#1 - Drago
The name means precious in Slovenian, and my interaction with Drago was certainly precious to me. Drago is from Slovenia and made sure to note that his country's best export is Luka Doncic. Specifically, he is from Ljubljana, the hometown of Goran Dragic. This is 5th time doing El Camino. He said the first time he did it he was looking for understanding in his life, but Drago now compares the walk to Thanksgiving, using it as an opportunity to reflect on all that he is thankful for in life. His goal is to promote El Camino to allow others to share the same benefit he has gotten from the pilgrimage. I will leave a link to his blog down below:
https://atidrago.wordpress.com/category/camino-de-santiago/
#2 - Ivan
Although he did not speak much English, I really appreciated our short interaction. He is 82 years old and has done El Camino over 10 times across various different routes. Ivan was drying some clothes hanging off his backpack, but he made sure to lift the long cape formed by this jacket to reveal a map of the route he is most proud of. Ivan walked El Camino from Lecevica, Croatia all the way to Santiago. Drago, who I introduced you all to in my last post, posted a video to his Youtube about his friend Ivan's journey. I look forward to watching it soon, and I will link it below for all who are interested. He also wrote a book titled Camino de Santiago: the pilgrimage of Saint James - Lecevica - Santiago de Compostela by Ivan Kapetanovic.
Here is the documentary: https://youtu.be/anSmGqzXu60?feature=shared
#3 - Michael Jackson
I asked him what he wanted to be known for, and after a minute of thinking, he said a homesteader. He is a sustainable farmer that lives off the land. I could imagine he gets excited when people ask for his name.
#4 - Joe
Meet Joe from New Zealand. She was stopped with Juraj and volunteered to have her portrait captured as well. She encouraged me to not be shy when asking for portraits which was both comforting and motivating. We talked about my internship and how I wouldn't be making it to Santiago. She said she had recently started following the NFL and is a fan of Travis Kelce.
#5 - Juraj
A few days before I met Juraj, I saw him and his beer bucket hat through a restaurant window. It caught my eye, so when I saw him hiking a few days later I knew I had to capture a portrait of it. He decided to take off the hat for the first portrait but later put it back on and wanted to capture a silly photo. This was Juraj's 2nd time doing this route of El Camino and his favorite moment was singing with a few nuns one night after dinner.
#6 - Joe
Meet Joe from New Zealand, who was doing El Camino with her friend, Joe from New Zealand, who was featured in my last post. She is a photographer as well and it was a nice bonding experience talking about our shared love for photography.
