Motorized assistance

[Rosina Lila]

Hello you all,
There is a distinction between motorized assistance and motorized traveling.
Last Summer I traversed the Camino, stopping here and there for a day or two,
from Roncesvalles (and Jaca) mostly by taxi until O Cebreiro wherefrom I
walked. The taxis would often also carry six or seven backpacks which would be
left by the driver unattended (gasp!) in front of an albergue, at one town or
another. The drivers told me that this was a frequent practice. They would leave
the backpacks in a pile in front of the locked door of one albergue or
another.  As a New Yorker, I was quite surprised by the practice; not that of sending
the backpacks ahead but of just leaving them there all alone. The drivers
would tell me that a neighbor, or the police, would more or less keep an eye on
them until their owners arrived and that, at any rate, none had been lost.
What the albergues do not want is pilgrims traveling by car and then seeking
a bed there.  A member of this list, Ana Young (presently teaching in Japan)
was a "hospitalera" in Fisterre for a month and has some stories to tell in
that respect.  But it would appear that having sent her/his backpack ahead would
be a persuasive indication that the pilgrim was, in fact, walking.
Being 5 feet tall and weighing 100 pounds I couldn't consider carrying
anything that may have weighed more than I could comfortably carry, and had been
medically advised to keep the backpack and everything else to a total of 10% of
my body weight, that is 10 pounds (about 4.5 kgs.) which is not much. In my
very first pilgrimage I asked a priest in Roncesvalles whether carrying the
backpack was, somehow, a required part of the pilgrimage.  He laughed and told me a
beautiful story about St.Francis carrying absolutely nothing. He then advised
me to send the backpack ahead and carry with me only the very essentials.
I've done so in the three pilgrimages that I have made.
Warm regards,
Rosina
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