The trip of a lifetime
Reveizes to chronicle journey through Spain
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Carlos Reveiz and his wife, Nancy Reveiz, stop for a photo in front of Castillo de Los Templarios, a 12th-century Templar castle, during their journey on Camino de Santiago in 2023. This summer, they will pass by this building and other historic structures as they walk the full journey. - Photos submitted by Carlos Reveiz
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Carlos and Nancy Reveiz stopped to admire this marker, one of several shell-shaped logos along the route, during their 2023 trip on Camino de Santiago. After walking part of the route during that adventure, they will return to the passage this summer to walk more than 600 miles on a journey that will be as spiritually healing as it is physically taxing. - Photos submitted by Carlos Reveiz
“Someday.”
For almost 20 years, that word remained stuck in Carlos Reveiz’s mind.
In 2004, he heard about Camino de Santiago, a life-changing pilgrimage across Spain, from a fellow traveler in London on the way back from running a marathon with his brother. In 2023, after watching that same sibling endure a heart scare, Reveiz decided he was done waiting for “someday” to come around.
Reveiz and his wife, Nancy, packed their bags, flew to Paris, took an overnight train to the start of the pilgrimage in St. Jean Pied de Port and walked half the Camino Francés, the most popular choice among 200 different routes on Camino de Santiago.
That trip totaled more than 200 miles in walking alone. Now, three years later, they are doing the full length of the trip over a 47-day period and will be publishing journals for the farragutpress along their way.
“We definitely want to do that because there are so many things you forget,” Carlos Reveiz said. “You work all your life, so I wanted to stop saying I’d do it someday.”
Reveiz, a former insurance salesman and freelance photographer, is no stranger to being outdoors. He and his wife hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2020, and they have visited Yosemite National Park as well.
But this journey will be quite different, as they will walk 483.7 miles from the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain.
Believed to be the burial site of St. James the Apostle, the cathedral serves as a welcoming point for pilgrims from all 200 routes. But it will not be the end of the journey for the Reveizes. They plan to continue on to Finisterre — at one point thought to be the end of the world — with a possible trip to another town, Muxia.
If they wind up completing the entire journey, they will have traveled more than 600 miles by the time they return home later this summer. For reference, walking that same distance from Knoxville would mean walking to and from Atlanta three times over — though that is not the required mode of transportation.
“Everybody does the Camino however they want to do it,” Reveiz said. “There’s no judgement. Some people do horses, others bicycles. We’re going to walk it, and my plan, at least today, is to carry my backpack.”
Along the route, they will follow the guide laid out in “A Pilgrim’s Guide to the Camino de Santiago” by John Brierley with days set aside for rest or extra stops.
They will sleep in various castles and monasteries, passing through majestic mountain scenery near villages dating back thousands of years. Along the way, they can
choose to hail taxis, should they grow too tired. And since the greatest distance between towns is less than 15 miles, they can pack lighter than one might expect.
“Whatever you bring with you, you’re hauling it,” Reveiz said. “So I take very little. You can wash clothes at spots between, but I will bring plenty of supplies for blisters. Then trekking poles, really good socks and probably just one pair of shoes because you can buy things along the route in some of the bigger towns. It’s very unlike backpacking, because everything you need, you can get it along the way. That’s something people learn the first time they go.”
That approach extends to the spiritual aspect of the trip, as the Reveizes noted the impact of witnessing the happy townspeople through their travels.
“There are little ladies on their front porches along the route, sweeping with homemade brooms,” Nancy Reveiz said. “That’s when we realized we have way too much. And these people are happy and don’t have that much.”
The couple will follow yellow shell-shaped markers along the trip, the lines on each shell representing the various journeys one can take to reach the same destination.
At the end, be it in Finisterre or Muxia, they will take rocks from their home in Knoxville and throw them into the ocean as a way of releasing any fears or burdens.
And when each rock plops into the water, “someday” certainly will have arrived.
“I was really scared the first time,” Nancy Reveiz said. “But once we did it, I can’t wait to go back. I’m already packed.”
