small dress points and biggish question

[Maura Santangelo]

Having traveled much in Asia's more remote places... my advice about
money is never carry credit cards, passport or other ID and money in the
same place, the idea being that if your pouch/ bag gets stolen you will
not lose everything.  If they get your credit card it is harder to use
without ID.  Also split your money.    On trains in India I use my pouch
with some of the documents as my pillow, a bit lumpy, but I sleep better.

It is a very good idea to have a copy of your passport main page with
photo, together with some information on the nearest American consulate
with phone number and or fax.    It makes it much easier and faster to
obtain a replacement if you have it on hand.

Maura


On Saturday, January 4, 2003, at 01:12 PM, Donald Schell wrote:

>> Questions: How safe it is to carry money if one is alone on the
>> camino? Do
>> the little towns take traveler's checks? What happens to you if someone
>> should happen to take your passport? Are credit cards accepted in the
>> little
>> towns?
>>
>> Deanna Bowling...a lot of hiking/backpacking experience, but none in
>> Spain
>> yet
>
> Dear Deanna,
>
> I certainly agree with Jim Damico that the camino seems safer than home
> if
> home is any American city.
>
> Cities are the places to be cautious and particularly cities at odd
> hours or
> cities in really dense crowds.  Someone cut a small medal medallion off
> my
> back pack (when I had it on my back) in a Paris subway on my way to the
> camino.  Walking through Pamplona at 6 a.m. during San Fermin (just
> before
> the city was closed for the running of the bulls and pilgrims after us
> had
> to walk around), our backpacks and pilgrims' attire made us a target in
> the
> rowdy crowd, and someone tried to get into my backpack, unzipped a
> compartment, and was thwarted by my first-aid kit that was jammed in
> tight.
> Both of these events happened as I was walking through densely packed
> crowds
> of people.  Cities are cities, the same joys and the same necessity of
> caution wherever you go.  Outside of cities, the camino feels like a
> realm
> of continually emerging community and startling local hospitality.
>
> Pilgrims I have seen and talked to who were traveling alone seemed at
> ease,
> and to a useful extent pilgrims do look out for one another.  My 26
> year old
> daughter Maria, my first pilgrim companion, wants to return to have the
> experience of walking the camino alone.  She knows she would be safe
> doing
> that and is interested to see how a solitary pilgrim interacts with
> other
> pilgrims and interested to explore the solitude of stretches walking by
> herself.
>
> I imagine someone must have tried using traveler's checks, but in three
> times on the camino, I never saw anyone trying to pay with one.  I do
> remember on my first trip to Spain (not on the Camino) carrying
> traveler's
> checks and discovering that I had to change them in banks and that the
> exchange was poor.  Some of the towns and villages you pass through are
> really tiny and in those small places cash is most helpful.  What's
> different from wilderness backpacking is that ATM's are relatively easy
> to
> find, so you don't have to carry a lot of cash, if you pay attention to
> your
> cash in hand.  I would withdraw a hundred or so euros at a time and then
> watch the map, town size, and plan to use an ATM when I found one so I
> didn't get lower than twenty or thirty euros.
>
> Credit cards?  Most restaurants seem to take credit cards.  Outdoor and
> equipment suppliers (when you can find one) do.  Ditto on clothing
> stores
> and pharamacies (drugstores).  Also most hostals (if you choose
> sometimes
> not to stay in a refugio).  Not the little grocers or bakers where you
> buy
> picnic/carrying food.  Sometimes not the smaller bars in towns where
> the bar
> is the only public place to eat.
>
> And this last June when I walked with my son, I remember at least three
> times when the phone lines were down so the credit card authorizations
> weren't working - twice with dinner and once with a hostal.  Those were
> times we were glad to have cash!
>
> Keep your passport with you.  I didn't see anyone have a passport
> problem,
> but it would be a nuisance.  If you lose your passport what you want to
> have
> (I'm told) is access to a xeroxed copy of the facing photo and
> information
> pages.  My first time on the camino, my daughter and I carried those
> copies
> separately from our passports.  On return trips, I have made those
> copies
> and left them with my other daughter who lives in England, figuring
> that if
> we needed to get a passport replaced we could call her and get something
> xeroxed to a hotel.  The same would work with a contact at home in the
> U.S.
>
> Buen Camino!
>
> Donald Schell
> donaldschellasaintgregorys.org
> www.saintgregorys.org
>