No hay camino
In fall 2024, COA offered a travel course to the Meseta in Spain. Students spent the entire term traveling the Camino Frances; a route traveled for centuries by pilgrims looking for answers, or, perhaps, pilgrims looking for different questions.
Your fellow travelers: The Camino course leaders, from left: Ursula Hanson, Sharpe-McNally Chair of Green and Socially Responsible Business Jay Friedlander, COA Trustee Jay McNally ’84, and Teresa Tierney.
Why offer a Camino course?
College education too often simply relies on secondary sources and the academic written word as the foundation for coursework. This course answered the question of what happens when students are immersed deeply in a new culture, a new place, a different language. The journey motif is often the structure of epic literature, but what if that epic journey is actual and what if the hero of that story is you?
Because the context of The Camino class was by its nature completely novel, our focus was on the internal change, the process, the raw physicality, the deep humanity of the journey.
At its core, the idea of this effort is human ecology in action. We stripped away many of the creature comforts we have always enjoyed and carried our possessions on our back. We were alone with our thoughts, in a small group sharing experiences and developing skills that brought the mental, the physical, and the academic to life.
“The sun rose in shades of pink along the red, rocky outcrops. Quickly enough, all turned blue. Hundreds of shades and hues of blue along the distant mountains and cloud-streaked sky. Golden thistle and a plum thistle, devil’s snare, chard. Abundant vineyards and the rare, special fig tree. Quinces as we entered the town.”
The Camino experience
In a world of endless distractions where we juggle work, school, friends, family, and a steady stream of digital distractions, it is not easy to get time to reflect. The Camino offered a chance for 12 students to be with themselves and others as they walked the roughly 500-miles from St. Jean Pied-du-Port, France to Santiago de Compostela, Spain along the medieval pilgrimage route of the Camino Frances.
For over 40 days students walked 30,000+ steps a day, ate, rested, and sat with their thoughts as they moved from town to town alongside people from around the world on a similar journey. Students participated in the Camino Frances’ international community where people are open and willing to share life stories with fellow travelers. With origins as a pilgrimage route, walkers are often amid personal or professional transitions or working through tough issues and easily speak from their hearts and dive deep. This combination of openness and introspection meant that when students met other pilgrims, be it for a moment, a few hours, or over days, exchanges provided new perspectives and insights. A quick interaction could, at times, be the fodder for days of reflection.
Every day brought new experiences, discomfort, and challenges that built character and resilience as the weeks passed. Students embraced these opportunities.
The route was roughly divided into three sections delineating the journey: Body, Mind, and Resolution. Leaving France and adjusting to the daily routine, students and faculty felt the impact on their knees, ankles, and immune systems as they crossed mountain ranges carrying packs, sharing meals, and listening to ample snoring in communal albergues (hostels). The wide-open plains of the Meseta following Roman trade routes were mentally challenging as students walked through record-setting downpours that made normally hot and sunny Spain feel more like damp and cold Scotland. Throughout the trip, assignments facilitated exploration of their environs and themselves.
Students dove into the history and culture of the Camino with videos and presentations capturing their initial impressions of the journey. They also completed research projects ranging from botanical representations in art and soundscapes to reflections on grief and food systems.
As they walked, they completed guided mindfulness reflections as part of three overarching questions about their Camino journey and life:
What burdens are you carrying that you should put down?
What are you carrying that you wish to keep?
What have you seen that you wish to pick up?
The course extends well beyond the time on the Camino. For many, arriving in Santiago and returning to their lives marked the real beginning of the journey.
Strange sculptures outside of Villafranca del Bierzo, photo by Lila Foster ’26.
Proverbios y Cantares (XXIX)
Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino y nada más;
Caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.
Al andar se hace el camino,
y al volver la vista atrás
se ve la senda que nunca
se ha de volver a pisar.
Caminante, no hay camino
sino estelas en la mar.
—Antonio Machado
Proverbs and Songs (#29)
Walker, your footsteps
are the road, and nothing more.
Walker, there is no road,
the road is made by walking.
Walking you make the road,
and turning to look behind
you see the path you never
again will step upon.
Walker, there is no road,
only foam trails on the sea.
(translation Willis Barnstone)
“I’m supposed to be thinking about gratitude. I think gratefulness has been the biggest theme on the Camino for me so far. When I got sick in Logroño, I was overwhelmed by the kindness of my new friends who took such loving care of me, even though we hardly knew each other.
When I started walking again, I was so grateful for the simple act of walking, for being able to take part in the Camino again. Those first few days passed easily, and I had such a full heart for all my new friends. As the walking got harder, my gratitude for my legs grew. I look down at them while walking and just feel so much amazement for how far they have carried me.
I am grateful for how much I have felt during this short time: so much love for people I hardly know, so much sadness in saying goodbye. Last night, we drank wine and played guitar into the night at the albergue. All of us singing joyously and drunkenly. It was so silly and loud and beautiful. ”
A fellow traveler on the Meseta with sunflowers, photo by Lila Foster ’26.
