Month: July 2013

When you follow enough pilgrims around all day, you start wondering what’s IN that pack they’re carrying. Want to know?

Here’s what I packed for the Camino de Santiago

Pack:

• Deuter Women’s Futura Vario 45L+10

Sleeping gear:

• Sea2Summit pyrethrin-treated sleeping bag liner (I know)
• Homemade blanket of silk fabric and Primaloft

Clothes:

• 1 quick-dry sports bra
• 4 pair quick-dry underwear
• 1 pair silk leggings
• 1 pair very thick Lorpen wool socks
• 2 pair medium weight REI wool socks
• 1 pair Injinji liner toe socks
• 2 lightweight quick-dry running t-shirts
• 1 black cotton t-shirt for evenings and bedtime
• 2 REI running pants
• 1 REI teal zip fleece
• 1 Rick Steves rain poncho with hood
• 1 Patagonia Nano-Puff jacket
• 1 wool hat
• 1 REI sun hat
• 1 fleece gator (mostly used as an eyemask, but good for warmth)
• 1 pair micro gloves
• 1 pr Brooks Cascadia trail runners
• 1 pr black Crocks

Documents

• Printed email confirmation (arrival and departure) for RyanAir and AerLingus
• Passport
• Photocopy of passport, ID, and bank cards
• Driver’s license
• Compostella (pilgrim passport)
• Scallop shell
• Camino de Santiago book
• Cash
• 2 credit/bank cards

Handy stuff/first aid

• Utility tool with awesome scissors (lost this – sad!)
• Keychain REI temperature gauge (in F and C) with mini compass
• Keychain LED squeeze light (didn’t need anything brighter)
• 1 16oz Nalgene bottle
• 1 32oz collapsible Platypus bottle
• Reusable fabric sack for groceries, laundry, and my carry on
• 1 gallon Ziploc bag for first aid supplies
• Antiseptic cream (small)
• 3 sewing needles and case
• Bandaids
• Mefix blister wrap (awesome!!)
• Ibuprofen (50ct)
• Immodium (3ct)
• Allergy pills (for sleeping) (30ct)
• Calms Forte (100ct)
• Cranberry pills (30ct)
• Acidophilus pills (50ct)
• Wellness formula (20ct)
• Night guard and case
• 10 pairs of earplugs
• 6 feminine pads (bought more on the way)
• Bandana (I wore this a lot, used as a towel, and almost cried when I lost it)
• 15ft of line & 4 clothespins and 10 safety pins

Shower bag

• 1 gal baggie for shower stuff
• Washcloth-sized chamois for washing and drying my bod
• Mini hair brush
• 3 ponytail holders
• Small shampoo/soap (picked up more at hotels)
• Tiny “rock” deodorant
• Small toothpaste
• Toothbrush and flosser
• Pink scrubbie (lost this en route — so sad!!)
• 2 disposable razors

For the Spirit

• 100-page art journal with:
  • List of emergency contact numbers
  • Friends’ addresses for post cards
  • 1 Pilot V5 black pen (THE BEST!)
  • Pentel ICY .7mm mechanical pencil
• St. Christopher’s medal
• Scallop shell necklace from Mom

What I chucked en route or sent home

I did discover that I didn’t need everything I thought I did. Humbling. The list below is what I gave away, tossed, or sent home:

• long sleeve cotton t-shirt (too heavy and took too long to dry)
• 1 pair thin wicking socks (didn’t use them as much as the toe socks)
• 1 pr of thick wool socks (they were too thick for my swollen feet)
• Fabric money belt (too awkward to use and it got all sweaty and gross)
• Disposable camera (too heavy and didn’t use)
• Sunglasses (the sunhat was cuter and worked fine keeping the sun out)
• Powdered sunblock (a good idea that didn’t work)
• Night guard case (my night guard got crushed on the way home – $400)
• Silk long underwear top (too hot and too see-through)
• Sucky, pain-inducing shoe inserts (my arches needed WAY more support)

What I wish I’d brought

Hindsight. 20/20. Hope this list helps future pilgrims. I wish I’d brought…

• An Altus poncho/rainjacket. They’re sold in the pilgrim shop in Saint Jean. It’s like they’re made for the Camino
• Crocks *with* holes (the no-holed variety Ibought made for sweaty feet – yuck)
• Quick-dry sarong as a shower wrap/towel/skirt (I bought one in St Jean)
• A small tube of decent 45+spf sunblock (bought some at the farmacia)
• A few chewable antacids (some of those spaghetti dinners stayed with me too long)
• A few more plastic clothespins
• More Wellness Formula (I wish I’d taken one every day while walking. I might not have gotten so sick)
• A lighter-weight wool sock (I found a great Lorpen pair in Carrion de los Condes and wore them the rest of the trip)
• A second pair of Injinji toe socks (I think they’re why I had so little trouble with toe blisters)
• Better shoe inserts (I thankfully found a winning solution at a farmacia in Burgos made by Dr Scholls. I might have had to stop walking otherwise).

It weighed HOW much?!

Since the contents varied from day to day depending on water and snacks (and what I’d recently lost), I never had an official weight. On average, it came in roughly around 15lbs without water or the clothes I was wearing. Not bad!

Want to see my updated list for my 2016 return pilgrimage?

Thoughts?

You may not realize it, but I’ve been writing about these songs in the same order that they popped up along the Way.

I’m Free has been one of my favorites for a long time. Secada’s career (as far as I know) has come and gone, but this song will always be one of the anthems of my life. It reminds me that I can always choose to be bummed out by difficulties — but more importantly I can also choose gratitude, love, and joy instead.

This ability to choose is freedom.

Continue reading “The Camino through song: I’m Free” →

I was rereading Buen Camino by Natasha and Peter Murtagh last night (love that book!). At the end, a German friend of theirs sums up his Camino insights in four bullet points.

I briefly considered writing them down, but then I thought, “There are more. There’s got to be.” So I grabbed my journal and wrote my own.

Enjoy!

Continue reading “11 steps to contentment: My key insights from the Camino” →

When I walked in silence for hours at a time, songs come came up that I haven’t thought about in years as unbidden messengers from the Divine. When songs showed up, I pondered their significance in the way you would a dream. Why is this song showing up? What is happening in my life that reflects the message? What does this song want to tell me?

The next three songs had no deep mystical meaning for me, so I’m putting them together into one post.

Everybody Hurts (REM)

Continue reading “The Camino through song: a three-fer” →

When I walked in silence for hours at a time, songs come came up that I haven’t thought about in years as unbidden messengers from the Divine. When songs showed up, I pondered their significance in the way you would a dream. Why is this song showing up? What is happening in my life that reflects the message? What does this song want to tell me?

 

As someone who’s spent most of her life searching for answers, it’s not surprising that this one showed up. But it has such a lonesome, unfulfilled quality to it, it gave me pause.

Why I think Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For was in my head

On the surface, it might mean that I was thinking about Santiago — and that I hadn’t yet found what I was looking for.

Continue reading “The Camino through song: Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” →

I can’t say that I’m a huge Sheryl Crow fan. In fact, I only tolerated singing All I Wanna Do (Is Have Some Fun) when I was in an a capella group in college. But Every Day is a Winding Road just wouldn’t leave me alone. Even now that I’ve seen the video, I still couldn’t sing you an entire verse of this song. Just the chorus:

Every day is a winding road I get a little bit closer / Every day is a faded siiiign I get a little bit closer…

That’s what I heard in my mind, over and over.

Continue reading “The Camino through song: Every Day is a Winding Road” →