El Camino: What to Take

Some practical suggestions with thanks to Connie!

NOTE: You can stay in hotels which makes towel/sleeping bag unnecessary. You can hire companies to carry your bag forward if you really want to take a lot of stuff. You can even use a company that will book your accommodation and forward your bags.  That's one way to go. We didn't go that route. 

Backpack. Ditch that 2007 pack you bought to hike the Inca Trail. It might have been state of the art at the time but it isn't now. Get yourself over to MEC or Camper's or Atmosphere. Buy a pack that is really light and easy on the back. MEC calls these smaller bags "overnight" bags but you can get enough gear for your 10-15 days into the small bag if you do it right. Get the staffers to adjust the straps for you. You want a pack that is 35-40 liters in capacity. No larger. Seriously. One with pouches on the waistband, a side pouch for your water bottle, one easy-access top compartment and a waterproof cover.

With the old grey backpack that was ditched en route

Clothes Three changes should suffice although I took 5. One pair of shorts, one pair of capris, one pair of lightweight nylon pants, a longsleeved shirt, two sleeveless shirts and two t-shirts. Ok, I actually took 3 long sleeved shirts and ditched 2 of them. Take lightweight drip dry stuff since you will need to wash it and have it dry every second day. Some people sleep in their clothes. I think that is yucky. I took leggings for sleep time. Also a fleecy jacket and one of those super light down jackets you can stuff into a bag and the lightest breathable waterproof jacket you can get or a cheap poncho. The lightest you can get. Really important-good socks, like the light or medium weight PhD socks from MEC. Are you picking up what I am laying down? Go light!

A Belt  Because by the end your pants will be falling off.

Walking poles I found them indispensable. Ours were the Black Diamond ones that telescope down and click into place, not the "screw down and lock" kind. A German lady will tell you the metal tips make a clickety-clack the villagers don't like and you should buy the rubber tips like she has. In fact she will tell you the metal tips are illegal. You can get the rubber tips at MEC I believe. I liked the clickety clack so take that, cranky German lady! 

Sleeping bag. If you are staying at albergues (which I recommend for at least a few nights), they do not all have blankets, so if you go in spring (which I also recommend) it gets a bit chilly at night. Take the smallest and lightest sleeping bag you can find. Doesn't need to be warm. We had one from Camper's Village and found another at Atmosphere. If you go in late spring, summer or early fall, a sheet will do. You do not need a sleeping mat or air mattress.

Toiletries  Hairbrush. Folding toothbrush. Small toothpaste. Solid round shampoo in a square tin as sold by LUSH (doubles as laundry detergent). Small sunscreen. Small Purell. Antibiotic cream. Tiny sewing kit. Tweezers. Blister band-aids. Bring lots of those. Painkillers- I always take a combination bottle of aspirin, advil, mersyndol and naproxen with some benadryl for allergies. And some Imodium, just in case. Never used it though.

Towel The super absorbent kind that rolls into a teeny pouch. 

Toilet paper

Sunglasses

Footware  Hiking boots- I have a wonky ankle so I bought boots with a lot of ankle support . Most of you won't need that. Make sure they roomy as you feet may swell and they will take a beating. One guy we met said his feet hurt every day. BREAK THOSE BOOTS IN!  I thought I had by walking 3 km every day for 10 days, but you should really walk with your fully loaded pack for a good 10 km at least twice.  Otherwise you could get blisters like I did. Plus lightweight shoes or sandals because after 20 km, you need to remove those boots. I had a pair of super light Skechers and hubby took his Birkenstocks.

Electronics  Some people don't take a camera, but we love taking photos and a camera phone doesn't cut it. But I would consider a smaller, lighter camera that could go in the waistband of the backpack. Phone. Get yours unlocked and buy a SIM card that is good for Spain and Portugal. You can get a good plan with lots of data for cheap at the airport or any cellphone shop.  We went with Orange. Sometimes access to Google Maps is needed, or your phone for that matter. Kindle. Travel adapter. Cordless multiple outlet extension device so you can recharge multiple items at once. No more chargers than absolutely necessary.

Headlamp For those early morning getaways. Some people used their camera flashlight.

Waterbottle  Light plastic, large.

Large ziplock bags Just because.

Hat  One with a large brim as the sun is intense.

Pilgrim's Passport. Also called a "credencial." Order it online from the Canadian Company of Pilgrims. You will need to stay in the albergues and you will need to get it stamped with a "sello"  twice a day for the last 100 km at albergues, bars and cafes and churches along the route in order to get your compostela at the end. It is fun to collect the stamps as each one is unique.

Guidebook The Germans used a yellow guidebook called "Outdoor:The Way is the Goal". There are lots of others. We used John Brierley's Pilgrim's Guide to the Camino Portugues. A must have.

Weird thing we took and would take again  Tiny projector. We have one the size of a deck of cards that connects to your phone. We watched movies on it, including The Way with Martin Sheen.

What we should have taken: Noise cancelling headphones or earplugs for the snoring in the albergues.

