Irène Elisabet
St Benedict Ora Pro Nobis!
- Time of past OR future Camino
- Frances (2014)
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Do what you want to do. You will be blissfully out of touch and focused on the Camino. If you take a smartphone for emergencies, remember to get a Spanish SIM card when you arrive in country. That way your calls in Spain will be "local" calls, not overseas calls. A SIM card is not expensive and easy to switch out. But, hey, you really don't even need a watch. It's your Camino, do it your own way.
THX Charles. you gave me some blog ideas. EdI took my iPhone, which doubled as my camera. I did not have a data plan/travel package/Spanish SIM card(?) for my iPhone, so had no access to phone calls and texts. I depended solely on free wifi to send and receive emails (kept to a bare minimum, or completely non-existent, by pre-arrangement with friends and family). In order to keep some record of my Camino, I maintained a daily blog on my iPhone and, if the folks back home wanted to follow my progress, or to know if I was still alive, they were free to check my blog, the address to which I had given them before I left.
A downside to this plan was that sometimes two or three days went by without access to wifi and then I found myself hurrying to get a necessary email off, or my blog posted, while having a rest in a bar along the way, instead of focusing on just ‘being’ on the Camino – not a big bother, but still something I’d be aware of the next time. As LTfit above said, “I was much more tempted to check my e-mails having the iphone with me”. (The good thing about a blog, is that one can work on it at one’s leisure and then post it at the next available wifi location.)
My companion and I took our chances on not needing a phone for an emergency. When we found we needed to book ahead for accommodation, the hospitalero was always willing to oblige.
I guess it all boils down to how reachable you need, or want, to be.
Happy planning, Irène. It is such fun.
Congratulations ! In 2006 I had no phone, no camera, no internet, just me and my backpack, perfect for me. I regret the camerapart, no photos to look at after my camino. Like someone said on this forum "if you don´t have a camera take photos with your eyes". The pictures from that camino is still in my head
Roger
Ios7 was just released for iPhones and I wish I had not loaded it. My phone is a mess now. Drops off, contacts rearranged and more. I may not have an iPhone come May 2014 when I do my first Camino?? Android in my future perhaps.I always carry my iPhone when I hike or when on the Camino. It´s always in my pocket, you never know when an emergency may arouse.
Why use it for music when you have all the "music" around you?
Buen Camino!
Ios7 was just released for iPhones and I wish I had not loaded it. My phone is a mess now. Drops off, contacts rearranged and more. I may not have an iPhone come May 2014 when I do my first Camino?? Android in my future perhaps.
And new challenges are always good for character building. Buen camino.I know it will be a challenge for me
Yes, they can be. And I'm always looking for new ones.And new challenges are always good for character building. Buen camino.
But birth rates are up everywhere except in Japan. Is that a lack of genuine human contact?the lack of genuine human contact in our 'normal' way of life.
Thanks, Bajaracer!If you do take a GSM smartphone, make sure it is unlocked before you go on the Camino, this gives you the option of buying a Spanish SIM card if you want to.
Or even another cell phone company. That was the original purpose, to handcuff the customer to a particular phone company. Ah, competition. The core of the free market system, and the bane of all businessmen!Locked means that you can't put in a SIM card from another country.
I have read similar thoughts here many times and I always wonder about such a plan. When I read about the pilgrim who died in the Pyrenees last Spring, I wondered if his emergency phone was thus packed. It reminds me of people who buy those fancy seat-belt cutting tools to allow them to cut their way out of locked belts in an accident ... then pack it in their trunk (boot). In a real emergency, a phone in the bottom of your pack may well be quite useless.I may, this time, have a ... phone with a Spanish SIM, turned off and in the bottom of my pack for emergency purposes only ...
For some, perhaps, but for all???The Camino is about making ourselves vulnerable to our environment and to one another.
Of course it is your Camino. But, I pose the question wondering if one is truly a pilgrim if controlling emergencies or or our ideas of pain is part of the plan? We can be vacationers,walkers,travelers and the like and take the Camino but are we truly pilgrims trying to control so much with our technology? I don't know. With "emergency" technology we are squeezing out the possibility of miracles, I think . We trust in ourselves,each other and the Universe. What happens when we get lost with no phone? My experience is amazing wonders and meeting saints along the Way. What happens when we arrive tired and hungry to an Albergue and there are no beds. Well, we see who we are,angry,accepting? We see as well the goodness of others who may give up a bed, or help us find another. And, we find our deep strength to go on. I wish you miracles.
I walked completely unplugged....on the Norte and the Frances....this past summer. It was intentional. I used internet cafes where possible to upload photos I took with my digital camera that was always around my neck. From time to time when walking with other peregrinos that I came to know and spend more time with I might ask to use their smartphones just for a quick message on FB for my kids and friends to know I was ok. My digital camera has a very long battery life thus I was not part of the endless array of cords jockeying for charging each night. I was in a beautiful, serene small albuquerque in San Bol where I witnessed a man having an altercation with our immensely patient hospitalero when the man found out there would not be electricity at night in order to charge his phone and talk to his wife. He picked up his stuff and stormed off. We remaining 4 women were immensely pleased to enjoy the absolute quiet and darkness. I found life without cell phone challenging only after leaving Arzua heading into the homestretch where other peregrinos were starting to book reservations in private albuerques. Otherwise I didn't miss it until I was traveling/touristing in France.
