Sept 4: guideposts

Some of you may be wondering how it is that we find our way along the Camino, since we are doing this on our own without any tour guides (besides the book I bought).  The great thing is that people have been marking the path for others for years.  I've attached some examples that we came across just today in our hike.

The first picture is of a very nice signpost, probably the nicest we've seen yet.  Besides telling us the distance to Santiago (581 kilometers), it also contains two of the key markings of a Camino guidepost: it has the yellow arrow pointing the direction we should be heading, and it has the yellow scallop shell on the blue background.  Whenever we reach a turn in the road, whether it be in the country or the city, we are always on the lookout for one of these two markings to help lead us down the correct path.  So far (knock on wood), we haven't got lost yet.

The second picture is at the edge of the town of Ciruena.  Again, it has the yellow scallop shell design, and it has an arrow (although not yellow this time) pointing the direction we should be heading, and also a hiker.  The hiker symbol shows up most often along busy roads, to warn cars that Camino hikers are nearby and will probably be crossing the road.  And if you notice in the background in the middle of the picture, there is a metal sculpture (actually a silhoutte) that shows the outline of St. James with his staff and a gourd attached at the end of the staff for carrying his water.  And if you look to the right of St. James, you'll also notice a smaller statue of the scallop shell.  The other meaning of the scallop shell is it signifies all of the different Comino's coming together in one place (ie. Santiago).  There are actually 9 camino's or paths that people can take in Spain to reach Santiago.  Again, we are taking the French Way, which is the most common way, but there is an English Way, a Southern Way, a Portueguese way, etc, but they all end in Santiago.

The third picture is one of the arrows that we found at a cross roads in the fields today.  The reason we found this interesting is because some people had also left their worn out shoes behind.  We've seen this a few other times as well, and I'm sure it will become more frequent the longer we are into the Camino.  Hopefully our shoes hold out all the way to Santigo, and we don't end up having to leave them behind on a marker.  Also, there is one other small thing to notice.  Hanging from the arrow is a picture of a young man.  What we have found is that some people are doing the Camino in memory of someone they have lost in their life, and they often leave something behind along the path in honor of that person (like Martin Sheen leaving the ashes of his son in The Way).  We have seen very elaborate tributes and we have seen very simple ones like the one below.  However they do it, it seems like a nice way to remember and pay honor to someone that was important in another person's life.