What we should have left behind: The Ipads. The numerous electronic chargers. The sweat-inducing crappy waterproof jacket.  A skirt. Some dressy shoes my hubby carried and I never wore. The umbrella. The bathing suits.  

Oldest cross on the camino

El Camino: Why Walk the Portuguese Way

I love to travel. But I rarely tell anyone to go to the places I have been.

For the Portuguese Way of the El Camino de Santiago de Compostela, I will make an exception. 

You should go.

If you have a passport and you can scrape together the airfare and have 15 days of vacation and you can walk 10 km a day, you should go.

You should go for the solitude and the companionship. You should go for the rest and for the exercise. You should go for the simple pleasure of going to bed each night physically exhausted. You should go to be alone with your thoughts and go to share them with others. You should go for the surprises that lie around each corner. The scenery that will stop you in your tracks over and over again every day. The walled medieval cities and the sleepy villages and the arched bridges and the seaside paths and the wide valleys and the forested mountains and the neighbours chatting by their gates. The ancient stone walls covered in moss and the grapevines unfurling in the vineyards and and the burbling streams and the early morning dew on the newly planted fields and the sun on the lemon trees and the spring flowers and the hills of yellow broom and the overgrown ruins of abandoned homes. The cobblestones leading to charming boutique hotels and rustic albergues. The most magnificent of cathedrals and the tiniest of roadside shrines. Go to see all these things you can only see when you walk.

Go for the green wine and the tiny beers and the espresso and the pastries and the octopus and the trout and the substantial free snacks. Go for the tapas and the three course pilgrim's menu. 

Go to renew your soul and go to remind yourself of what matters. 

Go because you want to walk your own way and go because there are many who will help you find the path. 

Go to feel solidarity with the generations who walked before you and those who will follow in your footsteps. 

Go to prove to yourself you can.

Just go.

Sagrada Familia

The light stops you in your tracks. Warm and joyous, sunshine through the red and yellow stained glass floods the immense space in the afternoon light. If you were there in the morning, the light from the opposite windows would stain the air cool blue and green.

But you are there in the afternoon. The light envelopes you. Your eyes are drawn upwards by the massive tree like pillars. As if you are in a magical forest with alabaster columns supporting a magnificent canopy of stone high above your head. So high, you cannot believe the ceiling stands with so little visible support in this vast space.

A small girl stands in the transept holding an Ipad. "It's St. Jordie's Day, Nana! All the girls give their boyfriends roses and their girlfriends give them books! There are roses everywhere!" She pivots excitedly to show her grandmother the church. I catch a glimpse of Nana's smile and I am struck by inexplicable emotion. I turn away from their moment- so intimate and so public.

La Sagrada Familia. The Holy Family. The church astounds you inside and out. It is Gothic and at the same time modern. The artistry and craftsmanship and the mathematical genius of its construction. From the ornate Nativity facade, covered in detailed and delicate carvings to the austere, almost fascist Passion facade that depicts the sacrifice of Christ with a spare brutality.

Decades ago I visited Glastonbury Abbey with my family. It took centuries to build. Once glorious, it now lies in ruins. "Imagine," said my mom. "Imagine working on something your entire life and knowing you would never see what it looked like when it was finished. That's faith."

Gaudi spent the better part of his life working on La Sagrada Familia. He was 73 when he died in a streetcar accident, the church just one quarter finished. Although he made detailed plans for his church, he knew he would never seen the final product which has an estimated completion date of 2026. 

What would Gaudi think today? Could he have known that the holy temple of his imagining would become a tourist attraction rather than a place of worship, visited by millions of people of all religions? Shared by a child with her grandmother in another land via technology? Or did he simply trust that the end result of his labours would be worth his sacrifice?  

Who among us can ever know what the end result of our work will be? Whether you are an architect, a teacher or a parent, it's impossible to know if your life's work will end up as an awe-inspiring basilica or a pile of rubble. Yet you get up every day and put one foot in front of the other and keep going. 

That's faith. 

Waymarking

Those who walk the Camino know the value of the waymark. All along the way, the route is marked with the symbol of the scallop shell, yellow on blue, the rays of the shell pointing you in the direction you should go. Supplementing the scallop shell are actual shells, painted yellow, attached to trees and fence posts. Some adorned with just a simple name. In addition to the shells are yellow arrows, some neat and formal, painted onto walls and lamp posts and signposts. Or wooden arrows attached to stakes or nailed to trees and walls. Others spray-painted low on walls, on curbstones, on sidewalks and the very road itself. Painted by local residents, volunteers and city employees, the signs keep you on a path that is centuries old, leading you past churches and chapels and drinking fountains, to cafes and albergues and hotels. Installed with love to guide pilgrims on their way and keep them safe.

