efdoucette
Active Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- 2011 Camino Frances
Since 2011 - too many to list
I don't see the point of this thread. It's antagonizing and frustrates people on both sides of the "change" fence.
| Remove ads on the forum by becoming a donating member. More here. |
|---|
It has been said a number of times that most ATMs only accept 4 digit PINS, is yours a 6 digit PIN? If so that would account for the problem. It is something that needs sorting with the bank before leaving home. (For 4 digit PINS in a 6 digit ATM the cards come with instructions for adding 2 more digits. )
I don't see the point of this thread. It's antagonizing and frustrates people on both sides of the "change" fence.
Oh man! Is it too hard to dig a hole in the ground and deposit your bodily waste there?Like what some smart animals do? Perhaps all perigrinos should be required to carry a trowel. It is not only disgusting and disrespectful to the locals but leaving excrements exposed spread diseases that will not only affect the local flora and fauna, but also humans, and possibly spoil the Camino.
There is imposed change and there is natural evolution.
The camino will evolve in its own way in response to demand or the needs of those who "service" (nasty verb) and those who use it or it will die.
However the camino seems to have done a pretty good job, on its own, over a millennium plus in adapting and surviving without having to adopt outside suggestions for "improvement".
What you're saying is that pilgrims aren't allowed to provide feedback? I feel like I'm being shouted down in this thread because I saw some things and I didn't like them.
There is imposed change and there is natural evolution.
The camino will evolve in its own way in response to demand or the needs of those who "service" (nasty verb) and those who use it or it will die.
However the camino seems to have done a pretty good job, on its own, over a millennium plus in adapting and surviving without having to adopt outside suggestions for "improvement".
No, no, no - that is not what I am saying.
What I am saying is that the feedback should be at local level for example when you are on your own camino.
Like suggesting to a bar keeper, restaurant owner, hotel owner etc "Have you considered.....?"
What I am against is some carpet diktat from on high.
I am not being negative as I think some of your suggestions are extremely positive and could be very helpful.
I will start out of Porto sept 7. Should our paths cross let us do lunch or dinner. I promise not to break out the hot sauce.I'll be doing the Camino Portugués for the third time at the end of this month. If you need any more information (apart from what is available on this excellent forum), just ask.
I also did the Camino Inglés earlier this summer.
Well, good on you indyrem! we're on the same page! That is what we do here in Australia when we go out camping and we're out in the bush where there are no toilet facilities, camping grounds have toilets, but out in the bush, the rule is to dig at least 150 mm deep and 100 meters away from any water source, and then cover human waste with the soil and leaf litters and/or rocks so animals can not dig them out. We have plenty of animals here we need to protect as well as local plants. Maybe as soon as I get to StJ when I start my Camino next year, the first thing I' ll look for is a hardware shop to get a trowelI carried a trowel with me on my Camino. Fortunately only had to use it only a few times as there's always a bar, restaurant nearby where I can buy something & not feel guilty using their toilets. I also learned to "do my thing" before leaving the albergues which tied me over for a few hours then find a bar to eat lunch, use their facilities. After that I'm usually at my targeted albergue or hostal for the day. Yes, it is disgusting, unhygienic & inconsiderate to leave human waste along the Camino. Let's not spoil our Camino so that present & future peregrinos will enjoy it for a long, long time.
EuroDisney at O Cebreiro.
Hi Anne! No I have yet to walk the Camino, and very much looking forward to it. I am going to walk the Camino France and it is comforting to know that there are villages and possibly toilet stops available within close distances, not that I have any problem with that, being a nurse, we are known for having bladders capable of storing litres and litres of urineOK, I've just gone to the garden to check our trowel. It weights approx 400 gr. frankly I have more important things to put in my backpack for that weight!
Josway, I don't think you have walked the Camino yet, so on the moment you try to accommodate all the things that you think you will need for your Camino, keeping roughly to the 10% body weight, you might think again about the trowel. For those Pilgrims that, because of their body weight 80 kgs or over, a trowel won't make much difference to your overall weight, however I weigh under 60 kgs, I am over 70, I always carry my pack, but I have to keep it at the most 6 kgs! Sorry, no place for a trowel there!
Presumably you intend to walk the francés, where there is a village most of the time in less than one hours walking. Of course it can happen that you have to " go". It's unfortunate and of course one should do everything possible to bury your product!
I'm interested to find out just how many of our Forum members actually carry a trowel! Anne
You may be used to "the customer is always right" and "money talks" at home, but in many parts of Spain the shopkeeper "works to live, he doesn't live to work."
He doesn't take plastic because it costs too much, or it's not worth the trouble. He's been in business for years, and he does not mind losing some pilgrim customers -- his customer base is there in town already.
Some pilgrims feel they are saviors of the little towns along the road, that they are doing the camino a big favor by coming over and spending money. This might be true, at least in part. But the pilgrimage is supposed to be interaction, not transaction.
Through no fault of our own, many of us view things through a consumer or entrepreneurial lens -- It's 7 a.m., I want a coffee, why doesn't some enterprising person serve breakfast anywhere? They ought to have ATM machines. They ought to put soap in the bathrooms. They ought to put up portable toilets... If the camino wants to stay in business, it must adjust to suit consumer demand.
But the camino is not a business enterprise.
It is the pilgrim's business to adjust himself to the camino, not the other way round.
I will start out of Porto sept 7. Should our paths cross let us do lunch or dinner. I promise not to break out the hot sauce.
Happy Trails. Urban T
He's been in business for years, and he does not mind losing some pilgrim customers -- his customer base is there in town already.
In my case definitely the later. I need very regular fixes and always planning and waiting for the next time.The camino needs more of me! Oh, wait, or do I need more of the Camino?
