More life lessons on the Camino De Santiago De Compostela. Walking from Pamplona to Puente La Reina, is a very interesting and memorable walk. It is a special part of the camino, although can one part be any more special than another, that is one to ponder. This leg of The Camino Frances is a prominent chapter in Paulo Coelho’s book, The Pilgrimage, and if you haven’t read it, it is worth a read.

Victoria received a lesson in attachment, and learning to read the signs when life is guiding and directing us. We had been staying in the same albergue as some Korean’s for the past few days and they told us that they were going to stay in Hostal Hemingway in Pamplona as there were no Albergues open in the winter in Pamplona.

When we arrived in Pamplona, a gentleman who was walking his dog crossed our path, told us that there was an albergue open and that he would take us to it. It was really a perfect syncronistic event, were this guide was offered to us, but as we had already made a decision to go to The Hostal Hemingway, because that is were the Koreans were going, we declined his offer.

As it turned out, going to Hostal Hemingway mean’t that we had to walk off the main camino route by a few kilometres, through a built up city, had to pay at least double of what we would of paid would we had gone to the albergue, and to top it off, the Koreans weren’t there anyway. They had also learn’t that there was an albergue open and opted to go there instead.

This is a good lesson in not being stuck on a particular outcome and being open to the flow of what life is offering us. On a daily basis Life is giving us, little, often subtle nudges and being flexible, present and vigilant, we can read the signs along the way.

To decide, comes from the latin to mean to cut off from all other options. This can go for and against us at times. Sometimes it is better to choose than to decide, as this keeps us open to the field of infinite possibilities, and if a more auspicious possibility presents itself, then we can step into that, rather than being stuck and closed from past outdated decisions.

There is a fine line, I am sure you can appreciate, and to be able to have discernment at every possible fork in the road will allow us to flow with life, the way nature intended. And with that said, the truth is that there is no wrong path. It is actually impossible for us to take a wrong path, as all paths are a journey of learning and discovery, and if we can keep in mind the question of “what can I learn from this”
then suffering is removed from the equation.

Anyway, lets return to The Camino De Santiago De Compostela, as we had an incredibly colourful day, and what we thought was going to be an easy walk from Pamplona, turned out to be epic, as the albergue we had planned on staying in was closed and we had to walk an extra at least 12 km to the next one.
We had some amateur dramatics when it got dark, which offered some life lessons, which I will share in tomorrows post. The head torch had to be pulled out, so we didn’t fall down a hole on the camino and we had to walk in the direction of a few street lights in the distance.

Victoria’s emotional threshold was met when we arrived at our destination, only to learn that we weren’t quite there yet and had to walk another 4k to the next town. O’dear!

P.S.We are able to take a month out to walk the camino as we earn a passive residual income online. Want to do the same? Just click below to find out more.