The walker soon learns to search out these marks, always looking ahead towards the next directional sign on highways and on country lanes, in cities and towns. Sometimes the signs disappear, especially in busy cities where there are distractions or businesses competing for the custom of the pilgrim. Rarely but annoyingly, businesses who have lost foot traffic when the route has been changed vigilantly remove new waymarks, crossing them out with black paint and redirecting the stream of traffic back past their bars and cafes. In a world full of conflicting roads, without the waymarks, peregrinos would soon be lost and confused. They would never find their way to their destination.

From one end of the Camino to the other, signs point the way. And when signs fail, the peregrino is encouraged by people who live along  the path, pointing the way, calling words of encouragement from the path, from farm fields, from the balconies of their homes. Although you do not share a common language, the calls "Santiago! Courage!" and " Buen Camino!" cheeer you as you walk, reminding you that you are never alone.

In the end, you arrive at your destination. Tired, sore, worn out from days of walking, you come to Santiago de Compostela under your own steam, but not all on your own. The waymarks left by hundreds of others have led you here. The path trod by generations of pilgrims has led you here.

And then you are done.

There are no more arrows. No marks to watch for. No signs to tell you which way to go. No one lays out a path or calls out words of encouragement.  The road you take is your own.

Perhaps the strength you gained from the road will guide you. Perhaps knowing that you never walk alone will give you comfort. Perhaps remembering that others have gone before will help you forge your way.

Perhaps the path you walk will serve as a guide for those yet to come.

Buen Camino, amigos. Walk well!

Early morning, Albergue

It's pitch dark when the rustling begins. Sleeping bags shoved into stuff sacks. Legs into pants, feet into socks,  gear into backpacks. The morning ablutions. Headlamps and cellphone flashlights dart into the darkest corners, checking nothing has been left behind. Evening pleasantries forgotten, not a word spoken.

You're one of the first out the door, closing it softly behind you. You forego the sleepy cafe across the street, taking one last glance at the village you are leaving, with its shuttered shopfronts and rainy pavements and grey silent church. Then it's uphill on an asphalt road past country houses still asleep, onto a woodland path beneath dripping pines, the rain gentle on your poncho.

Before long the older Dutch couple catch up to you, the petite wife in her high tech gear motoring ahead as she always does. The husband slows briefly to chat, introducing you to a pilgrim's song, its rhythm echoing the pace of the walk. Then he too is off, joining the wife, the two of them singing into the rain.

You enter a town. Everything closed. So quiet, dogs don't even bark. The sun comes out and for a moment you see your shadow. How much do you resemble the other pilgrims who have walked this same path? You, with your broad brimmed hat, your cloak-like poncho and your walking stick. You and thousands of pilgrims have walked this road for centuries, rising early with strangers, walking through the days. Knowing your destination but perhaps not knowing the reason you walk until days or even years after your journey has ended.

Quinta das Cancelas to Ponte de Lima

You walk past vineyards, tiny grapes just beginning to form. There are thousands of vineyards here in northern Portugal that produce "vinho verde". The "green wine", bottled while still fermenting, frothy, fruity, best consumed young.

Down farm lanes and cobbled paths you walk, low stone walls centuries old, mossy green, sprouting tiny pink and white asters. You walk past fields of purple wildflowers, the hills above yellow with Portuguese broom in blossom.

You walk by scenes that have played out for generations if not centuries by these same families. A wife watches her husband plow a field. Laundry is hung to dry. A man repairs a scarecrow. A mother pulls a child in a cart. Hay is stooked by hand.

Farm fields and vineyards give way to a forest path. A brook babbles below. A hillside studded with Cala lillies. Brilliant pink foxglove interrupt the green and white. Birdsong loud overhead.

The forest gives way to farmland, gives way to ancient hamlets, stone wall beside stone wall. Ancient stone churches and immaculate farmhouses and casas in ruins blend one to the next until you reach a cobblestone path. Grape arbours over top, their shadows intense under the Portuguese sun. The path becomes a riverside walkway alongside the River Lima. The magnificent arched stone bridge, Ponte de Lima, appears ahead of you. The city, beautifully restored. The river filled with rowers. Swallows. Music.

You have arrived.

Senda Litoral

To your left stretches the Atlantic, blue green and aquamarine, the colours you only thought you'd see in the Mediterranean. A sandy beach, soft sand broken up by rocky outcroppings, stretches as far down the coast as you can see. On the horizon, far, far down the beach, resort towers stretch upwards. Your destination. Kilometres away. Never seeming to get nearer.

To your right, wildflowers splash across the dunes. Flowers we in Canada cultivate in our gardens and hope they live. Here, they bloom wild. Gerbera daisies, portulaca, California poppies, oleander, calla lilies. Things you cannot name. White, yellow, brilliant pink against the deep green foliage. In the tidy yards, flowers we only see in floral arrangements. Bird of Paradise, orchids, amaryllis, proteus. Oranges fall from the trees to rot on the ground. Lemons bigger than you have ever seen.

Ahead the boardwalk stretches for more than 20 kilometres through sand dunes and past glass fronted cafes and modern apartments and ancient fishing villages, houses painted brilliant colours, where ship-builders build the "best sardine boats in the world."

Senda  Litoral.

The seashore path.