Following this bar, though, there is absolutely NOTHING until you get to Sigüeiro. The one bar in the hamlet of A Calle does not open until the afternoon, and the only other place you can stop is up near Baxoia, where some clever Gallego has set up a cold drinks machine (very high prices).
Surely it would be in the interest of these places to open up and make some money!
I might retire and set up a bar on the Camino Inglés!
. . . . . Things will indeed always change...if someone has a problem with that, then they will have a hard time accepting the actual change when it comes.
. . . . . .Change is a fact and all around us, always.
You missed the one in Outeiro. After you pass under the highway the Camino goes to the left , this place is towards the right.
Regarding the drinks machine the price is 1.50€ for a can of soda. It´s cold and in a very strategic place where some peregrinos might need a drink. Compare it to the price in town in a bar.............. dirt cheap I would say.
Good luck on your future business venture.
Ondo Ibili !
I have watched this thread for a few days and kept quiet. I hope you realize that one's history is always someone else's propaganda. After all do you want to walk the Camino reading about the atrocities of the Franco years?
Here is personal take on any attempt to plant historic markers.
When I was young my father who was a Civil War buff dragged me on numerous vacations to many "famous" battle sites from the Civil War and Revolutionary War, Yorktown was the most memorable spot from that war, but many of these places are simply farm fields without forts or structures. That is the cherished American history from a very recent period in time, just 100 to 200 years ago.
I have visited the site of the Jacobite's Battle of Culloden in 1745 because it was probably the genesis of my family being shipped to the New World. Why, because they were either on the losing side or on the winning side and as such a given a large land grant in North Carolina which turned out to be 1000's of acre of swamp land. No one know.
The history of Spain is complicated, besides being Pre-Columbian and Pre-Christian, any program of signage would be very subjective. There is no objectivity to history when one steps back that many years. It is like the comment one poster made about the "Roman bridges" built in the 1200 by the Normans.
My favorite subject in regards to Spanish history regards the Basque population. There is no provenance for their culture, their language or origins. They ruled the Atlantic and most likely populated the British Isle giving rise to the Celtic tribes, they probably discovered Nova Scotia several 100 years before Columbus launched his exploration to the New World. They fought Franco and were bombed by the Nazis. There are several great books written on the subject by Mark Kurlansky.
Are we losing the whole point of the Camino? What is it about? A time outside our normal lives. Simplicity. Discarding. Time. To ponder, to day-dream, to share. The luxury of idle time. Living in the moment. Enduring. Joy and wonder. Moving through the landscape. Spain. Sharing bread with strangers. Strangers becoming friends. Meeting all nations on earth, every race, every creed. Going beyond our abilities. Stepping outside our comfort zone. Lifting ourselves. Finding our bodies. Finding faith. Finding hope. Finding grace. Each new day exactly the same. Each new day completely different. A journey, a destination.
And we are whinging?
Are we losing the whole point of the Camino? What is it about? A time outside our normal lives. Simplicity. Discarding. Time. To ponder, to day-dream, to share. The luxury of idle time. Living in the moment. Enduring. Joy and wonder. Moving through the landscape. Spain. Sharing bread with strangers. Strangers becoming friends. Meeting all nations on earth, every race, every creed. Going beyond our abilities. Stepping outside our comfort zone. Lifting ourselves. Finding our bodies. Finding faith. Finding hope. Finding grace. Each new day exactly the same. Each new day completely different. A journey, a destination.
And we are whinging?
We were in a village shop chatting and mentioned 'the war' - meaning WW2. Silence from the shopkeeper, then -'We don't talk about it - it is too painful' Explanation from us, WW2, conversation restored with the comment that Spain still needs time to come to terms with the past. We should respect that and not expect 'historic markers'. Another point to consider is that history is seldom unbiased. Let us walk the Camino as pilgrims and maybe do our own research as historians.
Eg:- Having walked the Primitivo I am in awe of Sir John Moore who led the British army to safety through the mountains in the depths of winter when retreating from Napoleon. His grave in Coruna is still honoured by the Spanish, who Moore was fighting alongside . The retreat to Coruna was the Dunkirk of the Napoleonic War in Spain.
I too will now bow out of this thread, but not the forum
We were in a village shop chatting and mentioned 'the war' - meaning WW2. Silence from the shopkeeper, then -'We don't talk about it - it is too painful' Explanation from us, WW2, conversation restored with the comment that Spain still needs time to come to terms with the past. We should respect that and not expect 'historic markers'. Another point to consider is that history is seldom unbiased. Let us walk the Camino as pilgrims and maybe do our own research as historians.
Eg:- Having walked the Primitivo I am in awe of Sir John Moore who led the British army to safety through the mountains in the depths of winter when retreating from Napoleon. His grave in Coruna is still honoured by the Spanish, who Moore was fighting alongside . The retreat to Coruna was the Dunkirk of the Napoleonic War in Spain.
I too will now bow out of this thread, but not the forum
Bombs are dropped from the sky, by strangers. It is horrifying, but somehow easier to recover from. "History" is faceless.
When it is your neighbor who betrayed your brother to the soldiers (some of whom you knew from school), or your priest tells your confession to the men at city hall, and your dad and Mom are hauled off and shot out in the fields... or if you know your grandad betrayed the family down the road, and seized their belongings for himself... Well. You still have to live in the same town, alongside the same people who so deeply wronged you, or whom you or your family so deeply wronged.
That is why Spain stayed so quiet for so long. History here has a face. It belongs to someone you have to live with. And unless you want the civil war to continue through generations, you shut up and try to let the past disappear along with your generation.
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?