a free coffee

On the heels (we do so like to talk about feet around here) of a patriotic entry about Coke and a poetic entry about arrows, allow me to provide another interpretation of the Camino.

It´s kind of like that McDonalds Monopoly game where you collect the little stickers. Or like a card at a coffee shop where the 10th coffee is free. The game is silly. There is no particular outcome of any consequence, but you keep playing. You want to find the Boardwalk sticker, even though you know you won´t. You want that free coffee. It´s a pain to get that card out every time, but you keep collecting the stamps anyway.

Here, each pilgrim has a card, called a credencial, and every time s/he checks into an albergue, the credencial is presented and stamped and dated. Churches and restaurants and other places have stamps (sellos) as well. The credencial itself is so unofficial looking. It´s just an accordioned piece of heavy stock paper with my name and the date I started, but I have to guard it with as much care as I do my passport. It entitles me to sleep in the albergues, and when I arrive in Santiago, I will show it in order to earn my Compostela.

I have never seen a Compostela, but I imagine it to be a pretty piece of paper that has my name on it and indicates that I have gone for a long walk and should be excused from some of purgatory. I think if I show it to Dale, it will probably be good for a free coffee, too.