[Gocamino] First timer tips

[peregrino at att.net]

I posted this in response to Martha's question about FAQs.  I have not seen a FAQ for this group, but I do have an essay aimed at first-timers on the Camino.


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 laundries in 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),