Miguel Moreno has been on the Camino five times. On foot. By bike. Alone. With friends. With his now-wife. The first time, over 20 years ago, didn’t just give him a great story to tell; it changed his life.
That’s one of the stories he told me on the podcast.
You can listen, in Spanish, or read the following summary of our conversation.
The Camino that changed Miguel’s life
Miguel’s first Camino was the Camino Francés, by bike, with his brother and three friends. That was over 20 years ago.
On the Camino he kept meeting people from other countries. And he couldn’t really talk to them. They didn’t speak Spanish and his English was almost nonexistent.
So, after the Camino, Miguel made the decision to learn English. He went to Ireland as an Erasmus student and made close friends from across Europe.
Speaking English opened many doors, like his first job after university, and his second job.
When he moved to Paris seven years ago without speaking a word of French, it was his English that let him start teaching Spanish to international students. One language led to another. One Camino led to a life he hadn’t planned.
Lessons from the Camino
After that first bike trip, it took Miguel over 12 years to return. When he did, he walked part of the Camino del Norte alone. It wasn’t easy, although he soon found his Camino family.
He wasn’t trained. He was carrying too much weight, including hiking boots he didn’t need. He suffered. And he learned.
The next year he went back better prepared with a lighter pack, technical clothing… and some training. He walked with a carefully chosen friend
That version of the Camino was everything the first walking attempt wasn’t.
Camino miracles
One story from his very first Camino has never left him. Cycling through the route, the group came across a German man in his sixties, riding an ancient bicycle. They got talking. He told them he’d had a bicycle business that had gone under. He’d lost everything. The old bike was all he had left, so he got on it and started walking the Camino, trying to figure out what came next.
He ate with them for a couple of days, then disappeared.
A few days later, Miguel’s group had a string of mechanical disasters . And then the German man reappeared. He fixed every single bicycle. That was when he finally told them about his shop.
A small Camino miracle.
The Camino, Miguel explains, works like this: you help strangers, and then strangers help you. Everyone is going through something. You never know whose path you’re crossing or why.
Miguel’s advice for the Camino
Miguel has now done five Caminos across different routes — the Francés, the Norte, the Inglés. He’s seen it change over the decades, get more crowded, more commercial. But his advice stays simple:
1. Pack as little as possible. The backpack is a metaphor, he says — in life, you have to learn to live with less. The more you carry, the less you enjoy.
2. Train before you go. Not to go fast, but so that your body isn’t fighting you every step. The Camino is for enjoying, not surviving.
3. Don’t obsess about finishing. He’s met so many pilgrims (especially from outside Spain) who arrive with a rigid plan: 30 days, one stage per day, no deviation. Let that go. If you don’t finish, it’s OK. The Camino will be there. You’ll come back. Related to this: if you fall in love with a village, stay. There’s no prize for pushing on.
4. Enjoy it from day one. The destination is wonderful. But it’s the camino, not the arrival, that stays with you.
And if you only have a week? Don’t do the last 100km just to get the Compostela. Do the first week of whichever route calls to you. You’ll meet fewer people, see more of the real Camino — and you can always come back for the rest.
Check out Miguel’s podcast Vivir Lejos Hablar Cerca.
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