<html><div style='background-color:'><P>I returned home a few days ago after a second camino, my first in 1998 from St. Jean to Santiago and this one from Somport. The data show a huge increase in pilgrims over the 3-year period, and this time I had a nagging feeling that doing the Camino is not as "special" as it once might have been. I also felt, perhaps incorrectly, that operators of shops, bars, and restaurants were more blase and more tourism oriented than they had been. The refugio at Estella seems almost to have been converted into a resort albergue with a shop, massage services, and meals prepared on demand. On the other hand, the increase in the number of pilgrims has resulted in new bars, albergues, and other facilities so that even some of the tiny villages of Galicia now have kiosks or bars open in October. There is a balance in all forms of travel between too few travellers so that facilities are unavailable and too many s!
o that the facilities are "crowded." Spain is well acquainted with this problem, witness the coastal tourist areas on the Mediterranean like the Costa del Sol.</P>
<P>Crowding was relative, for both my Caminos were made in September-October when the summer pilgrims have returned home, but for awhile this year I did have a sense of being "crowded." In part that was a function of beginning on the Aragonese section where pilgrims were very few; at most there were 7 people in the refugios I stayed in between Somport and Puente la Reina. Arriving at the large refugio in that latter city I truly felt crowded, for there were at least 50 pilgrims (most of the beds were occupied), and for a few days thereafter it felt odd to overtake, or be overtaken by, others walking the route. From Burgos onward, however, the numbers seemed to falll drastically, and in several large albergues there were only a handful of pilgrims. On my entire walk only one, the fairly small and wonderful albergue at Granon, was full and unable to take latecomers. I prefer to walk alone and then join others in the evenings for me!
als and conversation, and autumn is a good time for that. Indeed, it was possible to walk long distances, for example the stretch between Carrion de los Condes and Terradillos de los Templarios with the sense of being the only person on the Camino. Still there was a convivial group gathered for dinner at the private refugio in the latter village that evening.</P>
<P>This is impressionistic, of course, but the data from the various albergues and from the diocese at Santiago point to the real fact that the Camino is much more popular in almost all months of the year. The experience in 2002 is going to be very different from that one might have enjoyed even 4 years earlier. Perhaps the development of the various other routes to Santiago will take some of the pressure off of the <EM>Camino Frances</EM>, but future pilgrims will undoubtedly be more "crowded" than those who had the privilege of walking it earlier.</P>
<P>E. O. Pederson</P>
<P>Seattle, WA</P>
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