How much will it cost?

[Jeffrey Crawley]

G'day Anne!

I agree with Ed, I checked my figures for my last Camino (Sept/Oct 2001)
and it worked out at about 22 Euros per day and I certainly didn't scrimp.

Impoverished students got buy on far, far less.

Most refugios work out at about 6 Euros per day and some even throw in a
meal (towards the west they are "donotivo" give what you can afford, at 6
Euros the standard Pilgrim menu (available in most restaurants) of three
courses including bread and drink - wine, beer, water - is excellent value
especially when the same money in London will buy you a lettuce leaf the
chef smiled at!

Coffees at about 40 (euro) centimos, beer and spirits (the Spanish don't
measure) are very cheap.  Quite a few refugios have kitchens where you can
cook - you'll see a lot of pasta on your trip.  Be careful though as a few
have neither kitchen nor shop nearby (Sto Juan de Ortega springs to mind).

Never mind, Spain is the biggest producer of fresh fruit and vegetables in
Europe, the bread is the real thing and I just hope you like
pork/ham/salami/chorizo because there is a lot of it around (as an aside
and, boy I hope I don't upset Howard again, a Spainsh friend told me that
the reason pig meat is so popular in Spain goes back to the Reconquista in
the 13th 14th C. - people of the Jewish and Muslim faith can't eat pork so
if you were seen to be eating it you were "safe").

There is also a lot of fish available especially hake (murluza) which is
tasty.  In fact you'll probably never live so well, so cheaply as you will
on the Camino so be generous with your Donotivos.

Good luck and buen viaje Perigrina

Jeffrey