed to be done, leaving no room for people to follow their intuition and find true personal success outside the box. I found it interesting coming across an article studying graduates from Universities across the UK, how those who went to lower class Universities had more career and financial success than those at the prestigious ones. Why? Because the graduates from the lower class grew up with less of the pressure of the “proper” (and often expensive) way to approach life, and could think outside the box. More of these graduates started up their own businesses and took career risks, while the prestigious grads having had their life mapped out for them since birth didn’t have the same out of box thinking style required to be successful once out into the world. Having a strong ideal of what success looks like and how to achieve it ultimately inhibited ever being successful. Now what does any of this actually have to do with my time in India, spirituality, and Steve Jobs?

Lots. These ideals and mimicry of deemed successful attributes are not only limited to the un-spiritual western world, but very prevalent in the world of spirituality. In India this mimicry was often very visible, with physical appearance closely tied with spiritual practice. In the Hindu culture, the color saffron color represented purity and non-attachment and thus saffron colored robes were worn by many following the path of spirituality (or pretending to for begging reasons). I seemed to be the only one who found the irony of being attached to wearing a color to symbolize non-attachment completely comical. If one has reached the spiritual state of non-attachment to the material world, would what color they wear remotely concern them? There is also a strong stigma around a spiritual master and what they can and cannot do; they must be celibate, have no earthly desires, and can never make a mistake. We hold on to these almost impossible ideals of what is necessary to be spiritual, then find ourselves discouraged when we fail to meet them. We think we should see white light and auras, talk with other consciousnesses, and have no desires when we reach a spiritual state, and in our journey when we don’t experience these things we worry and think we are not on the right track.

These spiritual ideals are no different than the western ideals of success, and their impact on our lives and actions are one of the same (we just think we are better off than the guy taking a loan out to buy a fancy new car). The ideals lead us astray and away from our intuition. Spirituality has many different faces, and wearing a orange robe chanting mantras everyday will not make you more spiritual if the reason for the action is based in fear. Many people will feel stuck in their life and/or spiritual practice and think that is has nothing to do with their actions, that it is the universe playing some cruel joke or that they are just destined to lead an average life. Being stuck is actually a sign your making the wrong decisions, rather than your choices being based on your intuition and personal truth they are shrouded with what you think is needed. Its like solving a basic math problem, but instead of reading that its a + sign, you think its a – sign as someone told you their problem had been a +. Though you are trying to solve the problem, you are only getting further from the answer. The problem is not changing or getting harder with every attempt you make, you just keep repeating the same mistake and getting frustrated that you still haven’t gotten the right answer without ever properly reading the question.

So should we really be looking at Steve Job’s external life as a measure of his success? Is a spiritual master less of a master if he doesn’t walk around in an orange robe? What I realized what the most important was to look at how he lived life. He never set out with the intention to become a billionaire, and that is probably the biggest reason he did end up so financially successful. He didn’t build any of his products with the goal of making the most profit he could, he made the products as innovative as possible with a complete disregard for costs. He did the best he could in that moment without thinking of what future gains or falls it might bring (and yes, some of his choices ended up being poor, but instead of regretting them he saw them for the value they served for learning). As per being liked by his peers, from a psychological standpoint one of the first signs of success will be having people strongly dislike you. Dislike has nothing to do with the person you have that feeling towards, but stems from yourself. To have a strong dislike of a person is a reflection of yourself, that person is exhibiting a trait you hold yourself back from embracing. Many find themselves jealous of successful people following their dreams and passions as they are too afraid to follow their own.

What I learned is to let go of the idea of what success or spirituality looks like, to learn as much as I can at every opportunity without wondering when and how it might benefit me in the future. To make choices based on the best I can do at the present moment in time, not basing a choice for some possible outcome that may come as a result. How often we think in stories when making decisions in any aspect of our life; if I do this, then this will happen, then this will happen, then this, and then I will be happy. Lots of times this happens subconsciously if we haven’t put the self work in and started to understand the basis of why we do and think what we do. How often do things go to plan and we even get to that second story layer, the first then this will happen? Never. Life is unpredictable and changes rapidly. All we can do is make the best choice right now.

Age is Just a Number

Posted on by under Adventure Travel, camino de santiago, CaminodeSantiago, Hiking, spain, travel

When I was planning on taking this year off to travel the world, a few things indicated to me that I needed to do it sooner or later if I was to accomplish anything in my life. Albert Einstein had achieved his greatest discoveries at the age of 24, I remembered reading an article stating that if people that were more successful in their lives had achieved this success early on, that neurologically ones brain decreased it’s overall capacity as one left their twenties, and then there was the astrological “return of Saturn” that happens around when someone turns 28 which is supposed to be when they can make great changes in their lives.  Now I can’t attest that these were reliable sources that I obtained this information from, regardless I felt since I had yet to accomplish anything at 27, I was most definitely headed for a life of mediocrity if I didn’t make a big change soon.

Just before I left for Spain, I decided to do alittle more digging into the person that inspired this stop: Paulo Coehlo. I knew that he had hiked the Camino and that while walking it he had a spiritual awakening, which would lead him to his career in writing writing the worldwide bestselling book The Alchemist just two years after walking the Camino. What I didn’t know was that he had hiked the Camino at age 39! It wasn’t until he was 41 that he even published a book, then becoming a best selling author. Turns out my idea that anyone over 30 that hadn’t found their dream was destined for mediocrity was very, very incorrect. It was something I needed to believe at the time to make me push forward and actually follow through with this trip. In reality age is just a number, anyone at any time in their life can make a big change, chasing their dreams, searching for passion and meaning in their life. Recently I saw a video on Facebook outlining the lives of some well known celebrities like Oprah and Morgan Freeman, and how they failed numerous times before achieving success in their fields later in life.

