I just walked from St. Jean Pied de Port to Santiago. It was an amazing experience but I wanted to share a few thoughts that stuck with me throughout my walk. Imagine living along the Camino, having to deal with “us” pilgrims month after month. The amount of toilet paper, rubbish/trash and discarded clothes that was left along the way was a blemish to the experience. It was not hard to put used toilet paper into a bag, and dispose of it at the first available bin/trash can. When I had to lighten my backpack, I left those items at an Alburge rather than on the side of the road. The times that I left the Alburges early in the morning, I tried to be consciences about the local people who were still asleep but on numerous occasions heard Pilgrims talking loudly or using walking poles without the rubber tips through the villages. It is their homeland and we are the visitors … please be courteous and respect the land we were so privileged to walk through.