[Gocamino] new to the list

[Renato Alvarado Vidal]

Dear Lori, I think I can approach your situation at least under three  
different lights; You starting the Camino as : a)Pilgrim, b)woman, c) 
USAlander.
	a) As a first time pilgrim: In my opinion, the best choice is to go  
alone. This is the best choice for making lots of friends and for  
walking along the innermost paths of your soul. My advice: keep your  
autonomy, go at your own pace.  Going alone it's not only easy to  
make friends, but it's also easy to stick to them, including walking  
at their pace and following their decisions. Imagine you in  
Roncesvalles, you make some friends from England or Germany and they  
decide to take the option of better start from Saint Jean Pied de  
Port, in France; you can think "well, it's only one extra stage"; but  
it's the hardest climb of the whole camino and you'll be jet-lagged  
while the europeans don't. Another situation: The germans, for some  
reason, like to rise VERY early in the morning and they start like  
they were in a race; at the begining I thought "they know better,  
perhaps I should do the same..." but later I found them waiting in  
line outside the next albergue, waiting for it to open! It was just  
nonsense. And so on.
	b) As a woman: Well. I'm not a woman, so I don't have the first hand  
experience, but I met lots of female pilgrims and none of them made  
any reference to have met some special sex-related problem along the  
camino. Going from Madrid to the point where you have chosen to  
start, all you need is the usual care that any tourist must have  
regarding your passport and your money, after all, you'll be carrying  
very scarce luggage :-) Don't let your backpack weigh more than 8  
kilos (18 Lbs.)
	c) As USAlander that have never traveled abroad: My dear Lori, I  
think this is the most tricky dimension of your situation. Why?  
Because USAlanders that have never looked outside their borders have  
a very peculiar idea about the world, and specially about the US  
Goverment and corporation's deeds. USAlanders tend to believe that  
the rest of the world is a somewhat imperfect extension of US way of  
life, and that your country can only be seen as a lighthouse of  
democracy and freedom, as the model everybody would conform with, and  
this is not the case. Many USAlanders have the bitter experience to  
learn that his people is seen as uncultivated and ignorant, and his  
goverment's foreign politics as a menace to world's peace. All the  
nationality-related negative attitude I witnessed along the camino,  
were against USAlanders; at Cebreiro I even had to intercede in  
favour of a group from Michigan that had been rejected from the  
albergue, and then I had to make a colect of matresses for them,  
because they were not given beds!
	Perhaps it would be wise to say you are canadian.

	As a side note: This is another situation I didn't experienced first  
hand, because I did the Camino barefooted, but I learned something  
about the shoe-related problems. I'm MD, so I had to help many fellow  
pilgrims with bad cases of foot blisters; it's very important that  
your shoes are well worn in advance, you'll get blisters and need  
band-aids anyway, but using new shoes is plain invitation to  
disaster. My advice: Do your training walks with your full backpack  
and wearing the shoes you'll use; if you don't like barefooting, take  
some light shoes to change when you arrive to albergues, and don't  
forget a little lamplight, it's very useful for moving by night into  
a dark albergue looking for the toilets.
	I wish you buen camino!
	From the green shores of Patagonia

	Machi

El 07/02/2007, a las 20:03, Lori Volding escribió:

> Hi there,
> Two weeks ago I decided to walk the Camino and I am very excited yet
> overwhelmed. I would like to learn more about traveling solo and to  
> learn
> what precautions I may need to take as a woman. I have never  
> traveled abroad
> and need to absorb as much knowledge that I can prior to my planned  
> trip in
> mid June. Any thoughts or suggestions for starters?
> Lori