Camino inaccuracies

The Way is a movie starring Martin Sheen about a man’s journey across Spain, walking the Camino. While I enjoyed it, there were a few inaccuracies I feel compelled to point out:

1. Rain

If this movie were accurate, there would need to be many more scenes of them walking in the rain.

2. Flies

At no point in the movie do we see the walkers getting irritated by or swatting away flies. Depending on the time of year that you walk the Camino, this is something you have to do quite a bit at certain points.

3. Popping blisters

There needs to be at least one scene where the group are gathered around looking at a blister on someone’s foot. By the end of the scene, that blister must be popped, either voluntarily or involuntarily.

4. Arguing about the relative merits on compeed

Following on from the above scene, there needs to be a sharp disagreement as to the relative merits of compeed.

5. Food

Food is a big part of the Camino. I’d have loved to have seen Sheen’s group gathered around a table more often sharing a meal. They could be discussing whether or not Spanish Red Wine should be considered medicine and why vegetables are so hard to find on the trail. I also think we should see them drinking orange juice and eating Napolitana, two staples of the Camino.

6. Miming

Refusing to learn Spanish, at least one character has to express their sleeping and dietary requirements to a hostel owner through the medium of mime.

More Camino Films

While I was walking on the Camino, virtually everyone I met along the road had seen The Way, a movie which I reviewed when it first came out in 2011. I think it’s safe to say that this film did much to revitalize the pilgrimage and bring the Camino to a new generation.

However, it turns out that “The Way” is not the only movie produced concerning this ancient pilgrimage across Spain. Just before I left for Spain, I shared a link to Phil’s Camino, the story of a man with Stage IV cancer, walking along the Camino:

phil

I recently heard about A Way To Forgiveness, which is the video journal of a lady who decided to walk across the Camino, in an effort to find healing, following the breakdown of her marriage:

erin

I’ve also come across I’ll push you, which tells the story of two life-long friends making the Camino, one of whom has a progressive neuromuscular disease which keeps him in a wheelchair:

push-you

While I was on the Camino myself, I came across Camino Sin Limites, a team with two brothers, Oliver and Juan Luis who is also wheelchair-bound:

caminosinlimites

What is it about the Camino which inspires such journies?

Returning from the ends of the earth…

Hey everyone! This is just a quick note to say that I’m safely back from pilgrimage to the Camino De Santiago in Spain. Over the last month, I walked over the Pyranees from France, all the way on foot to the Cathedral of St. James. For good measure I then walked the final three days to Finisterra and the Atlantic Ocean!

finished

Please expect to see regular activity on this blog resume in the coming days, including a more detailed reflection of my time away on pilgrimage. Buen Camino!

Navigating the blog

Hey everyone! The Camino is going really well and I am now a little over half way to Santiago. My feet are a little tired, but nothing worse than that!

Where I’m currently staying at the moment has a computer so I wanted to briefly respond to a message I received from a friend who was looking for a few articles he knew I had written but couldn’t find. If you’re looking for something on this blog, you can use the search dialogue in the right corner of the website:

search

Not only that, you can also use the menu items along the header. Here there are a series of menu items which will take you to pages where I have attempted to highlight the more important articles on this site related to the subjects of CatholicismApologetics, Church History, Sacred Scripture and the always popular subject of Catholic Dating:

menu

I’ll have computer access again in a couple of weeks once I’ve finished the Camino. Thank you for your prayers!

Today I start walking…

merton

Today I start walking the Camino De Santiago. As I was sorting out my paperwork in my old room at home, I came across a prayer of Thomas Merton which seems appropriate…

“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following Your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please You does in fact please You. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that, if I do this, You will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it”

– Thomas Merton, Thoughts on Solitude