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Variante Espiritual

anniethenurse

Veteran Member
Time of past OR future Camino
Camino Frances.Vasco del Interior.Camino Finisterre& Muxia. Camino Portugues. Ruta del Ebro.
Hola, my friends want to know if they are qualified for a Compostela if they start walking from Porto and walk Variante Espiritual? Taking a boat from Vilanova de Arousa to Pontececures.
 
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I went to the pilgrim office just to get my credencial stamped. Lady at the counter did not understand why I was not asking for the Compostela. I explained the boat ride (she didn't know this route existed) but then agreed that one would not qualify. If you prentend you walked it all and land on another person at the counter who does not kmow the route and doesn't know what to look for in the stamps perhaps you can still walk away with a Compostela.
 
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Annie, tell your friends not to worry. We walked the same Camino last year and received a Compostela.
 
I've done the spiritual variant multiple times. It's a recognized route. No need to hide that you took a boat. You will get the compostela.
 
Recognised route? Then why didn't the woman at the Compostela Office not understand I had taken a boat within the last 100km, and when she consulted was told " no go"? Perhaps because there are now too mNy stamps for anyoneto recognise a real Camino, and can't tell where and how one has travelled?
 
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I've been wondering about this for a while now. I understand that you can't get the compostela if you ride in a bus or taxi after Sarria, even if you have walked a thousand kms before (though recent posts suggest that the pilgrims office is not so strict about that rule anymore), but isn't this different? The taxi ride takes you over kms you could have otherwise walked, whereas the boat takes you over kms you would have to swim. The fact that there's a long walking alternative is only because there is now a bridge, built well after the compostela was originally created. Why is walking over a bridge an acceptable alternative? Isn't that also cutting short the "land only" route? How can walking over a bridge be acceptable and taking a boat over that same stretch of water not be? Seems to me that if there is a body of water between you and Santiago, no matter how far you are from Santiago, it only makes sense to give you a compostela if you have walked the last 100 kms, discounting the distance of the water. But that may not be the rule, I don't know.

At some level this seems so trivially ridiculous, but I understand that for some the compostela is a big deal. And I guess that it's good to know exactly what the rules are.

Edited to say that Charrito's post on another thread seems to have answered my question, thanks, @Charrito! https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/variante-espiritual-from-this-weekend.34816/
 
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Yes, you can ! but please write down the Km between towns , you NEED to walk at least 100 km to get the compostelana, so you need to know the distance , when i did my camino, i walked part of the coast (i got stamps on my credential) then i used the bus to switch to el primitivo, and of course all the km walked , count on m favor,total. 172km ... sometimes you need to explain them, they can check distances in between each town , but so far i think its depend on the clerk if they are more than happy to help out,
 
Sorry to correct you, it is not walking "at least 100km" it is "walking at least the LAST 100km".

There has been a very long thread about the question just a few days ago on with people from the Pilgrim Office chimming in reminding people of the rule. Examples were given of people who had walked Le Puy to SJPP and then bused to Santiago and did not get their Compostela despite having walked some 800 km to the French Border.

I really feel for those who get wrong advice by reading posts like yours and are then dispointed when they are turned away.

I don't know where you started the Primitivo, but if it was after Lugo the Office should not have given you a Compostella.
 
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Sorry you are totally right ! I'm sorry if I was not clear - I walked the last 142 km - but before that I ride a bus between to stages - yes you are right clarifying this point in sorry for my mistake / not being clear
 
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