Oh, my aching clavicle!

Hello to all! Day 4 of the Camino! I´m in Puenta la Reina, my first real stop to use the internet and send out a couple of postcards. Legs and feet and shoulders have all adjusted to the weight of my pack and the pain of the first few days has gone away with a good night of drinking wine with new friends!! Everything is great! I´m loving the lifestyle and haven´t been this happy in a long time!! The pace of the Camino is a curious thing to get used to. The first day or two was almost like a race. Everyone speeding past, trying to get to the next Albergue (hostal) before the whole pack, but by the third day, the pack has thinned out and we are all on our own pace. The first couple of days, everyone commiserated about the pains in our knees, toes, blisters, legs, shoulders, etc. Now that I´m on day 4, those issues have melted away and I´m focussing more on my thoughts, the landscape, my morning coffee and the present. The present, both in terms of time and in terms of the gift that is this period of my life. Everyday brings new and interesting people into my life, new landscapes and new adventures. It is an amazing experience. Puenta la Reina is the meeting point of two different trails of the Camino, and so the path becomes a little more crowded again, but it also brings more ideas and ways of life into contact with my own. Magnificent.

Ay! Que rico!

Time to catch up about the first few days of my trip! It has been a solid reminder of both the things I love most and not so much about travelling. I left Regina on a morning flight on Tuesday and arrived in my destination of Paris late on Wednesday afternoon - a full 24 hours of travel and stopovers. But not too much to complain about, really...no delayed flights, no screaming babies, no body cavity searches through customs. I even sat beside a pleasant guy who chatted just the right amount to pass the time but not disturb my sleep on the way over the pond.

Paris was its usual busy and sort of smelly self, but I booked a great little hostel in the heart of Montmartre, three blocks from the Sacre Coeur, and I met a few great people right away. Dinner and drinks with strangers in Paris actually does top my list of cool things to do while travelling solo :) My first day was spent wandering the Champs Elysees and visiting the busy Notre Dame Cathedral, eating crepes de Nutella and drinking cafe au lait. I even visited the Rodin Museum, topping off my cultural events for one day in Paris. Did I mention the creme brulee at the Cafe Deux Moulins? That's the cafe that Amelie Poulin worked at in the famous movie Amelie. Let me top the day off with a little bar hopping and dancing with new friends Nicolas from Quebec, Rosy from Devonshire and Jessica from Guadalajara. I cant possibly keep up the pace for the rest of the trip at my age...but I have never been accused of being a quitter ;)

So how can I possibly top that on day two? Well, as much as I like dining with strangers, meeting up with friends is even better. I took the train from Paris to Biarritz, where my Basque friend Eunate met me with open arms. What a wonderful and generous person! Along with her charming boyfriend Pablo, we toured the beautiful beach at Biarritz, getting my first taste of the warm weather and water of the Bay of Biscay. Next we sped across the border into Spain, ahem, the Navarra - don't tell her I called it Spain!! Basque first, Spanish only when necessary - to check out the big film festival in Donostia (better known as San Sebastian). Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon were there, not that I saw them. But what an amazingly beautiful and clean city. Pinchos and cerveza were next on the list of must-dos. Pinchos are similar to their more well-known southern cousins, tapas. Que rico!

So, all in all, I can't imagine my first few days going any better than that! Have I mentioned how much I love travelling? Oh yeah, and I went to Pamplona for a crazy Basque festival last night, where I got my first look at the Camino de Santiago (no, I haven't forgotten about the 800km I came here to walk!). I will spend the next couple of days with Eunate and then begin my Camino from the Basque town of Roncesvalles, rather than crossing the border once more and starting from St. Jean Pied de Port as I originally intended. That part of the trail is supposedly one of the mas duro, most difficult, of the whole trek, and my ankle is still pretty sensitive. I see no point in overduing it my first day when I am already so close to the traditional starting point of my Spanish compadres. When in Rome...

Mind over matter

Three days to go time. I packed my backpack for real today and it came out weighing 20 pounds, which is about as much weight as I would want to have to carry to the airport, let alone on an 800km trek for 5 weeks. Soooo...now for the fine-tuning! Already I have lost my conditioner (a small yet remarkably heavy bottle), some extra Band-Aids and batteries, a book for my flight, and a few other personal toiletries that I imagine I will find along the way should I really need them. I'm on the fence about carrying the foot powder that was so highly recommended (the smallest bottle I could find was still 283g, which sounds light but becomes very heavy very quickly), but I figure a small Ziploc baggie with white powder might look suspicious at the airport! I imagine I will have to put some of it into said plastic baggie and just carry a half-empty bottle around instead. Other than this, I'm not actually sure what else I might leave behind! I'd like to leave my sore ankle, but unfortunately I still need that.

*Not actually my foot.

Yes, it is still sore. Not sure what else to do about it other than continue to use it carefully. I admit that since I sprained it, I have still been using it regularly and not treating it with more than a little special care. I was supposed to ice it, but I'm naturally cold-blooded, I think, even in the summer, so I stopped that quickly.  Besides, it never actually swelled, so do I really need to ice it? But the move did not treat it kindly. It was a lot of extra weight and awkward leaning, trying to fit things in the U-Haul or the elevator or into my new living space. I had it tensored up, but there is only so much support those things can offer. And then there are my wonderful niece and nephew who absolutely need me to chase them while playing tag. I tried to play freeze tag, but they don't seem to know how to play by the rules, so I was always It anyway. How on earth do you say no to a four-year-old's cotton-candy giggle? All I can say is, my ankle was not so supportive of my decision.

