Hey, long time no post. We’ve been here on the Camino for 2 weeks now. And, well, it’s been a journey so far. I wish I could say in these two weeks we walked every day and have done really well. But, well the truth is, it’s been an adjustment.
You can catch up on our whole Camino journey on YouTube here.
The biggest adjustment we’ve had at first is physical. The physical demands of walking every single day were harder than we expected. Every day we found new aches and pains in our joints, our feet, and our shoulders. We have maintained our stretching but walking 8-13 miles a day over mountains, rocks and pavement have been more than we imagined. Add in unexpected injury/illness and we are the slowest people on the Camino.
But I would not say it’s been a bad experience. It’s definitely had many highs and lows. Huge highs have included the views. Stunning views from the Camino each day, even in the rain. The farmland, the animals, the villages, the vineyards, and the expansive views of the Spanish countryside have been amazing. You can’t help but feel lucky to walk through all of that every day.
And the coffee, I think I’ve had 50001 cafe con leches. And they are all like 1.50 euros. Pretty inexpensive. It may be a little harder for Will because no one is pouring out 12 oz of brewed coffee for him. He’s been getting a cafe Americano everywhere and asking for Agua caliente to mix in his instant coffee. There has been a lot of inexpensive bread and pintxos (pinchos) eaten. And at this point, I am a little tired of bread all day every day. But the quality of it is definitely better for the price than what you get back home. Most days we wake up and have either the pilgrim breakfast or our version of it purchased from a market. We have fruit, bread, coffee, and some protein (egg, yogurt, or cheese). Then at lunch, we have pintxos. or make sandwiches from the baguette we bought at a market. Pintxos are like 2 euro small plates. They might be a small sandwich with jamon (pork) or a Spanish tortilla (which is a kind of egg and potato frittata thing).
Dinner can be a challenge because, in Spain, everyone eats at 8 pm. And we are completely exhausted by then. So we usually end up with some version of Pintxos again if there isn’t an earlier pilgrim’s dinner to buy. One place had a pilgrim’s dinner with lentil stew and salad. It was a nice break from all of the bread.
The walking is not boring. It really fills up your whole day. Sometimes we talk, sometimes we walk in silence, and sometimes we listen to music. But it’s weird how on rest days we actually feel bored because we don’t know what to do with our time, even if we know we need to rest. Walking 12 or 13 miles a day doesn’t sound like a lot but by mile 9 or 10 I usually find myself slowing down a ton. I’m usually exhausted and mentally just trying to motivate myself to keep going. By then my backpack is bugging my shoulder or my feet are aching. It may be sunny and hot or it may be windy and raining.
Soon in a later video, we will talk about the challenges that we did not expect would be slowing us down. Like foot infections. These unexpected challenges have made us rearrange our whole Camino and at first, we were pretty bummed. But ultimately we know our health is important and has to be a priority. So we’ve had to make some adjustments. Such is life though right?
Buen Camino!