PILGRIMS – ENCOUNTERS ON THE CAMINO DE SANTIAGO (THE WAY OF SAINT JAMES)

Arriving at his first albergue in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in late 2014, Alfredo Aguilar struggles to tell his fellow pilgrims exactly why he is setting out on the 800-kilometre journey to Santiago de Compostela. Two weeks earlier, Aguilar had chanced upon a pair of young backpackers in Santiago’s Plaza del Obradoiro and witnessed them embrace, weeping with emotion, after completing their Camino. He wants to know whether he, too, could experience such emotional intensity. And so begins his own Camino — what would become the first of many over the next decade. Along the way, Aguilar discovers aspects of the Camino not mentioned in any guidebook. His encounters with other pilgrims, with hostel workers and locals living along the Camino leave an indelible mark. Their stories, ranging from intimate and humorous to melancholic and sometimes tragic, are compelling tales of ordinary people in extraordinary situations, and sometimes, extraordinary people in ordinary situations.

Pilgrims is a tribute to all those with whom the author shared cold, heat, rain and wind on the various Caminos de Santiago. For most of those pilgrims, arriving in Santiago de Compostela was the end of one journey but also the start of others, with new encounters, new questions and, occasionally, answers to that first question: why set out on this journey?