– Me meditating on the coast while walking Camino del Norte, July 2021
“About us” is always difficult to write, as long as one wants to stay humble, and connect with their readers, instead of boasting about all the travels and journeys they’ve done in their life. Hence I will try to keep this simple and honest.
Quick facts about me:
- Walked my first Camino (Frances) in autumn 2014. My reason for walking was gratitude (to God, Universe, nature) for surviving an extremely tricky and almost hopeless situation in my life.
- I fell in love with the experience, and returned to the Caminos in 2015, 2016, and 2017 (always walking different route). Landscapes changed, people changed, but the magic was always there.
- From 2018 to 2020 I didn’t return to the Camino, but it always stayed in my heart. In 2021 I walked the way again (Camino del Norte), and, bearing the changes and actual situation in both my personal and professional life, I seriously started considering getting myself more involved on the Camino.
- In 2022 I started CaminoLovers.com (the website you are reading right now). In December 2022 I also bought a nice house on the North Coast of Spain, with an intention of changing it into a donation-based pilgrim albergue.
- 2023 is the first year when I actually spend big part of the year living in Spain, trying to connect even more with the Camino and both people who walk it, and people who make this experience possible and special for the pilgrims.
- In autumn 2023 the house is finally ready to open as an albergue, and we welcome first pilgrims. The entire place works on basis of voluntary donations. And I love the experience, though it is a lot of work too :).
- In February 2024 we open the Camino shop, for now as an experiment, with roughly 40 different camino designs you can get on any major Amazon store (Amazon.com, Amazon.es, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk, etc). Products range from t-shirts and hoodies to phone cases and even throw pillows :). On our shop page you can see sample products and link to the store on various Amazon locations. Thank you for checking it out!
Quick facts about the website:
- I started this site back in 2022. The first goal was to provide answers to some questions English speaking pilgrims may have, especially before starting their Camino, but also while walking it (which is the best way to walk for them, where to get a credential in different cities on the Camino, how to pack, what do different concepts on the Camino mean, how to follow a certain diet on the Camino, etc), benefiting from my vast experience of walking the caminos and speaking Spanish.
- Since the feedback we got was great, and the number of visitors surprisingly high for a new website, I decided to grow this website, developing it in different directions.
- We hope to provide unique and free guides for various Caminos, offering information such as alternative routes (to avoid road walking), GPS tracks for various roads, camping options, elevation profile, natural/historic sights worth seeing on different parts of the Camino and so on. I also hope to promote here interesting people who live on the Camino, be it writers, artists, hospitaleros, and other people who make this experience as special as it is…
- We will see what’s next, for me, for the Camino, and of course also for You :).
Thank you for reading, and any questions you may have, or any suggestions on how to improve the content on the website, feel free to send them to matej[at]caminolovers[dot]com . Thank you!
Buen Camino,
Matej, the founder of the website