A close friend of mine gave me something interesting to think about, though. See, she is a practitioner of something called Body Talk. According to their website, www.bodytalksystem.com, "BodyTalk is a consciousness-based, nondiagnostic therapy that works with the body in its healing process...based on the principle that the body is capable of healing itself at all levels." The idea that our bodies hold on to the memories of all past physical and emotional events in our lives is one I can certainly wrap my head around. And after having a session with her for some excess anxiety before my last trip to Spain - a session where I didn't say a word, but my friend, by listening to yes/no answers from the muscles in my arm, actually got to the heart of my anxiety and helped me to express it (nonverbally - my body processed the stress and I left feeling completely relaxed!) - I fully believe the power our minds hold over us without our ever being conscious of our own issues around illness. So anyway, according to Body Talk, the ankle is connected with decision making and being connected to the earth. Go figure. Recently I've made a big decision in my life, and I'm heading to Spain to see if I can find a new path to walk, physically and metaphorically...so I guess my ankle is sore because my body is reacting to the emotional stress of it all. Very interesting.

So, I have continued my walks, trying to balance the need to rest my ankle and the need to keep my body in shape for this crazy trek I'm about to do. I plan to take it easy and not walk the suggested 20 to 30km a day, but I'm still a little worried. I took my pack out, fully packed, today and did a 2km trial...and it was heavy (big surprise!). The flat surfaces were fine for my ankle, but the short stretches of uneven ground I walked on gave me a little soreness *sigh*. From the tales I've heard of the Camino, my sore ankle will be the least of my worries about my feet, but even so, starting off this way is a little disheartening. I'm hoping that it turns into my saving grace, though, because by coddling my ankle, I might be saving my feet from the notorious blisters and hotspots that happen when walking too far in a day. And who knows? Maybe reconnecting with the earth in such a physical way is just what the doctor ordered to calm my mind and my sore ankle while I transition into the next phase of my life. Lemonade anyone?

Finding my Way

It is September 8th already. Ten more days until I fly to Paris and on to St. Jean Pied-de-Port in southern France, where the Camino Frances starts its 800km route to Santiago. In the last ten days, I've packed up my whole world and moved it to Regina, Saskatchewan, my hometown that I haven't lived in for 10 years. That is a lot of 8's and 10's. If anyone knows anything about numerology, please tell me that I'm in for the trip of a lifetime, okay? Not that I'm doubting it, but I guess I've got pre-800km-trek jitters. Will I make it over the Pyrenees? Will I have enough moleskin and foot ointment to survive 5 weeks of continuous walking? Will I convert to Catholicism during such an epic pilgrimage of seeking out the bones of Saint James? (Kidding on the last one, but the first two are legitimate concerns!)

How thoughtful!

I've been reading a few books by other trekkers, and the sheer physical struggle is usually glossed over with tales of new friends, beautiful vistas and free pilgrimage wine fountains (no joke!). I've also been told that many people lose a lot of weight on this trip. I guess walking 20 to 30km a day for 5 weeks can do that to a person. I have to admit, that is a welcome side-effect after the comfortable life I've been living (and by comfortable, I mostly mean lazy). And I have heard tales of blistered and throbbing feet, hurt tendons and aggravated injuries from the sheer amount of walking. Am I really up for this physically? Oh, and that's not even mentioning that at my last garage sale I tripped down the stairs and sprained my ankle. The timing couldn't have been worse, but all said, it was a fairly gentle reminder that anything can happen at any time and I need to be more careful. It makes me a little nervous to start such a long walking trip right now, before it has fully healed. Do I have the stamina to do this journey? And where might I get it, if I find along the way that I'm lacking?

I guess that is the challenge. And I know I'm up for it! Right now, I am in full planning mode. I'm buying the last of my "necessary" supplies, and next week I will pack my bag and try it out. I'll go for a long walk with it and see how I fare. (Living right across the street from almost open prairie, I'll avoid the strange looks from passersby I would have gotten in downtown Victoria.) And I will test out the new walking poles I bought to see if they help support my poor ankle with all the weight bearing down.

My backpack won't be quite this full!

Physical ailments and nerves aside, I've never been more mentally prepared for anything in my life. I've been thinking about this trek for more than six months now, and I believe that I have everything I'll need to enjoy it. I'm focused on taking my time and making the journey my own. I've heard of people hiking it for exercise or for personal training, sprinting through it to prove they can walk it in less than a month, or worse, forcing themselves to fit it into a holiday time period--yikes! I don't think there would be anything worse than plowing through it just to say I'd done it. I really want to experience it at my own pace, not only for my ankle, but also for mi alma, my soul. This is meant to be a life-changing experience, and I don't want that change to be coming home crippled from too much unnecessary exertion. I want to come home with a new perspective on my life and on the world around me, with a healthy new appreciation for daily exercise. There are so many ways to experience a journey like this: the physical trek; the historical path; a spiritual journey; an artistic endeavor; a culinary exploration. As fellow blogger Nancy Frey says in her blogpost, The Way: A Love Letter to Spain and Galicia, "It’s not how you do the pilgrimage that’s important but how you carry it in your heart...Everyone must find their own Camino." There is no right way to walk this path, only your own way.

For my own journey, I want to put in the time and effort, and feel like I've accomplished a small miracle in my own life. The Camino began as a spiritual path more than 1000 years ago, and the reasons to walk it have changed over time. I'm not sure what to expect on the way, but I want my spirit, as well as my body and mind, to benefit from each step I take.
  

There are as many ways as Pilgrims.