crowds on the Camino

[Ana Young]

--- Elyn Aviva <TajminaaAOL.COM> wrote:
> Anyone else out there care to comment on the
> frequently voiced idea the
> Camino is now "too" popular/populated, even
> "spoiled"?
>
> Buen Camino,
> Elyn

I'm coming to the realization that I was probably
incredibly privileged walking when I did, and I walked
in July-August 2000. Most of the time, before
Galicia,I had no problem getting into the albergues,
except in Puente la Reina (Navarra) when I didn't
arrive until 3 p.m., I was sent to the other (recently
opened) municipal albergue across the bridge up a hill
on the other side of town. But I still got a bed
easily and this was summer.

I went alone and walked alone most days, as I prefer
to until I arrive at the albergue. That's when I value
the companionship of other pilgrims. Once in Galicia,
of course, getting a bed was nigh impossible unless
you arrived before 1 p.m. and then waited in a long
line. I slept on the floor most of the time except
once when I decided in Palas de Rei that I needed an
hostal. I slept in other hostales when I took a bus,
but this time I had walked.

It was those lines that I didn't like, that really
reminded me that those pilgrims who had walked several
years earlier really were the lucky ones in most
respects. And people really did get up at 4:30 a.m.
not to walk leisurely, it seemed, but to rush to the
next albergue.

So we have lost something, I feel. In the 80s and the
early 90s, it seems, a pilgrim was more of a precious
thing for the townspeople. Not any longer.

Still, you are right, Elyn, about the Middle Ages.
Somehow the infrastructure will manage now just as it
did then. And one very good thing: more and more
previously abandoned towns are reviving with this
newest surge and that has to be a good thing in the
long run.

Long live the Camino!
Ana


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