Camino tips for first-timers

[Richard Ferguson]

A Camino Retrospective


This is my two cents worth, intended for people planning to do the
Camino to Santiago for the first time. I will be talking about distance per
day, planning your trip, Castillian Spanish, and miscelaneous topics.

Background: I walked solo 311 km, (200 miles), from Leon to Santiago, in
March and April, 2002. I am about 50 years old, with extensive experience
with mountain climbing, backpacking, and international travel. I speak
good Spanish, of the latin-american variety.


Distance per day


When I started reading about the camino, I was amazed to read about
people going 30 km or more per day. Note that 32 km is 20 miles, and
very few people that I know would consider walking 20 miles in a day, let
alone day after day after day. My experiences supported my first
impression. I found that a comfortable pace for me was 20 to 25 km per
day (12 to 15 miles). When I went further than 25 km in a day, I paid for it,
usually the next day.

Everyone has their own natural pace. I did talk to some people who were
able to sustain a 30 km per day pace, usually tall and thin men. I talked to
at least one guy who found 20 km/day to be more than he could really do.
Most people found that the 30 km/day pace to be grueling and very hard
on their body. Unfortunately, it is easy to get carried along by groupthink,
that your friends are going 30 km/day, so you should also. Or you don't
want to be left behind by your new friends.



Planning your trip


Planning is something that I take very seriously. I have a business card
that describes me as a planning engineer. As a mountaineer, I have
planned several international climbing expeditions, mostly successful. I
have also heard many stories from groups that have failed. One key to
success is having realistic goals, having a generous schedule instead of
a tight schedule.

I would urge people to set moderate goals for themselves, rather than
ambitious ones. Pushing your body beyond it's natural limits is
exhausting and destructive. I saw several people whose feet had been
destroyed to the point that a doctor told them to stop walking. Another guy
who liked to walk long distances per day admitted that on a previous trip
he arrived in Santiago by ambulance, after his knee gave out. It is just not
good to push your body beyond it's limits, especially day after day. Adjust
your distance to fit the time available, or allow adequate time if the
distance is fixed.

I believe that an average of 20 km/day is a pace that most people can
achieve. The people that I spoke to who completed the pilgrimage
generally walked 20 km/day or more.

Before you plan a trip based on 30 km/day or more, take this simple quiz:
Have you ever walked more than 30 km (19 miles) in one day? Have you
ever done this carrying a backpack with more than 7 kg (15 pounds)?
Have you done this with the pair of boots that you are planning to take on
the trip? Have you ever done this for more than three days in a row? If you
are going with anyone else, ask them the same questions. Unless every
person can answer yes to every question, you are pushing your luck to
plan on 30 km or more per day. In other words, you are planning to fail.

There are other advantages to planning a trip with shorter distances per
day. You can then consider taking a day off if you need to or want to. One
of my best days on the camino was the day that I did not walk at all, the
day I stayed put and watched the Palm Sunday processions in Astorga. If
you have an aggressive trip plan you may miss something worthwhile,
that you will feel that you need to keep walking, no matter what. You won't
really have the opportunity to relax. The Camino is not a race.

If your trip plan is conservative, and you finish early, you can always walk
to Finisterre, spend more days in Santiago, do some other tourism, or go
home early. It is good to have a backup plan in case you travel more
slowly or more quickly than you expected.


Miscelaneous comments


Asking directions: If you think that you are off route, ask where the camino
is. I always received good directions on the camino, sometimes without
asking.

Easter season has it's advantages and disadvantages. The biggest
advantage is the opportunity to see processions and other special events
in the week before Easter. One disadvantage is that the hotels and
hostals will be full, especially right before Easter. Also, there will be many
student groups on the camino during this time, filling the refugios,
although I always got a bed in a refugio when I wanted one.

I carefully considered my options in terms of what boots to take on the trip,
and ended up taking a very heavy pair of leather mountaineering boots. I
selected them not because they were ideal, but because I had confidence
in them, that my feet never hurt when I wore them. I walked for a week
before I started to get a blister, and finished the trip with my feet in good
shape, so it was a good decision for me. I probably had the heaviest pair
of boots on the camino, 6 pounds per pair (almost 3 kg). I also carried a
pair of walking shoes for use in town.

Washing clothes is kind of a problem, you can wash them by hand in the
sink and then hang them out to dry, but they will probably come out
looking dirty. I probably need to take a lesson in hand washing clothes
from the Mexican women who are able to wash beautiful white clothes
without washing machines. The larger cities will have laundries, but are
only open 5.5 days per week. What they call "Autoservicio" is not like
self-service laundriesin the US. They actually load the washer, transfer the
load from the washer to the centrifuge to the drier, and then pull them out
of the drier and put them in a cart. The only thing they do not do is fold
them. Some of the refugios have washers and driers, especially in
Galicia, but you will need to provide the soap.

Everybody will have a different experience on the camino. I noticed that
many of the Americans that I met were hungry to speak English when they
found another native English speaker. Since I speak good Spanish, I
never felt that way, never felt alone on the camino. Obviously, walking the
camino alone is different than doing it with another person, or with a
group. I spent several days mostly walking with other folks, and several
days basically walking alone, different experiences. What you get out of
the camino will also be unique to you. You don't know what you will learn
on the camino, and you may not figure out what you learned until long after
you get home.

Note that most Spaniards do not speak English. They may not even speak
Spanish. In Galicia, when I asked a question in Spanish, the answer
sometimes came back in Gallego! I saw a study that said that Spaniards
have the lowest rate of speaking multiple languages in Europe.

Spaniards are very attached to their region of Spain, "pegada a su tierra".
They do not tend to move from one part of Spain to another. I was amazed
to hear how consistently Spaniards spoke ill of their neighbors from other
parts of Spain, that Catalans were stingy and moneygrubbing, Gallegos
were backwards, people from the south of Spain were lazy, etc.


Castillian Spanish


For those of us that learned to speak Latin American Spanish, such as
that spoken in Mexico, you will notice many differences. One of them is the
use of the vosotros form of the verbs, the plural of tu, which is not used in
Latin America. The words for food are local, as you would expect, so you
will need to ask the waiter to describe the dishes on the menu. I have
listed a few of the interesting or different words below.

Buff! - Oh my gosh! (This is really a sound, not a word, but a favorite of
mine).
majo - Good, agreeable, handsome (popular slang)
hola - Hi, the most common greeting
buenas dias - good morning, common creeting, sometimes heard in PM
also
Vale - Good, OK, right (you will hear this word twenty times a day)
Venga - Let's go, OK
Caña - a draft beer (literally a cane, like the tall skinny glasses they serve
beers in).
zumo - fruit juice
bocadillo - sandwich
Adios - usually goodby, but sometimes a more literal "Go with God", (A
Dios),

RAF 6/12/03