"El Peregrino Pasante"

[rappahannock_rev]

'Net surfing on an idle afternoon, I stumbled across this: https://www.diariodepontevedra.es/articulo/pontevedra/peregrino-pasante-el-camino-es-una-droga/201811151744191009476.html.

Can it be that the Passing Pilgrim is calling it quits?!?! The end of an era: he's been walking the Way since 1972! I wonder if he'll still be there in his little stall when I pass the Logrono reservoir for the last time, this coming September! I'd enjoying seeing him again!

I encountered Marcelino in his stall back in 2015. It was a beautiful day, a quiet day, and we chatted for a quarter of an hour about -- of all things! -- Franco and the Nationalist Crusade ... See photo. ... A crank? Perhaps, but I found him to be absolutely charming, and blessed with a keen mind.

(BTW, the lady in purple is the Forum's own 'Sillydoll'.)

 

[JabbaPapa]

Can it be that the Passing Pilgrim is calling it quits?!?!

Doesn't look like it at all from the article -- "Además, rechaza fijar un plazo límite para finalizar la peregrinación. "Para mí el tiempo no existe", explica tras poner de relieve su rechazo a las nuevas tecnologías por la carga de estrés que aportan al día a día."

Somehow, I've never come across this chap.

BTW there's something quite silly in the box at the bottom of the article -- suggesting that 870 Credenciales were used for 3200 KM and attached together to form a giant 14 meter long one -- well, my current Credencial is for 5000K, is 8 of them, and is 3m40 long -- about 11 times that number of Credenciales would add up to about 37.4 meters, not 14 ; and 14 meters would still be just 4 times the number I'm using this year, so about 32 of them, and if these were the type that you can only stamp on one side, just about twice the space I have on mine for stamps (but at least that sounds practicable).

870 is more likely to be the number of Credenciales that he's accumulated since 1972, and the author of the article likely mistook that number as relating to his latest 2018/2019 14m one.

 

[VNwalking]

Doesn't look like it at all from the article

But yes: "Recorrer el Camino de Santiago acabó convirtiéndose en una necesidad para Marcelino Lobato, 'el peregrino pasante', que pasó por Pontevedra con destino a Santiago, donde pondrá fin a medio siglo de caminatas en las que acumuló 110.000 kilómetros."
That day will come for all of us at some point, sooner...or later. Not many of us will have accumulated that many kms before that happens, though.
Buen camino, @rappahannock_rev , every single precious step of it.

 

[Via2010]

I can remember meeting Marcelino after Logrono in 2006. He offered us apples and gave us a nut which he had signed. I still have it.

 

[JabbaPapa]

But "fin a" just means "after", it doesn't mean he's stopping.

 

[Via2010]

but the newspaper article says "pondra fin a" and this means "he will put an end to". So I guess, he intends to put an end to his pilgrimage due to age/health reasons now.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

To me it looks like he is quitting after 50 years. His legs are giving out and he hurts on some of the climbs and it is taking some of the the joy out of the camino and I guess he wants it to be full of joy. He will be cutting his hair like matadors (I guess a symbol that his career is over).

Although the subtitle for a few paragraphs say he accumulated 14 meters of credentials in a year a paragraph below indicates that these are credentials he has gotten since 2004.

 

[JabbaPapa]

but the newspaper article says "pondra fin a" and this means "he will put an end to". So I guess, he intends to put an end to his pilgrimage due to age/health reasons now.

OK

 

[rappahannock_rev]

Has he been in his stall by the reservoir this summer? With fruit on the table, and walking sticks on the side?

 

[Roland49]

I did met him on 7th July this year.
He gave me a pear and a banana.

Buen Camino!
Roland

 

[NorthernLight]

I think I met him in Finisterre in Nov 2017. He was standing on the side of the road to the lighthouse handing out his note cards to passing people, with additional cards for sale.

Didn't realize he was a camino institution.

 

[Felipe]

About "pasante"...I don't know why he adopted this nickname.
But pasante could mean "passing" (as in heraldry, related to an animal painted on the shield in an attitude of walking). Or (much more usual) a person that has finished his studies but not his thesis; and an intern, a person that works for a legal firm or an institution for a limited period of time, to gain experience, and skills.
Just another unrequested and uninteresting footnote from Felipe.

 

[Davey Boyd]

I think I met him in Finisterre in Nov 2017. He was standing on the side of the road to the lighthouse handing out his note cards to passing people, with additional cards for sale.

Didn't realize he was a camino institution.

I know him in Finisterre, it is a different guy

Davey

 

[NorthernLight]

I know him in Finisterre, it is a different guy

Davey

Okay. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

 

[Camino Chrissy]

I, too, remember seeing Marcelino in the spring of 2015.

 

[Mike Savage]

Do you remember what day you met him Rev? I think I was pretty close to you and I met him September 15 that year. (2015)

 

[rappahannock_rev]

Do you remember what day you met him Rev? I think I was pretty close to you and I met him September 15 that year. (2015)

September 7th, 2015. A week ahead of you. ... Love the Logrono to Navarette walk. Eager to do it again.

 

[rappahannock_rev]

When I passed by on Weds Sept 18 2019 he was alive and well.... He told me that he was the happiest man on earth. I half believed him.

 

[rappahannock_rev]

If anyone picks up news of the Peregrino Pasante, please post it to the rest of us.

If he was solely dependent upon Camino custom to support himself, he'll be hurting by now....

 

[rappahannock_rev]

If anyone has any 2022 news of the Peregrino Pasante, please post it to the rest of us. I've enjoyed several curious conversations with him over the years. Not a bad guy! .... I'm thinking about walking past his booth sometime next year.

 

[mark connolly]

He even has his own signpost on the camino.

Hot bout dat!

Mark

 

[mark connolly]

If anyone has any 2022 news of the Peregrino Pasante, please post it to the rest of us

I emailed my brother Jim, who will be passing by in a couple of days. Could it be my brother will get El Cello Finito from him? Perhaps that will be worth a lot of money.

Mark