Day 16
The Routine
A typical day on the Camino starts early, definitely in the dark. If you’re staying in one of the pilgrim dorms, they turn on all the lights and play loud music to get you awake around 6 a.m. If you’re staying in a little family guesthouse or hostel your day probably starts around then anyway, minus the loud music. Since the midday sun is so biting in Spain, everybody makes an early start so they can get as many miles in as they can before it gets hot.
As you get yourself ready, you pack. This is hard for me because there isn’t any spare room at all in my pack so I have to arrange it precisely to code every morning. There’s a routine within the routine then - each thing has its own home pocket and must go in said pocket in a certain order. After everything is squished in, it’s time for some quick stretching (per brother Joe’s instructions, to avoid minor sports injuries) and then you go! If it’s dark, headlamp. If it’s not dark, lucky you!
Usually there is a little town on the trail every 2 or 3 hours, so I probably stop about 9:30 am for breakfast ice cream somewhere and then again around noon for more junk food or just to take a break. (Blister care breaks as needed in between, ha ha ha...). Sometimes when you stop depends on if you’re walking with someone great, someone not great, or if you’re walking by yourself and you are at a perfect pace with a good pace horse in front of you, you keep going! You know that feeling when you’re on a really long cross country road trip and you find a really good semi truck to follow? Sometimes on the Camino you find the human version of that semi and you just lock in and follow. You will make great time!
On the walk I’m either chatting with someone, or just walking with a few people. If I’m more by myself during a longer stretch, I will either just walk and listen to the chickens bark at me (it’s really a barking in my opinion) as I pass, or do my Spanish audiobook lessons or listen to a regular audiobook. My audiobooks are all Spanish themed these days and I’m really enjoying them. I just finished a biography of Queen Isabella and the new one is about the Templars (Catholic military order that was very active in this part of Spain).
The goal is to roll into my next overnight town before 1:30 pm to beat the heat but more importantly, to beat siesta time business hours. All the supermarkets, pharmacies, and other shops usually close from 2 Pm - 4 pm or 5 pm here. They take siesta very seriously!
After you get into your dorm/hostel/guesthouse/hotel, usually the pattern is shower, blister care, laundry, attempt and fail with the WiFi, and then go for a walk around the new town. Tourist places start to open back up at 4 pm so you can experience the sights and if you see anyone you know in the town square they wave you over to have a beer. Dinner in Spain is LATE - people eat at like 10 pm, but the Camino towns have adjusted to pilgrims who want to eat earlier. Even “early” dinner here isn’t til 7 pm though, and usually I have run out of steam by then. If I happen to end up with some people I know I’ll have snacks in the square with them, or hit the grocery store and bring some goodies back to eat in my bunk. Instead of big meals here, I tend to just be eating little things all the time.
At the end of every day, I try to do some work stuff for back home and then I go over the plan for tomorrow. I check the maps, weather, and read about what tourist stuff is on the route. I have two Camino guidebooks on my iPad plus the Lonely Planet Spain, so I take pictures of everything for the next day with my phone so I’ll have everything handy. Then I pack as much as I can and pass out!
Repeat 35 times! :-)