Now, as I say that age is just a number and anyone at any time in their life can decide to go off in search of their passion and dreams, there will always be those who argue the opposite. This happens a lot of times when I describe my trip to people, they say “Oh I wish I was young and I could do something like that, but I can’t because of this, this, this,  and this…” or “do it now, as you won’t be able to later.” In the words of Henry Ford, “If you think you can or you can’t, either way you are correct.” Going off in search of passion and dreams is not easy for anyone at any age, it just may require a different set of sacrifices for a 27 vs 40 year old, and it won’t necessarily involve a year off like mine. I do think with age is does become harder mentally to seek this change, as by then the brain is comfortable in more routines and structures. I’ve heard people use the excuse that they can’t change now as they’ve spent the last 15 or so years working the same job, it would be a waste of that time they have invested. What’s more of a waste, is wasting any more time on it if it is not something you love to do. Then comes the excuse of kids… I’m of the opinion that a kid will grow up a more successful and functioning adult being raised by parents who are happy and fulfilled, rather than if they are sent to private schools, expensive sports training and classes while the parents sacrifice their happiness and wellbeing to pay for these things. I was lucky to be raised by parents that loved what they did for work. As kids we never got the latest and greatest of anything; younger me probably saw this as a huge travesty, but as an adult I’m glad my parents raised us this way. For every excuse someone gives me that they think “stops” them from being able to pursue their passion, I’m certain I can find someone with the same limitation who made it work. I remember reading something a long time ago that stuck with me, saying that if you were given the opportunity to switch lives with anyone in the world, no matter how rich, successful, or happy you may think them to be, if you actually knew about all the challenges people faced in their life, you would never choose to switch lives, and would choose to keep your own life with its difficulties and challenges. The moral of the story, everyone has to face their own challenges, and you can either play victim thinking how you can’t accomplish anything as everyone else somehow has it easier than your situation, or you can take control and realise that you have the power to face your challenges and achieve anything. But one has to have courage to do so, it is easier for people to play the victum and give up on their dreams before even starting, as it means they will never face the risk of failure and heartbreak. Deciding to go on a quest to change ones life is a scary business, what is even scarier is the potential of putting all the effort and sacrifice into that quest and having nothing change. One has to be willing to take that risk, or spend their lives talking about what could have been…

As I hiked the Camino, it further installed this knowledge that anyone at any age at any time can seek to change their lives. I was mildly surprised to find that the majority of the walkers were middle aged or older (and frankly, they were able to well out-walk me by miles!). Wikipedia describes a pilgrimage such as the Camino as “a journey or search of moral or spiritual significance,” and whether it was their prime intention or not, those that had sacrificed a month of their time and home comforts to hike hundreds of miles on the Camino were on a pilgrimage to change some aspect of their lives. On my way I met a few people who were hiking the Camino for a second or third time. When I asked why, some told me that walking the the Camino before had significantly changed their lives, and while others were less sure how it impacted them, they found themselves drawn back to hike it yet again.

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A Disclaimer

Posted on by under Adventure Travel, ayahuasca, Peru, Shamanism, spirituality, travel

Before I introduce you to the concept of Amazonian shamans and my experiences with them, I want to get you thinking about modern day science in a somewhat critical light. We live in a day and age of science, with the vast technology at our disposal we can observe tiny elements like electrons and measure electromagnetic waves unseen to the naked eye.  From these observations we come up with theories for how the world works. These theories turn into laws using the scientific experimental method where if a theory, after extensive testing under a variety of conditions holds true becomes a law. We fail to realize that there may exist a situation in which the theory fails, but we don’t have the ability or knowledge to test the theory in that situation. Talk to a research quantum physics scientist and they will probably tell you that our current understanding of our world covers less than 1% of what is actually going on and our understanding is constantly changing. In 1900 the famous scientist Lord Kelvin stated “There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now.”  At the time, Einstein was 21 and a mere 5 years away from discovering the theory of relativity.

When we are shown something we don’t understand we used to call it magic or witchcraft, but these days we use the word illusion or a placebo effect.  We are afraid to admit that yes this is really happening but no, we can’t understand why it is happening with our current limited technology and scientific understanding. We tend to have an unwavering belief in things we are told to believe as true, which can shield our eyes from seeing all the signs that suggest there may be more to the story. Just under 300 years ago creationism was still believed by the majority of the population, god had made the world in 7 days as well as every species on it. When people would come across fossils, they believed that they were just rocks being formed into that shape by complete chance as sometimes these fossils would be in the shape of bones of species that had gone extinct. Now it is common knowledge (for the most part), that these rocks are actually fossils and they can be used to understand the evolution of species over time.  “A foolish faith in authority, is the worst enemy of truth” – Alberta Einstein

So before you discount anything you might read in my blog about the healing work these shamans do as hocus pocus or that it’s just a placebo effect, I want you to remember that there was a time not all that long ago when the majority of the population deemed that the scientists who claimed the earth was round and that it revolved around the sun to be practicing witchcraft.  If we truly lived in a time where our current knowledge allowed us to have a complete and in-depth understanding of the world, would Donald Trump really be a serious candidate to run a country?

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