Getting Ready for the Camino

We leave 2 weeks from tomorrow for our pilgrimmage across northern Spain. This pic is the final destination for many, at the cathedral in Santiago de Campostela. The Camino appeals to me on so many levels: the culture, the history, the food, the simple living, the spiritual quest, the physical challenge, and the joy of meeting so many people. My kind of trip!

Scott sent away for our credencials from an American Catholic assocation. I think there are going to be many things along this journey to remind him of his Catholic background. The credencial (a pilgrim passport of sorts) is our ticket into many super inexpensive refugios and albergues exclusively for pilgrims. With the requisite stamps at the end, it also entails the bearer to a Compostela, which may have the added benefit of cutting off some time in Purgatory. I'm an agnostic these days, so I don't expect any great spiritual reward for this journey rather than to grow as a person.

The weather has been just perfect for getting in some miles with our loaded backpacks. We do get quite a few curious looks from the cows along the way.

Apparently people make lifelong friends along the trail and lots of contact information is shared. I thought it would be a good idea to get email sticker labels made with our pics, so we can just peel one off and stick it in a new friend's notebook and they will have a picture of us with our emails to differentiate us from the scores of other new friends. Besides, I love stickers! Yeah, a minimalist I am not. I'm really trying though! I've read that people unload all sorts of superfluous items once they get going.

So I have been experimenting with ultra-light packing. This backpack is 10% of my body weight and is what the veteran pilgrims recommend but it is too barebones for my liking. I am not a big fan of chopping off toothbrushes, using a sliver of soap for laundry, body washing, toothpaste, and shampoo (although I am taking Dr. Bronner's Peppermint soap which is supposed to accomplish these and 14 other uses!), and Scott is definitely not the sort to cut off extra loops and buckles off backpacks. He cringes when I even cut all my tags out of my clothes - "You'll void the lifetime guarantee!" He's right, of course, but I can't bear tags of any sort near my skin. Anyway, I am aiming for a reasonable twenty pounds which will include such luxuries as a well-worn pretty cotton pillow case, a couple of silk scarves, and yes, some eyeliner, lip goss, and my ubiquitous purple eye shadow :) Spain is a much posher place than Antarctica or Montana, although sleeping in refugios and albergues with 40 other smelly people in one room will undoubtedly lead to a lessening of concern over outward appearances, just like backcountry camping does. The yellow backpack is the one I've decided to take (Note the Montana patch. I have an Antarctica patch on the other side). Still undecided about a sleeping pad (we have a 12 hour overnight layover in Phoenix on the way home and a pad would certainly be handy for sleeping in the airport!).

 

 

Training for the Camino on a gorgeous Montana late winter day. There is no way to fully prepare for the nearly 20-mile days we need to cover to get all the way across Spain in time. Many people lose a significant amount of weight, which is fine by me because I always gain a little when I get home from the ice (real ice cream, homemade soups, fresh bread, grass-fed beef t-bone steaks, grilled pizza!).

Pilgrimmages crisscross Europe and interconnect with each other. One could spend a life time traipsing around over there! These caminos have been in place for over a thousand years. Historically folks were highly motivated because it was possible to receive a plenary indulgence, i.e., get out of purgatory free card (only offered during certain years)! Nowadays people from all over the world walk this route for all sorts of reasons. Movies and books have made the Camino quite popular - 179,000 people walked it in 2012! Perhaps I should have gone when I first heard about it nearly 10 years ago, when there were half as many pilgrims, but I think I was waiting until the right time.  

We are starting in the French town on Saint-Jean Pied-de-Port and continuing on to Finisterre, at the edge of the sea. Total distance of about 600 miles. March 26th - May 15th (my oldest brother's 49th birthday). The trip cost us 80,000 frequent flyer miles (combined) and should cost about 20 euros a day each for everything (some pilgrims spend only 15 euros a day). A seven week vacation in Europe for a couple thousand dollars - I love cheap travel with human powered transportation. It costs basically the same to stay home :)

My hope is that there will be plenty of wifi and I can do abbreviated posts on my iphone and put up pictures all along the way. Stay tuned and buen camino.