Toilet facilities

[Maura Santangelo]

Rosina,

 I agree with everything you said, but here goes my physician training
again..restricting fluids while exercising in the heat is a very bad idea, I
have had two episodes of hyperthermia to prove it to myself, slow learner
that I am.  You can't possibly know how much you are losing through your
skin, it will vary with temperature, humidity, wind, what you are wearing.
Urine is sterile and  a little ammonia in a field may even do it some good,
but stay at  least 100 ft from a stream.  Stools are another matter, but as I
recall the Appalachian Mountain club talks of being sure to be at least 300
ft from a water source and recommends that you bury it together with toilet
paper, so carry a small spade for the purpose.   There is a book you can find
in the US called 'how to Shit in the Woods'  worthwhile practical reading if
you plan to be out where there are no toilet facilities.

 And do carry some hand sanitizer with you

I apologize if I have ruined your breakfast or other meal with such talk

Maura

On Tuesday 24 June 2003 08:05 pm, you wrote:
> OK,
> Despite my personal disinclination to speak on the subject, I can tell you
> that the facilities for the purpose in Spain are cleaner than those one may
> find while traveling through small towns, etc., anywhere, including the
> USA. Carrying one's own paper towels is as good and practical an idea there
> as anywhere else. Sit down facilities, as it were, can be found in the
> "bars" (small coffee shops-cum-bar) throughout the Camino; occasionally,
> following a largish group of pilgrims that just passed by, a facility may
> be messy, but, in my experience, notifying the bar owners of the situation
> it is soon remedied. Unlike France, Spain does not appear to have public
> bathrooms.  But neither do we have them here in New York City.  Some years
> ago a few public bathrooms, a-la-Paris, were installed; they were clean,
> convenient, comfortable and could be accessed by depositing a quarter.
> However, some  Civic minded groups, including the ACLU of which I am a
> member, representing physically disabled people, forced their closure on
> the grounds that they violated the Americans with Disabilities Act in that
> people on wheelchairs, etc., had no easy access to  them. We don't have
> them anymore.  I suppose that tourists and the like in New York are
> obligated to resort to restaurants, bars, and so on, though most of them
> restrict the use of bathrooms to their patrons.
> .... Well, it is the same all over, except for Paris -(Vive La France!).
> Now, what I found to be of particular concern during my first pilgrimage,
> in 1999, was needing to attend to a physical function, however minor, when
> walking between towns.  In that respect  women are at a distinct
> disadvantage. Eventually I learned to deal with the eventuality by
> carefully timing my liquids intake (sipping slowly while walking so that
> perspiration would eliminate the excess liquid, etc.), by not drinking
> coffee, particularly spresso, during the day, by sucking oranges or lemons,
> slowly, and by being mindful of the distance, time-wise, to the next town.
> Most of those controlling measures were suggested to me by friends who are
> female judges and who sit at the bench for four uninterrupted hours, or
> more, twice a day.
> It all seems so very common sense, but, like Columbus' egg,  most common
> sense solutions are so evident that they are invisible.
> I've haven't had any problems, or preoccupations, in that regard ever
> since. Regards,
> Rosina