College Student seeks Camino Mentor

[claudia castellani]

It is difficult to give a good advice about shoes.

My biggest problem was a terrible pain under my feet after I had walked
about 15-20 km. In those situations I would rather have opted for gym
jogging shoes. But we also had 4 days horrible rain, with mud up to the
knees, and some climbs. In those situations I found my shoes - Scarpa
"short" shoes (that is trekking shoes not high up to the ankles! Please
excuse me for my bad English explanations, I'm doing my best to be as clear
as possible!) - very good ones. A boy who wore gym shoes had serious
problems: he slipped on the mud, fell and ripped his left leg muscle.

Blisters are almost unavoidable (apart for rare exceptions), so accept the
idea you have to cope with them (if you need advice on that, ask me!).

A friend of mine gave me the best advice in the world for shoes: he advised
me to also bring a pair of open sport-sandals (Teva or Lizard), with Vibram.
That was the winning solution: I started with my Scarpa shoes and after
15-20 km I changed to my Lizard shoes, that I always wore with socks.

Socks are FUNDAMENTAL. Find the best ones for trekking and spend money both
on socks and on shoes. The rest of your equipment is not as important as
socks and shoes!

I don't know whether I am saying a stupid thing, but I noticed that some
people wearing boots (up to the ankle) got tendinitis on their ankles. I
don't know whether it was just a coincidence, but it struck me!

Claudia

_________________________________________________________________
Personalizza MSN Messenger con sfondi e fotografie!
http://www.ilovemessenger.msn.it/