I previously mentioned that Jeffrey, from Fresco Tours, gave an overview of what to expect on the Camino. Along with describing the various route markers we would see, he explained that there would be times that we would see arrows pointing more than one direction (i.e. left and right).

These spots were usually in towns and meant that you could go either direction through the town. Unless someone had added an arrow to get you to their business…

There were a couple of spots with an important decision to made made regarding which direction to go. The first (for us) was leaving Triacastela, shown below.

We read about this choice days ahead. To the right was the shorter path and “more scenic”. To the left, through Samos, was longer but allowed visiting a Benedictine monastery founded in the 6th century. Marylynn and I went to the left. More about this choice in a future blog.

The other notable choice was as we approached Portomarin. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture that includes an arrow pointing both directions here. I did take a picture of Father Michael reading the sign describing the “highly difficult pedestrian section.”

I guess we didn’t fully appreciate the difficulty of the section ahead until we we actually started down the steepest section. Pictures never really prepare you for the actual experience.

The picture below was an unexpected option. One of our “rules” to follow was that in these situations, a newly painted arrow was more likely to be the one pointing off the Camino to someone’s business.

In this case, both seemed old and “reliable.” We decided the path to the right was really to the albergue (hostel) and was not what we wanted though we probably would have been ok either way.  

Life is full of choices. What strikes me as I reflect on these experiences is that path to the left and the path to the right both lead to the same place. And so it has been in my life – sometimes I have taken the path to the left, sometimes the path to the right. But looking back, I can see that God has brought me to where I am supposed to be.