Pilgrimage covers more than 550 miles
A former Butler resident and her husband spent more than a month following in the footsteps of hundreds of thousands of fellow travelers along one the world's oldest pilgrimage routes, the Camino de Santiago in northwest Spain.
Deborah Jones graduated from Butler High School in 1969. Her father was the late Edward Bayuszik a longtime court reporter at the Butler County Courthouse who retired in 1993.
She and her husband, Peter, have lived in Costa Rica, Spain and Cypress. They have resided in Cypress for the last three years and have been back in Butler County visiting Deborah Jones' mother, Helen Bayuszik.
They are returning to Cypress at the end of February.
During an earlier visit here in August, Deborah said they broke in their hiking shoes on the trails of Moraine State Park in anticipation of the trip to Spain.
The Joneses work for a Christian nongovernmental organization involved in health and water projects from Asia to Africa. Last fall, they returned to Spain to hike the Camino de Santiago, or St. James' Way, a pilgrimage route to the shrine of the apostle St. James the Great in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.
“We began on Sept. 8 and we arrived in the city of Santiago — which is where the tomb to St. James is said to be — on Oct. 11,” Peter said. “We actually finished at the sea, the land's end.”
“We started in the Pyrenees Mountains in France, and then you walk along the northern part of Spain. The route is divided into 33 stages, one for each year of the life of Christ,” Peter said.
The route to Santiago was 497 miles with an added 62 miles to the coast.“We walked 20 to 30 kilometers (12 to 19 miles) a day,” said Peter. From start to finish their walk took 33 days.“The most common route,” Deborah said, “the French Route, is 1,000 years old. Travelers are growing again because of the movie, 'The Way' with Martin Sheen.”The 2010 American film, directed, produced and written by Emilio Estevez, Sheen's son, has the pilgrimage as its centerpiece.“You have little chapels and major cathedrals that have grown along the route,” Deborah said. “You have a pack that you carry every day. We got it down to 20 pounds. You have two changes of clothes, a journal, toilet articles,” she added.For accommodations, they stayed in hostels, called albergues, which are in renovated monasteries and convents, municipal buildings and private homes.“What they give you is a disposable sheet and a bunk bed. In some places we had as many as 70 people in a room. It's very basic,” Peter said.“For the cost of 5 to 10 euros a night (about $5.60 to $11) you get the right to a bed and a stamp on your passport. It's first-come, first-served. They open around 1 to 2 p.m. and you have to get up by 6 a.m. and be on your way by 8 a.m. You put on your backpack and your boots and you are out the door,” he said. “You'd walk along to the first coffee place that was open and you'd get a bite to eat.”Despite the primitive accommodations, Peter said, “We didn't hear any unkind words and we didn't see any fights. They call it the spirit of the Camino.”The route took them through all sorts of terrain.“You had mountains, plains, village and hamlets,” Peter said. “The camino had a few stretches that went along an old Roman road. There were villages every few kilometers.”“Sometimes,” Deborah said, “you would walk near a highway parallel to the trail for a time.”“You can't get lost. You have guidebooks and signposts and in the cities they have discreet markings,” Peter said.
The weather was good for most of their journey except for a week when it turned cold and rainy.Discussing the terrain, Deborah said, “For days we walked through wine country. Each week brought a different region. Then we crossed the meseta, the tableland. It's very flat, very monotonous.”But by that part of the trip, the scenery was becoming less important, Peter said.“The journey goes from the outside to the inside,” he said, adding that day after day of walking forced travelers to do some soul-searching.“What we got out of it, first of all, is that so many people can be together and be nice to one another,” Peter said.“It's a very personal thing,” Deborah added. “You learn to trust God day after day for a place with a bed. If there isn't one, you walk another three kilometers. In all of it we saw this is where we were supposed to be and these were the people that you were meant to meet.”“You get a different perspective of the world,” Peter said. “The Camino reduces you to walking. You can only walk so fast. You take more time to talk to people. It forces you to slow down. The best part of the Camino is the people. You make lasting friends”The Joneses saw pilgrims from all over the world: Britain, Canada, Germany and Asia.“We had a couple of Canadian girls that kind of attached themselves to us. They called us their mom and dad of the camino,” said Deborah.“Of course, every day you are meeting Spaniards in the places you would stop to have coffee,” said Peter. “We stopped at a bed-and-breakfast farmhouse and the woman was telling us the story of how she came to be owner of this place. She said she had cancer and had gone to walk the Camino. She met two Italians who took her to Italy for treatment and paid all her expenses. She said she promised God if she was saved she would dedicate her life to the pilgrims,” Peter said.“She is not making any money. It turns the commercial world upside down,” he added.
Among the others they met was a man from Texas pushing his wife in a wheelchair along the route, and the two blind men from Italy whose wives would go ahead and meet them when they completed that day's journey, or the two Israelis studied-in Taoism or the man from England who on the first day of his retirement as a school teacher walked out his front door in Notttigham and down to Spain and the Camino.Peter said, “We met a priest who was walking the Camino. He was going to Jerusalem. He said, 'I've been talking to people for six years. Now I want to listen to God.'”“We are both Spanish speakers,” Deborah said. “It helped a lot to enjoy the trip to its fullest. We did a lot of translating for other people. Peter was called the mayor of the Camino. He had his maps and his books.”“I'm so glad I did it,” Deborah concluded. “Every day was kind of a new thing. You put on your boots and your pack and go again.”
Deborah and Peter Jones traveled the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage trail in northwest Spain last fall. They actually started their trip in the Pyrenees Mountains of France which border on the Galicia region of Spain. The Butler High School graduate and her husband started the trek on Sept. 8 and reached the city of Santiago Oct. 11 11. The Camino de Santiago is a pilgrimage to the shrine of the apostle St. James the Great in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, where legend claims the saint is buried.
