Hola de Espa ñ a

[Donald Schell]

> My name is Bill Lopez and I live in Spain. I have recently subscribed to
> the GOCAMINO list. I will be starting my walk from Saint Jean de Pied around
> 22MAY of this year.

Dear Bill,

> 1. Is there a town along the route that repairs hiking shoes?

in 1998 I had a boot problem (I discovered that my insoles needed replacing)
and walked for almost ten days before I found a store that sold anything
more substantial than light dress shoe liners.  Several people suggested
Continente in Ponferrada.  It only had a wider selection of the dress shoe
liners.  Probably there was a hiking shop in a city that big but we didn't
find it and none of the local shoe stores could direct us to it.  We had
seen a place in Leon that had hiking equipment and might have been able to
help, but that was before I'd figured out why I was getting such bad
blisters on the soles of my feet.

> 4. I am a little nervous around dogs, especially in groups. Any words of
> advice? Where there any towns where dogs were encountered that were
> problems?

A couple of the guide books talk about vicious dogs and recommend being
ready to use your walking stick to protect yourself, but our experience of
dogs along the route is that the ones that seemed threatening were all
chained.  Sometimes they came lunging to the length of their chain, but we
never faced anything at all threatening.  Most people along the way seemed
wonderfully concerned for pilgrims' well-being.  I would be surprised at
someone letting a vicious dog loose with a steady stream of pilgrims walking
by day after day.

buen camino,

Donald

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