WE “SNAIL’S” SEE THE FOREST FOR THE TREES!
Welcome to the official “Camino Pilgrim Snail Gang!”
Almost everyone is welcome? Sorry you pilgrims, who walk 30k plus a day, are not welcome! However, we will consider you if you take a sworn oath…”TO SLOW DOWN! “
OUR MISSION?
Should you decide to accept…. Is to walk slowly and enjoy the moment! So simple?…ya, right!
OUR RULES
Oh yes, if you don’t follow these you will be severely punished. You will be forced to walk 40k a day with those speedy people who see the roses but don’t smell them. I know, that will be pure torture, but there will be a lesson in all this! Who knows, they may want to become one of us?
During our journey, we are not allowed to listen to our iPod’s this will only distract us from our purpose of concentrate on the moment, save that for when you rest at the albergue’s. Of course, using you cell phone is out of the question. Swearing is allowed but only when you’re talking to yourself. You may visit your past but not allowed to live there.
The whole idea is to dump the baggage from the past. A promise comes with this…your backpack will feel lighter. Living in the moment can and will be a pain-less time in our journey. Living in the future; this only causes anxiety, we will not worry about tomorrow or where we may sleep for the night, the Camino magically provides. Plan for tomorrow but remember, don’t live their! If we get tired “STOP” and reflect on all we have to be grateful for!
For the Camino there are no rules, you can’t do this WRONG! If you can do only part of the Camino because of time or psychical problems it’s OK! If you have to ship your backpack ahead or take a bus to the next town, it’s alright. There are no failures on the Camino. The gifts the Camino will come.
My greatest lesson was to become microwave-less, I don’t need everything now! My normal behavior was pushing myself to the limit and go a little bit more; I was wrong, to live that way! Living in the moment…. I discovered, has no beginning or end…. my Camino lesson!
A LITTLE HISTORY HOW THIS SNAIL WAS BORN
One day as I was struggling after I realized I took the wrong path (which always turned out 
to be the right one… for me) I saw no one for five hours and suddenly two Pilgrims appeared, It was Eddie and Esther Perkins from Las Vegas. I told them I was the official Mr.T (turtle) on the Camino. He quickly informed me he was Mr. T (turtle) because he walked so slowly. Well a few days later I ran into him again, he slowly (very slowly) passed me. So I asked him “What is slower than a turtle?” He hesitated and said “A snail.” So Mr. Snail was born!
I think we will have fun with this Blog. I would love to hear from you, on what other fun rules we should have and what your Camino experience was to you and did it change your life? Try to keep it to a paragraph or two. 
I love this life….Jim It has been brought to my attention that we should give a trophy to the slowest pilgrim. So we will have an annual event to present this award. However (since we are so slow) it may take 10 years for it to happen?
Related articles
- My 500 Mile Camino Walk; I Made It….happy Feet… Ecstatic Heart! (globalpilgrims.com)
- Experiments of the Camino: Day 3 Roncesvalles to Zubiri & Day 4 – Rest Day in Larrasoana (lifeexperimentsbymichelle.wordpress.com)
- Day 25 Arzua to Santiago (joshcapaldi.wordpress.com)
- Day Five: Sarria to Portomarin (bullgatorstravels.wordpress.com)
- Camino Graffiti: Walking the Camino to Santiago de Compostela, Spain (jmeyersforeman.wordpress.com)
- Frank’s Camino De Santiago (frankjpeter.com)
CAMINO PILGRIM SNAIL GANG 
yeah, celebrate taking your time! celebrate enjoying the journey, seeing the sites, and smelling the roses, love it…
Can we buy a Snail Patch for our Mochila???
Carlos, love the idea! Your in charge, thanks for volunteering…lol.
jim:
send me your e-mail adress to pecocarlos@bellsouth.net
i have a coupl of ideas re: a patch that I would like to run by you
I CAN STILL HEAR THE CUCKOOS AND THE WIND BLOWING THE LEAVES , AND THE PASSING BY OF THE PACER POLES…
Haha great idea… great blog 🙂 Snails have got more of it..more of the Camino 🙂 It had been so great moments to stop for a while, to feel the wind, the sun, the own heartbeat… all senses.
Buen Camino
Andreas
loving this site..thinking of taking this walk..have visited Santiago and love the town and the big church…heard lots of great stories in the square and saw many different people from many walks of life…enjoying this site Jim as l would be in the slow walkers group too hugs pat
Pat, the Camino awaits you! Slow is good…step one, set a date.
My date for leaving home is September 27, 2014 +/- a couple days! I’m even slow on getting started;-)
kajo1950 Have fun…walk…slow…enjoy every-moment, let things happen…. NATURALLY!
Kajo1950 aka WayWalker63
Hey! So grand to find this site and to read the comments. I am setting out with the thought of perhaps 55-60 days from SJPdP to Santiago, then will have about 14 days to walk to Finisterre and Muxia. On the slow side, it’s taking me a week to get from Barcelona to SJPdP! I enjoyed training for the journey however an illness the past 2 weeks has certainly slowed me down. Time to reflect, time to reassess.
Hi Shirley, you have a great plan! Sorry about your illness , just a bump in the road. I have the same problem, in the hospital unable to walk at all for the past 30 days, using my Camino lessons to keep me going. The walk from Finisterre to Muxia is magical; stay strong and enjoy the moment! Jim
Hi Jim. Thanks so much for your encouraging comments and I do hope that you are out of hospital and back on the road as soon as possible. With your ‘take it easy and slow’ philosophy I’m sure you will give yourself all the time you need to recover.
I’ve only recently became aware of the Finisterre to Muxia walk and love everything I have read about it. I may not have days enough to go from Muxia back to Santiago by foot, but I’ll wait and see. My plans are very fluid indeed. Regards, Shirley
You actually make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find this topic to be actually something which I think I would never understand.
It seems too complicated and extremely broad
for me. I am looking forward for your next post, I’ll try to get
the hang of it!