Today was a long one — 18 miles from Los Arcos to Logroño— but it felt like it took no time at all.
It was different from the start.
Continue readingHeigh-Ho! Heigh-Ho! It’s off to walk we go
To make your troubles go
Just keep on walking all day long!
Since arriving at Casa de la Abuela at 3 pm, I have checked in, made up my bunk with the sheet and pillow case provided, grabbed a responsibly long hot shower, gathered together the dusty clothes for laundry, hung laundry to dry, walked down the street for a cold Coke, booked a room for tomorrow in Logroño, discussed hiking strategies for tomorrow with bunk-room mates, answered e-mail, went shopping for trail snacks, had dinner with housemates, organized my pack for tomorrow…
Today’s walk from Estella to Logroño was 13.5 miles in 85 degree heat.
Continue readingOn to Estella
It was a day of pain angels, steep climbs and descents, charming villages, persistent knee pain, and smacking good conversations.
Somewhere on the road, an ex-US citizen named Lori dropped in and deduced that my knee was in intense pain.
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The ups and downs of life on the Camino
The trouble with walking the Camino all day long and pulling into a new town is, you’re never going to get enough of it.
If you aren’t weary to the bone, there’s laundry to do, sore feet to attend to, a backpack to resort and repack, a communal dinner to attend.
Something. Always something.
Continue readingPeople say, ‘the Camino provides.’ They aren’t kidding
So, it’s my right knee.
These things happen. How? I have no idea. I wasn’t jumping fences or rock hopping.
I mean, this is the Camino, right?
Continue readingToday, pilgrims found each other and “Camino families” begin to form.
“Everybody was so stressed about climbing the Pyrenees yesterday that making new friends was the last thing on their minds,” a young friend suggested today.
We were marveling at how social everyone had become overnight.
Continue readingWhat was I thinking?
I won’t lie to you, today was the toughest day of hiking I have ever experienced in my life.
And not just the first five miles, from St Jean Pied de Port to the cafe/hostel Refuge Orrison.
A lot of people want to stay at Orrison in France to break up the trek across the Pyrenees Mountains into Spain. The alternative is hiking the entire 24 kilometers to Roncevalles where the ancient monastery houses 238 weary pilgrims every night.
Continue readingGround Zero for Camino Frances: St. Jean Pied de Port
The energy on the street builds like a pressure cooker as pilgrims arrive from all directions, register for their Camino, hunt for food and drink, check into auberges for the night or trundle up the road to the Pyrenees.
At 10 am when our train arrived from Bayonne, St. Jean was oddly quiet.
“Where is everybody?” I asked a Dubliner named Guy in the Camino registration office.
Continue readingAfter a long day of travel, finding gold in Bayonne
So, this is France. Nice place. Bayonne, specifically. Having left San Miguel de Allende on Sunday morning by ETN bus, it is now Monday night and I got to Bayonne just in time to catch the sunset.
Let me tell you that between there and here, not much happened. In Mexico City, I sent my Uber driver to the wrong terminal at CDMX.
No problem. That’s what the tram is for.
Continue readingCamino-living: Cramming a 224-pound life into a 17-pound backpack for the next 43 days.
That’s it. That’s as light as I can make it, 17 pounds (or 7.711 kilograms).
I am now relieved that I picked the Osprey Manta 34-liter bag because there isn’t a cubic inch left to spare. I’m also relieved that I opted to jettison the 2.5-liter HydraPak that came with it.
I needed that space for, you know, clothing. As for hydration, a couple of water bottles in the side pockets will do nicely.
People like me, we find ways to fill an extra-large suitcase just as easily as we fill a medium-sized one.
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