Camino de Santiago

Day 36 - To Sarria
26 kms; Difficulty 2/3
23°C

I mentioned yesterday how small Biduedo is (pop 31). Well it’s basically just a farm with a few extra buildings. In fact all the towns that I went through today were like that. I was dodging cow manure all day! The picture of the cow was within one of those towns.

Today the trail was the final major descent. And I’m glad. It was really hard on my knees…..and I have good knees! I can’t imagine how those with “bad knees“ managed. I suspect many of them jumped head by taxi. I know some did.

As shown above, today is day 36. Pretty well everyone who does Camino Francis, IF they walk the full way, will take more than a month. Of course there is a way to do it faster and that’s to “jump ahead” by taking a taxi, bus or even horse to subsequent parts of the trail. I think I can safely say that pretty much everyone I met either jumped ahead already or plans to. They do it for various reasons…..injuries, illness, time constraints, and some pre-plan to only do a portion of the Camino. And that’s fine. To each his own. Everyone does the Camino as they choose. None is wrong because it’s their Camino. I have chosen to walk the whole way. I honestly can’t think of anyone that I have met who walked every step.

I stopped at a place that offered snacks by donativo (donation). It was an interesting place. They had several signs and there was a meditation group chanting off to the side.

And I finally made it to Sarria. Everything hurt again. Going downhill is not easy!!?Read more

Day 24 - To Calzadilla de Los Hermandillos
13 1/2 kms; Difficulty 1/3
26°C

Another short day today.

Perhaps I can take this opportunity to define some of the names/words associated with the Camino Trail:
- Camino = “the way”
- Santiago = “James“
- Camino Francis = “the way from France”
- Camino de Santiago = the way of James”
- The Way of St. James = in the New Testament it is stated that James, son of Zebedee, was a fisherman and he and eventually followed Jesus and became one of his disciples.

I would like to tell you the story of the that I am walking. The word Camino simply means “the way”
- Camino Francis (“The way from France”)
- The way of St. James (James, son of Zebedee in the Bible New Testament, was a fisherman and a disciple of Jesus.
- Camino de Santiago

have names which mean the following: Camino Means “the way”. So (Camino) Francis means “the way from France”. The way of Saint James is thought that Saint James, disciple of Jesus,Read more