Lost and Found

There have been many threads regarding the safety and security of backpacks and other luggage along the various routes of the Camino. In spite of all the advice that's been given, we let our guard down just once and paid the price. Here's what happened to us when our backpacks were stolen on our last day in Santiago. Without re-hashing the details of how and where they were stolen, suffice it to say that the story does have a happy ending, and that's what this post is really about.

Through the diligent efforts of a great friend of the Camino, the gentleman known on this and other Camino-related forums as Johnnie Walker and one of the wonderful volunteers at the Pilgrims’ Office, our backpacks were found several days later at one of the police substations in Santiago. They then washed and dried the packs and all our clothing (the backpacks were found after being out in torrential rains for several days), packaged everything up in secure boxes and shipped them to us at our home in Colorado, USA, where received them just yesterday.

Not only were the backpacks themselves returned, but with the exception of one set of trekking poles, a pair of sandals, a couple of special gifts that we bought for our daughter, and approximately US$40 in cash, EVERYTHING else was recovered. That includes all our clothing except what we were wearing at the time, all the other gifts we had bought for family and friends, and most importantly, our compostelas, pilgrims’ credentials, my journal notes, and the memory cards containing all the photos I took for the entire Camino (I had just put a new memory card in my camera after we arrived in Santiago). This is nothing short of a miracle, given all the other possible outcomes to this scenario, and Jeanette and I will be eternally grateful to John Walker and the other volunteer whose name we never learned. They turned what could have been a sad ending to an otherwise wonderful journey into one of joy and gratitude. They, and some other special people who assisted us in getting our train tickets to Madrid replaced, represent the finest spirit of the Camino.

I really have to mention one other angel that came into our lives that day…After we finally were able to get our replacement train tickets – about five minutes before the train was due to depart – a young man, a pilgrim like us, came up to us and said, “I’ve been listening to the story of your loss. The backpacks, the clothing, the gifts you purchased are just material things and can be easily replaced. You can even replace the compostelas. But you cannot replace your credentials with all their sellos. I want to give you this.” He handed us his credential from his just-completed Camino. We of course declined, and tried to hand it back to him. He said, “No, I have walked the Camino many times. I have many credentials. Please, take this, it is a gift from my heart.” Tears flowed freely from both Jeanette’s and my eyes as we hugged him and thanked him from the bottom of our hearts. Needless to say, now that we once more have our own credentials, his is on its way to his home in Portugal.

So fellow pilgrims, pay heed to the warnings about keeping everything secured, especially in the big cities where not everyone exhibits the spirit of the Camino.

Jim