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I also used the "neck pouch".....actually a wallet made of a nylon canvas-type fabric which hangs around one's neck inside your shirt (for security) or can be worn around the neck and over one shoulder (as you have described). That is where I kept my passport, ATM card and general cash. Around...
I was a student at the University of Valencia in 1977 and I remember a girl rushing to the front desk of the dormitory shouting, in English, that she had seen a young guy masturbating on the street, right in the city. I had to translate for them what she was so upset about but they seemed to...
I was on the Camino Frances in September of 2013 and 2014 and didn't usually have a problem getting a bed in an albergue. As one person observed, at Zubiri some people had to sleep on a pad in a gym. We did, however, usually leave before daylight and stopped walking by mid-afternoon. In the...
Amorfati (I love the name):
We men also become "invisible" at a certain point in life. It is rather pleasant in some ways; fewer suppositions and expectations are placed on you and one can just get busy enjoying being alive.
Roberto
The issue of blisters on the toes is not often addressed. I have some odd toes and they kind of get on top on one another so I taped some of them together and that took care of it. I also put a band-aide on the big toe to pad it from the one alongside. No blisters.
In my two times on the Camino I had good Saloman hiking shoes and some Wigwam Merino wool hiking socks. I commonly rubbed aloe vera on my feet before putting on the socks I never got a blister. I did not use liners but I have purchased some for this coming September because another layer of...
Laurie:
Having been a kid from a California farm family of Portuguese/Italian background, many of the things seen in your pictures are things I saw in my childhood. That is a life that is "back to basics" and hard work but, as Jesus once said, "the cup may be dirty on the outside but it is...
This is a common phenomenon in many places; I know a man who is a medical doctor in Mexico and is working here in California as a garbage collector. He makes more money collecting garbage in California than he would make as a medical doctor in Mexico (so he told me). I also know Mexicans with...
A podiatrist friend of mine suggested getting an orthotic called Super Feet which are available at REI (about $40). I was suffering from the beginning stages of Plantar Faciitis and he told me to get the Super Feet and not stand up unless they were in the shoes I was wearing. It took a few...
I was in San Bol in mid-September this year and it was all in all a pleasant experience (good company, nice treatment, good paella, relaxing environment). We unfortunately got there at an hour when all the actual beds were taken so they gave us some "pads" upon which to sleep up in the loft...
Gitti:
Back in 1965 my girlfriend, at age 25, had a surgery for ovarian cancer and the doctor, at the end of the procedure, told me she would be gone in about 8 months; the good news is that, after the horrible devastation and anxiety something like that always gives, she was treated at Stanford...
I used a poncho during a rain storm while walking on the meseta last September; I found that I was as wet from sweat as I would have been from the rain. From then on I just used an umbrella; my lower legs got wet but they also got wet with the poncho. I think a rain jacket, a pack cover and an...
I was on the Camino in 2013 and 2014 and never had a problem with theft of any kind but I also took major precautions. I had the small purse that is like the "passport pouch" earlier mentioned that had space for cash and an ATM card as well as the passport (readily available at REI or the AAA...
I was on the Camino Frances this past September and, at age 70, I was not the oldest person I encountered. There was a fellow from Denmark who was 80 and in 2013 I encountered an American who was in his '90's. If your health is good and you don't have any physical problems, age should not...
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