My Pilgrim Shoes

by Martha Llanos Zuloaga

To travel is my passion, and I remember my first camping trip as a student at the Catholic University — an unforgettable month of community living in Cañete with students of different careers. It was an extraordinary experience, but I discovered I had weak ankles; I was always twisting my feet. So,

I bought some hiking boots that provided solid support and became my go‑to shoes for adventures and faithful travel companions.

Oh, if my shoes could talk, what stories they would tell! Every night I thanked my shoes and fell asleep with their unique observations of the routes I had traveled and the people I had met. My shoes adored Mother Earth; she was their most tender mother, always caressing them as I walked and giving them supportive pats — and so they climbed hills, scaled trees, crossed rivers and suspension bridges in winter and summer — and there they were, faithful boots, proudly showing the signs of time.

One day in the Rajasthan desert in India, the sands were scorching hot and the landscape breathtakingly silent and solitary. I took off my shoes to feel the sand on my feet, but the heat was so intense it was like walking on hot coals, so I put them back on. It was a full‑moon night, and I was sleeping under the open sky in the desert, listening to the sound of the wind. My shoes spoke to me. They said, “Martha, we’ve walked quite a bit. We’re old and worn out. We’ve seen much of the world. We like this place. Why don’t you leave us at a sacred temple? We’re sure you will come back and will see us.”

My shoes chose the Taj Mahal, a magnificent Hindu palace, a temple to love. And since you have to leave your shoes outside to visit, I said goodbye to them there.

Corollary: There’s an ancient belief in India that where you leave your shoes, a part of you remains. Part of me stayed in multifaceted India, and I have since returned many times, fulfilling a promise and remembering my first pilgrim shoes. It has been seven years since my last trip in 2019. Maybe it is now time to say again thank you to my beloved shoes and introduce them to my new travel companion — my cane.