A previous post in this blog spoke about the blues of the Camino, a feeling of emptiness and sadness that some –quite a lot of– pilgrims feel after concluding the stages of any of the routes to Compostela. A feeling of absence, of tediousness, about the idea of going back to a routine that now seems too self-aware and isolated, compared to the open and unworried socialisation among pilgrims travelling to Compostela. Fortunately, the feeling vanishes but there is one idea that remains: the Camino changes us in subtle or more radical ways. After leaving behind kilometres of hills and plateaus, riverbanks and summits, asphalt and cobbles, we are overcome by the idea that our existence cannot return to the way it was. The “Afterway” panel features a good number of speakers that have reflected with insight on the effect of the Way of St. James on those undertaking it.“Afterways”: what road to take after completing the Camino.

The accumulated and explained experiences will occupy three days of Fairway, from Thursday, October 15, to Saturday, October 17: athletes, explorers, pensioners, workers and artists will share how the Camino affected their life, why they decided to undertake a thousand-year-old route and what they have to tell others, the treasure they found when the sun set over Fisterra.

Mariluz Viñas, the ultramarathon athlete from the Dominican Republic, will begin the presentations. Viñas will relate her experience #ElRetodelCamino, a charity, sports and tourist initiative that led to her walking the Way of St. James in 15 stages from St. Jean Pied de Port to Santiago’s Praza do Obrodoiro, from September 27 to October 11, 2015. Viñas completed this body-and-mind challenge to raise funds for the St. Jude Foundation, which looks after children suffering from cancer in the Dominican Republic.

The following speaker will reflect on the Camino from a common but different perspective. Antonio Catalán, president of the AC Hotels by Marriot chain, will explain why he became a Camino enthusiast. His relationship with the Jacobean tradition began as a result of a tragic event: he made a promise to the Apostle about one of his daughters, who had just had an accident. Since then, Catalán and the Way have been linked for 25 years. Catalán has been completing the route from Navarre for more than a quarter of a century at a very fast pace: between 160 and 200 kilometres per day. He began doing the French Way with a group of five friends; today he is accompanied by almost a hundred people. He will tell us how the Camino has filled him with life-enriching experiences.

Catalán will be followed by Felisa Sastre, a former international aid worker and retired civil servant that worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Her testimony will provide an almost unique perspective, since she will relate her experience doing the Way of St. James in 1968, at a time when the route was not so popular, with all that that involved: trails with no signs, lack of appropriate materials and, of course, a lack of infrastructures to take care of pilgrims. This testimony will provide a sociological and cultural perspective of the Way of St. James, similar to what it must have been like in centuries past.

Susan Mann, writer, will present Unscripted Journey – Our Collective Camino, a book written like a choir of voices: almost fifty authors from thirteen countries write about their Camino experience, about how they are affected personally and what these experiences have in common.

The presentations of October 16 will begin with Carlos Mencos, a journalist and pilgrim. Mencos has written many fine texts related to the Camino, resulting in him being awarded the Aymeric Picaud 2015 prize for the promotion of the Way of St. James: he will relate his publishing and literary experience and how he organises his work, devoted to collecting and re-launching pilgrim experiences.

He will be followed by Camila Romero, vice-president of AVAC (Valencian Association of Anticoagulated Patients), who will relate how she began the Way back in 2004 accompanied by the Valencian Association of Friends of the Way. The Camino from the perspective of someone affected by health problems will highlight an aspect of the pilgrimage that is often overlooked.
It will then be the turn of Canada’s Sue Kennedy, producer, director and writer, whose work is closely linked to the Camino, especially to the post-pilgrimage experience. Her presentation will centre on how to make the most of the pilgrimage’s experiences and rewards on returning home.

The day’s last presentation will also be international. It will be the turn of Marek Kaminsky, explorer, Guinness record-holder and manager of Institut Kaminski Marek. In 2015 this adventurer and explorer assumed the challenge of going on a pilgrimage from Kaliningrad (a Russian enclave on the Baltic coast, located between Poland and Lithuania) to Compostela. A journey of 4,000 kilometres and 119 days; he completed the challenge by using the “Polo Method,” which he will discuss during his presentation.

Saturday, October 17, will focus on health and the Way of St. James. The first presentation will be delivered by María Pilar Farga, representative of the Valencian Association of Friends of the Way of St. James. Farga will relate how th Camino radically changed her life in 1993: “I owe everything that I am now to the Way.”

She will be followed by Rick Treffers, a musician that completed the Way of St. James following the example of the old troubadours: singing along the Camino. Shortly after releasing his record El Turista Optimista, Treffers undertook the Camino along with the tourist consultant Alan Lazovski; he walked during the day, while performing in the evenings in different localities along the Camino.

The “Afterways” panel will end with Serafín Zubiri’s presentation. The Navarre singer has a long and successful career in music and the media, but sport is another of his passions. In 2010, Zubiri formed part of a technological project aimed at pilgrims with special needs. The objective of this pilgrimage was collecting information about accessibility along the Camino. Zubiri will relate the experience from his own perspective. A story about overcoming obstacles.