The Camino is a 1200-year old medieval pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela where the tomb of St. James is kept. Santiago is in Galicia in the northwest corner of Spain. Galicia is full of Gallogoses– shout out to our dear friend Tommy Gallegos whose forefathers surely hailed from there in some century. Galicia is notably a Celtic colony that got subsumed into the Roman Empire in 19 BC, thereafter owned by the Germanic tribes, the Visigoths, the Islamic Caliphate, various Christian kingdoms, and Spain. They have their own language and Celtic music including bagpipes.
In the 9th century, about when my forefathers were sacking villages barechested under the influence of magic mushrooms, Santiago became the third most popular pilgrimage after Jerusalem and Rome. The legend of how St. James’ body came to Galicia is very interesting; check it out on Wikipedia.
Currently, 250,000 people a year walk at least 100 km of the Camino. We will ( if Joe can stay out of the taxis) earn a Compostela at the end, stamped with at least two sellos per day verifying our path.
