About this episode
This week Megan sits down with Meredith Capella, an American expat living just outside Porto, Portugal, for a conversation that starts with Vinho Verde on a tour boat in the Azores and ends up somewhere much deeper. Megan and Meredith retrace how a chance meeting turned into an invitation to Meredith’s village a week later — the kind of unscripted, lunch-with-locals afternoon no algorithm or app could ever book for you. From there, they get into Meredith’s childhood as an adopted kid who found safety in creeks and trees, the permission she finally gave herself in her fifties to change her life and reconnect with both sides of her biological family, and the seven (or eight) times she’s walked the Camino de Santiago — solo and otherwise. It’s a conversation about trust: trusting a stranger enough to hand them your afternoon, and trusting yourself enough to hand yourself 174 miles of trail with no plan for where you’ll sleep.
What we cover
[0:34] How a chance meeting on a tour in the Azores — Meredith and her husband Mark on a weekend trip, Megan headed to Porto the next week — turned into a phrase Megan still uses today: the “starter marriage”
[3:39] The village of Crestuma: Roman ruins, a Fado singer, and Palmyra’s — the everyday lunch spot where “you cannot book on Airbnb or find on TripAdvisor”
[5:09] Why the best travel experiences almost always come from the willingness to show someone your actual life, not just your highlights
[10:21] Growing up adopted, and how a childhood spent finding safety in nature still shapes the way Meredith chooses where — and how — to travel
[11:17] Reconnecting with both sides of her biological family and finally stepping into who she is, once she found a safe place to do it
[14:50] Megan’s go-to solo-dining hack (it involves sitting at the bar and letting the bartender order for you)
[20:27] The full backstory of the Camino de Santiago — the legend of St. James, the scallop shell, and why the coastal route from Porto is Meredith’s favorite
[24:48] Walking the Camino solo vs. with others — including the moment Meredith’s sister had an emergency two days in, and Meredith chose to keep walking alone
[34:11] The mantra Megan calls the most powerful one a woman can carry into anything unknown: “I’m gonna figure it out”
[40:06] Why deep inner work on the trail still needs a support system — even when you’re walking it alone
[42:46] The moment every pilgrim talks about: walking into the square in Santiago de Compostela
[48:22] Meredith’s next dream destination — a Camino that starts in Malta and takes three months to reach Spain
Favorite lines from this episode
“It’s in the wrong turns, right? That’s where your fun is. You find that place, and all of a sudden you’re dancing on the tabletops with wine, with people you don’t know.” — Meredith
“If you’re open, you’re going to meet incredible people. If you’re closed and grouchy, you’re probably going to meet closed and grouchy people.” — Meredith
“I don’t know what I’m doing right now, but I’m gonna figure it out.” — Megan, on the mantra that makes solo travel unstoppable
“You are not going to miss out. Something better is going to be around the corner that you’re going to enjoy more.” — Meredith
“All you really need in life is yourself. Your body will tell you everything.” — Meredith
About Meredith
Meredith Capella is an American expat living in the Portuguese countryside just outside Porto, where she and her husband Mark bought their house sight unseen — and knew the moment they stood in the backyard looking out at the Douro that they’d found home. Adopted as a child, Meredith found safety in nature — creeks, trees, water — long before she found it anywhere else, and that same pull still shapes how she travels today. In her fifties, she reconnected with both sides of her biological family and stepped fully into a spiritual path, one that’s since taken her back to the Camino de Santiago seven or eight times. She shares reflections on healing, presence, and spirituality with her WhatsApp community, Unseen Connections.
CONNECT WITH MEREDITH:
Instagram — @meredith_Capella
WhatsApp Group, Unseen Connections
Follow Megan / Belong to Where You Are
Solo Travel Sisterhood (free community)
Substack: belongtowhereyouare.com
TikTok: @belongtowhereyouare
Instagram: @belongtowhereyouare_
