Money on the Camino Francès

[Lucinda Anskin]

Elyssa,

I walked the Camino de Santiago (Camino Francais) last year in June/July.  I carried a Visa bank card and used ATMs I found long the way.  They were pretty much everywhere, though the first week out of St. Jean Pied de Port, they were a little more difficult to find.  However, that was just as much me not knowing yet what to look for, and getting use to my new surroundings.  Basically the bigger towns have them, as of course the large cities.  

I didn't see any traveler's checks.  I think I heard they're a hassle in Northern Spain.

More importantly, think twice bout keeping your money around your waist in the ever popular exposed waist packs.  I was walking with another girl who did such, and a tall man in his early twenties, wrestled her for her waist pack.  Together we able to "scare him off" after much yelling and screaming, pushing and shoving.  (The key was knocking his glasses off.)  

It happened to us just outside a tiny town called Terradillos de Templarios, about 6 miles from Sahagún.  We had started to walk through the tiny  town, we passed a tall young man and nodded hello.  Soon, we realized the dirt road we were following, really led out to the fields, and wasn't the Camino, so we started to cut across a lumpy pasture, to get back on the road, just a 100 yards away.  Then, suddenly the very man we passed grabbed my friend from behind in a bear hug like fashion, trying to get her waist belt.

Let me stress, he was never violent.  He never tried to hit or punch us.  Plus, we never met anyone else who experienced this. (However, do watch your stuff, I did meet people who had stuff stolen.)

This is not typical of the Camino, but it does happen.  We found out later at the refugio in Sahagún, that it did happen on occasion to women walking alone, or in two's in the general vicinity where we were.

So, keep you money hidden in your pack, or under your clothes, if you walk alone.  

I continued to walk alone, even after this event, and the Camino de Santiago will always be a highlight of my life, and I will return to walk it again.

Lucinda


----- Original Message ----- 
From: Elyssa East 
To: GOCAMINOapete.uri.edu 
Sent: Monday, April 16, 2001 5:52 PM
Subject: Re: $ on the Camino Francès, Camino del Norte


For those who have made the pilgrimage on the Camino Francès or the most
popular route, how did you carry $?  Were you able to change traveler's
checks, find atms, etc.............

Elyssa East
eeastamaine.rr.com


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