For some, perhaps, but for all???
Some people's lives are so dull they need to go on roller coasters. Now, a roller coaster has to be 100% safe or it couldn't get insurance, so it really is quite tame even with violent physical sensations. It is gainsay risk. Isn't insisting on making oneself vulnerable through leaving a cell phone home a bit of gainsay vulnerability? The next pilgrim probably has a phone. Emergency services are available all along the way. Your embassy can track you down if necessary. By being unplugged, you can become quite a burden on others, all for the sake of an artificial objective. I am not quite sure what the real objective is when someone suggests that someone else leave their technology at home. Aside from a bit of hubris, why talk someone out of it? Now, explain it to me like I'm a four-year-old. (apologies to "Philadelphia")
I don't think anyone here is trying to talk anyone out of (or into) anything. It's all just food for thought. It's good for people (I include myself in that) to be challenged to examine their fears, motivations, priorites, needs/desires, perspectives...... I've been really motivated by a couple of posts in this thread to meditate on what is considered "technology" and how that differs from person to person. I may automatically dismiss smartphones and I-whatevers on my Camino, but I certainly have other "binkies" I should look more closely at.
What do we leave behind? What do we carry with us? And why? Those are big questions to ponder before undertaking a pilgrimage (and during, of course, also). More important, I think, than backpack capacity or one pole vs. two.
Well said.For some, perhaps, but for all???
Some people's lives are so dull they need to go on roller coasters. Now, a roller coaster has to be 100% safe or it couldn't get insurance, so it really is quite tame even with violent physical sensations. It is gainsay risk. Isn't insisting on making oneself vulnerable through leaving a cell phone home a bit of gainsay vulnerability? The next pilgrim probably has a phone. Emergency services are available all along the way. Your embassy can track you down if necessary. By being unplugged, you can become quite a burden on others, all for the sake of an artificial objective. I am not quite sure what the real objective is when someone suggests that someone else leave their technology at home. Aside from a bit of hubris, why talk someone out of it? Now, explain it to me like I'm a four-year-old. (apologies to "Philadelphia")
True.Well said.
I'm out on the camino right now and I'm rather fed up with the no-phone people as they first say they got no phone with them (sounding smug, as that is something that should be applauded) and later come and ask if I can use my iPhone and do x and y for them. Such as change their hotel room booking and check who won the football match yesterday (and I'm not joking). If you carry no phone, than deal with the consequences yourself.
Well said.
I'm out on the camino right now and I'm rather fed up with the no-phone people as they first say they got no phone with them (sounding smug, as that is something that should be applauded) and later come and ask if I can use my iPhone and do x and y for them. Such as change their hotel room booking and check who won the football match yesterday (and I'm not joking). If you carry no phone, than deal with the consequences yourself.
Annie, I loved you picture and just have to use it in one of my blogs. Do you mind? Here is the link to see what it would look like:Pilgrims arriving at the Obaradoiro
Feel free to use them both! They are taken Sept 16 when I was on my way to the Amigos Service.Annie, I loved you picture and just have to use it in one of my blogs. Do you mind? Here is the link to see what it would look like:
http://www.banxietyfree.com/unplugged-what-to-let-go-of.html
LTfit said:Besides the fact that it doesn't appeal to me, I find someone walking/running/biking with either bordering on rude, besides being unsafe.
Wearing headphones/earplugs is in my book a whole other story. Besides the fact that it doesn't appeal to me, I find someone walking/running/biking with either bordering on rude, besides being unsafe. I first thought that it might just be my age (57) but now I see it more as a conscious decision. I walked this summer for three weeks with a young Spanish woman of 27. At the end of the Camino she casually mentioned to me that during her Camino the previous year she often listened to music but that she had decided not do so while we walked together. I thought this quite considerate, especially since I never mentioned to her my aversion. We spent many quiet hours walking side by side but she chose the silence. This might sound smug but give it a try - a whole other world opens up!
There's a strong generational aspect to the issue of technology. We are now seeing an emerging generation of Camino pilgrims who were born into the Internet era. For them, trying to talk about a Camino (or life) without a smartphone or iPad is speaking an incomprehensible alien language.
I'm old enough to remember life without Internet and miraculous and harrowing as this may sound to some of you, I did lots of travel and backpacking with zero mobile communication and little more than an old school compass back in the day, and survived to tell about it! That's why I knew I didn't really need it for my Camino, although I did bring my iPhone for primarily camera purposes.
I'm not anti-technology, but I do think too much of anything is simply too much. I felt sorry for the pilgrims I saw walking while their heads were buried in their technology, seeming to miss the whole point of being on this wonderful trek. And at the albergue or hostal or bar, the biggest preoccupation of some seemed to be recharging their device so they can stay on line the better part of the day and evening, to the exclusion of all other fellow beings.
For me, Internet/mobile communication has always been paradoxical. It brings the global community together like never before, but the physical act of using the technology is necessarily a solitary act; one needs isolate oneself behind a machine in order to achieve that global community. We lose key social connections and cues (body language, eye contact, the art of conversation) via this mode of communication, especially if it becomes a dependency.
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