The sound of the group was much quieter and there were only jokes at night around the campfire. I personally started to enjoy walking by myself in silence. I started to appreciate the sound of the warm summer wind, I never realized that the wind sounds different in the cold of winter. The tweeting of the birds would guide me on each step. I loved how nature was whispering into my ears.

Scotland is home to a pilgrimage route that is up there in terms of importance with the better known routes to the popular disciple destinations of Rome (St Peter) and Santiago de Compostela (St James the Great). Why ? Well, the town of Kilrymont, or St Andrews as it was renamed, was home to some of the relics (bones) of St Andrew, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus and brother of St Peter.

The Camino de Santiago is above all, a personal experience. No matter if you walk with your friends or with your partner, the rhythms of walking are different and there will be many miles where you bounce along with your thoughts. The Camino will change you for life. Do it for whatever reason inspires you, religious, spiritual, tourist, sports…regardless of how and why you start it, you will end it as a different person.

Being a guide, I am also curious about the idea of rebirth in history. Almost everyone in the Western World studies the Italian cultural and artistic Renaissance, which of course has at its root the word for rebirth. Historians, though, do not tend to love the term, because although there is a clear cultural movement during that period, no cultural idea “dies”—nothing is reborn.

The word “celebration” has its origin in the latin Celebrò. We can translate that as “gathering together” or “an assembly,” both of which are precisely the type of activities that Covid-19 is preventing us from doing! This prohibition inspired me to reconsider the subject of celebrating from an alternative point of view—religious celebrations.

When we think about witches, what normally comes to mind is an ugly, old woman with a wart on the tip of her nose, casting spells over a boiling pot. At least, this is the way Hollywood has portrayed them. It is 100% different from what we consider a witch in the Basque culture. We call them “sorguiñe”, which means “the one that gives life”.

As you travel around Scotland you may spot a very strange sight that is likely to stop you in your tracks: hundreds of strips of cloth—or cloots as they’re known in Scotland—tied to the branches of trees. These are called Clootie Wells and are places of pilgrimage that link us to Celtic ancestors over countless generations. 

One of the most interesting and alluring aspects of Bali is the authentic place of magic in Balinese life. The root of this reality is found in their Hindu-Animist religion. Stone age Balinese Animism—the worship of the spirits of nature and ancestors - has changed little even down to the present day.

I get a lot more “churched-out” than monasteried-out on my travels. Usually with a monastery, it’s more serene, fewer idiots with self-stickies, and the clergy-to-tourist ratio is in the clergy’s favor.