A typical pilgrim on the Camino De Santiago is known to carry the contemporary form of a staff, satchel, shell, and sometimes a hat. However, on my Camino Portugues I was thrilled by the additional fun and practical items pilgrims carried along with them. The following are my top five:

Water to Wine Bottle :  First, I encountered a 69-year old pilgrim with a uniquely shaped container. It is undoubtedly a water bottle, but the cap resembles a suction cup. Curiously, I asked her about her intricate water bottle, and she cheerfully responded that her bottle cap serves as a wine glass. She joked, “You never know when you’ll need it!”

Vick’s Vapor Rub: Days later, I had a late-night and deep conversation about blisters with a 30-year old Brazilian woman who I met after crossing the Portuguese-Spanish border. She said her must-have item on the Camino is Vick’s Vapor rub. She uses it as a preventative measure against blisters formed by the friction caused after walking several miles. Furthermore, she is a fan of this product because “the camphor in it makes your feet smell good, and it’s vaseline at the same time.” She also suggested applying it on your hips where your backpack may chafe your skin.

Scarf and Clothespins: As I lay in a room in Armenteira, in close quarters with 59 other pilgrims, I caught a glimpse of a woman on a bottom bunk. She had used clothespins and a wide scarf to create a shade around her bed. Though envious, I was amused and certain that this woman would sleep comfortably, as she had blocked out the light and created her own private space in a very public room.

Bucket: On one of the final days before reaching Finisterre, I met a Canadian-American pilgrim who walked with a blue bucket strapped to his pack. I assumed it was for washing his clothes, but he actually carried it to wash people’s feet. Inspired by Jesus’ act of charity, this religious pilgrim was fully equipped with bath salts, lotion and soap to gift any pilgrim’s feet with his gentle touch.

Author getting her feet washed.

Lavender oil: On a similar note of scented substances, I chatted at a cafe in Finisterre with three men from Australia and the U.S who received lavender oil from a fellow pilgrim. One of the men excitingly pulled the aliquot of lavender and insisted I smell it. The other man confirmed that the smell has been so soothing, and it has helped him sleep well the past 12 days. The last man shouted, “It might be placebo, but when we smell it, we know it’s bed time!”

These five items are not listed in a particular order, rather they are the top creative things that I would have never thought of bringing along my Camino. As a new pilgrim, I thought of bringing the “necessities” such as earplugs and socks, but these creative pilgrims have taught me that frisky and innovative items can also create a successful Camino!

The cultural anthropologist Victor Turner describes pilgrimages as “transition rights” or “rites de passage,” journeys which accompany every change of state or social position. According to Turner, these transitions are marked by three stages: separation, marginal/liminal phase, and reaggregation. As students studying the pilgrimage of Santiago de Compostela and also embarking on the Camino, we felt separation, which Turner describes as “the detachment of the individual from an earlier fixed point in social structure.” We left behind our traditional, American lifestyles to become pilgrims. We also entered the liminal stage during our journey, which Turner defined as the “betwixt and between” portion of pilgrimage. So what happens next? To characterize this reintegration, I asked pilgrims who had walked the Camino before how they felt once they returned home.

Our Camino buddy from the Netherlands, Constance with the author.

A 69 year old woman from the Netherlands, who has walked the Camino seven times and done the Portuguese route twice, describes getting back to reality after the Camino as rather difficult. She misses the daily dose of nature and exercise, but most of all, following each pilgrimage, she realizes she has too many material things. She tends to adapt to living minimally along the Camino. Once back home, she donates many of her things – often feeling guilty for living so lavishly, when she survived with a simple backpack for several weeks during her trip.

Jane, a Canadian woman in her 60s who has hiked two previous Caminos, said getting back to reality after the Camino is easy. She feels exactly the same when she returns home, but does miss meeting new people everyday. Jane said she has moments, once she is back home in Canada, when she remembers and misses the Camino trails. She will be at a hockey game or at work and her mind will travel back to the Camino path. These memories make her feel happy, while also bringing her relaxation. To her, there is something serene about simply recalling Camino memories and this helps her during her post-pilgrimage reaggregation.

Camino friend Jane in the foreground

For some, reintegration brings no change, while for others it brings abrupt lifestyle adjustments. There are also a select few who take only memories from their pilgrimage to channel inner peace and enhance their daily living. Regardless, pilgrims return home with a sense of completion. Similar to the Camino itself, reaggregation is specific to each individual.