Second Camino Left me feeling Unfulfilled

bprohs said:

I’m finding this rather disturbing! With as much money as pilgrims contribute to the local economies one would think they would be welcomed with open arms. We are planning our first Camino from Porto along the coast this September. I’m beginning to second guess our decision to walk through Portugal. We chose this path for a number of reasons, the primary one being our ages. I’ll be 77 when we start, my wife will be 75.
I totally get that tourists get a little old. We came from a town of 7000 people that saw 4 million tourists a year, but we always tried to treat everyone the way we’d like to be treated with kindness and respect.
I’d love to hear others opinions about the Portuguese Camino’s.

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Kathy F. said:

The first is filled with trepidation, anxiety and, yes, bravery - you simply don't know if you can do it.

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Angus137 said:

In March 2018 I took a month off work to celebrate my 50th and walked the Camino Frances from SJPdP to SdC. It was the life-changing event that is well documented in this Forum – I returned home full of joy and positivity.

Soon after returning, I planned a second Camino for 2023, after 5 years, and decided to go at Christmas because work is so quiet then and my family were happy with that – I asked this Forum about which route would have most amenities open over Christmas and the recommendation was the Portuguese. I flew to Porto on 16th December and started out the next day arriving in SdC on Christmas day.

Curiously despite looking forward to it for 5 years when I started planning it, I had a nagging doubt that it wouldn’t be like last time, but I have returned feeling very despondent as I felt none of the Camino joy.

I didn’t enjoy the walk out of sub-urban Porto so maybe not a good start and the limited open accommodation meant that I was often alone in hostels and had a few nights in hotels. I found the Portuguese rather unfriendly in comparison with the Spanish and very little pilgrim engagement, nothing like the love & camaraderie of the Frances – I felt as if I was just on a long walk. There were few other pilgrims – I only walked with one couple and a single Dutch woman. The positives was that the weather was gorgeous and much of the route was lovely passing through some historic towns.

I won’t give up – I have bought the guides for the Via del Plata, Le Puy and Via Francigena and I will go for the full month in Spring or Autumn and stay in the hostels but I would love to hear your views and wisdom on why I am so disappointed. My son warned me against “chasing the dragon” and he was quite right!

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Rebekah Scott said:

I know I already said the camino isn't magic. But compared to the other routes, the Camino Frances has that certain juju you don't find anywhere else. I think it's just all those centuries of pilgrims, and all that infrastructure, both physical and cultural, centered on pilgrimage. It's a pathway custom-made for personal transformation.

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