Winter Won't Stop True Walkers: Santiago's January Pilgrims

Data published by the Oficina de acogida al peregrino are clear: January recorded a 7% increase compared to the same period last year.

The mild winter likely pushed many pilgrims to leave the warmth of home and, with a backpack and strong legs, take to the road and make their way to Santiago.

The Camino Frances, with its 862 pilgrims, confirms itself as the most trodden and popular route, and Saint Jean Pied de Port sees a number of departures second only to Sarria, with 282 pilgrims.

Confirming last year's trend, the Portuguese Way ranks second with 217 people, who chose in particular the towns of Tui, Porto and Valenca to start the Camino. Only 13 departures from Lisbon, a figure worth reflecting on.

The Camino Primitivo is third, with 66 pilgrims. Following are the English Way with 60 people, all from Ferrol, the Northern Way with 45 and the Via de la Plata with 43.

Along the Camino it is no surprise to find large numbers of Spaniards, but the high number of Koreans is certainly striking: with 170 pilgrims, they outnumber Italians by two to one.

Women represent only a third of arrivals, low compared to the 47% recorded in 2015.

But these are just numbers, or rather, big numbers. Statistics live on percentages, preferably high ones; they ignore the choices of individuals or small groups and seek to create uniformity in a world dominated by difference. That is why I want to give you back a few small numbers, to enter that "other" that appears when a figure is not deemed noteworthy. So we can learn about the pilgrim who set off from Valencia and tackled alone the longest Camino in Spain, the Camino del Levante, all the way to Santiago. Or the one who left the beautiful Granada and, also alone, walked the entire Camino Mozarabe. We find one who departed from Denmark, another from the Netherlands, and yet another from distant Poland.

We do not know whether they were men or women, why they travelled or what they felt along the road. We know only fragments of their story. Yet now, among the hundreds of people who arrived in Santiago, we can see them too.

Official data – Pilgrim Office of Santiago