Monday, January 26, 2015

Last winter in Mazatlan & Plans for walking the Camino de Santiago

Hello all. It has been a long time since our last post. As this week will be the fifth anniversary since I, (Joel), retired it seemed like a good time to catch everyone up on our comings and goings and plans.

We have decided that this will be our last winter in Mazatlán. Janice has spent eight winters and I have six winters in this wonderful place, it is now time to explore some other winter options. Although Mazatlán has been great, life is getting shorter and we would like to have some other experiences before age and time take away our options.

Next winter, the winter of 2015-2016 is still up in the air. Our oldest Jelani has been accepted at all the universities he has applied to: The University of Washington, Louisiana State University and The University of Hawaii. His first choice is Hawaii, but I am sure finances, scholarships, grants, etc. will factor into where he will go. If he goes to Hawaii, we would probably go one to two months in Hawaii. If LSU is his choice we would spend a month in Louisiana and a month in Florida.  These are just two options of many. We also might goes to San Diego for a month or two to house sit for friends if they need our help.

In May of 2016, I am planning to walk the Camino de Santiago. This is a 500 mile, (800 kilometer) walk that starts in St Jean, France, then you walk across the Pyrenees Mountains into Spain, through Basque country and ends up at a huge cathedral with many stops along the way in Santiago. I plan on taking approximately 40 days. If you are interested in this, check out the movie "THE WAY" with Martin Sheen. I plan on sleeping in hostels, dormitories and churches along the way. People from all over the world walk this and I am hoping to share the road with many interesting people. I plan on doing this alone and allow whatever is going to happen, happen. I will plan my trip to St. Jean and then my trip back from Santiago, but once I am on the trail I will go as far as the day and circumstances allow. I will journal the entire Camino walk.  We are unsure at this point whether Janice will do this same trip by bus or taxi from village to village and meet up with each other every few days or if she'll stay back in Spokane and take a trip with a friend sometime before or after my trip on the Camino.  We are at the beginning of our plans, and for the benefit of others planing their own pilgrimage on the Camino, I will blog the process I'm working on.

As this is our last season for now in Mazatlán,  we are treating these six months more like a vacation and doing the things we enjoy most here including weekly trips to Stone Island,  visiting our favorite restaurants,  spending time with friends we won't get to see once we say our goodbyes to Mazatlán.

Over this next year, I'll be blogging on my preparation that will take place to get me to the Camino.  I'll share about books I've read, videos I've seen, other blogs I've read which I hope will help others in this journey.

Buen Camino!


The Way