• Get your Camino Frances Guidebook here.
  • For 2024 Pilgrims: €50,- donation = 1 year with no ads on the forum + 90% off any 2024 Guide. More here.
    (Discount code sent to you by Private Message after your donation)
  • ⚠️ Emergency contact in Spain - Dial 112 and AlertCops app. More on this here.

Search 69,459 Camino Questions

Vote with your feet

sillydoll

Veteran Member
Time of past OR future Camino
2002 CF: 2004 from Paris: 2006 VF: 2007 CF: 2009 Aragones, Ingles, Finisterre: 2011 X 2 on CF: 2013 'Caracoles': 2014 CF and Ingles 'Caracoles":2015 Logrono-Burgos (Hospitalero San Anton): 2016 La Douay to Aosta/San Gimignano to Rome:
The keeper of the refuge in St. Nicolas de Real Camino is nice to pilgrims. He has a clean, well-lighted refuge and a booming little business in food and lodging.

Unfortunately his success is going to his head. This week he filed serious health department charges against James and Marianne, two Camino support providers in Moratinos. (Moratinos is two kilometers east of St. Nicolas on the Camino.)

The Moratinos couple (UK based) operate on donativos bases, giving away oranges and coffees and conversation to passing pilgrims. The Guardia Civil walked into their daughter's 2nd-year birthday party last weekend to serve the "cease and desist" paperwork. The St. Nicolas man's signature was on the "denuncia."

In the past the St. Nicolas man filed local building-code complaints against the same couple, and has come in person to their albergue-in-progress and promised them he will "shut you down, whatever way I can." (He used similar harrassments against another family in St. Nicholas when they opened a restaurant in town, but they're Spaniards with money enough for lawyers as well as plenty of local family connections.)

Moratinos needs to provide pilgrim services, but apparently The Man in San Nicolas thinks that will divert a few pounds of pilgrim money that is rightfully his. People in Moratinos can do little about the situation. They don't want to cause a range war, and they have to keep living there, where everyone is related to everyone else!

So it's up to the pilgrims. Once you know the situation, you can decide who to give your money to in St. Nicolas de Real Camino.

When you pass through town, take your break at the Other restaurant, Casa Barrunta. If you really need to stay at the refuge, ask the people in charge what's up. Maybe there's something going on that they are not aware of, some need for compassion that they cannot see.
This guy needs to know somehow the Camino population is aware of his tactics, and there's plenty of pilgrims (and pilgrim money!) to go around!
 
Ideal pocket guides for during & after your Camino. Each weighs only 1.4 oz (40g)!
Transport luggage-passengers.
From airports to SJPP
Luggage from SJPP to Roncevalles

Most read last week in this forum

La Voz de Galicia has reported the death of a 65 year old pilgrim from the United States this afternoon near Castromaior. The likely cause appears to be a heart attack. The pilgrim was walking the...
Just reading this thread https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/news-from-the-camino.86228/ and the OP mentions people being fined €12000. I knew that you cannot do the Napoleon in...
This is my first posting but as I look at the Camino, I worry about 'lack of solitude' given the number of people on the trail. I am looking to do the France route....as I want to have the...
I’m heading to the Frances shortly and was going to be a bit spontaneous with rooms. I booked the first week just to make sure and was surprised at how tight reservations were. As I started making...
My first SPRINGTIME days on the Camino Francés 🎉 A couple of interesting tidbits. I just left Foncebadón yesterday. See photo. By the way, it's really not busy at all on my "wave". Plenty of...
The Burguete bomberos had another busy day yesterday. Picking up two pilgrims with symptoms of hypothermia and exhaustion near the Lepoeder pass and another near the Croix de Thibault who was...

❓How to ask a question

How to post a new question on the Camino Forum.

Forum Rules

Forum Rules

Camino Updates on YouTube

Camino Conversations

Most downloaded Resources

This site is run by Ivar at

in Santiago de Compostela.
This site participates in the Amazon Affiliate program, designed to provide a means for Ivar to earn fees by linking to Amazon
Official Camino Passport (Credential) | 2024 Camino Guides
Back
Top