<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT COLOR="#000080" SIZE=2><B>I'm almost finished reading "Pilgrim Stories" by Nancy Louise Frey (Univ. of Calif. Press, 1998) which I would recommend highly. It is a superior book to Coehlo and McClaine if you want to find out what the Camino is REALLY all about. She spent a lot of time as a hospitallera at refugios and her observations and encounters strikingly match mine. She takes much of the uncertainty and anxiety out of the Camino for first time pilgrims. I'm sorry I did not know about her book before I went. Howard Mendes, NYC</B></FONT></HTML>