tramposos, cheaters

There are many ways to do the Camino. There are many ways to Santiago. Each of us must choose our own path. Each of us must find our own way.

Please.

Okay, a part of me really does believe that. As with any experience, there are as many paths as pilgrims, and each way is as valid as the next.

But.

Come.

On.

Ultimately, the right way to do it is to be a white American woman on the brink of 33 with a rainbow mohawk (fading very quickly) who walks pigeon-toed, claims vegetarianism while eating chorizo, worships the chocolate croissant, and is taking her time to get to Santiago. In the afternoons, she writes. She carries her own bag. She sometimes drops her laundry off to be cleaned. Occasionally, she stays at a hotel.

You get the idea. My ways of cheating aren´t cheating, of course. Because they are my ways. Here´s a list of possible cheating. Our Pilgrim Commandments list indicates that we should bring no prejudices with us to the Camino. My friends and I have agreed that we should, of course, pick those up as we go along.

1. Mode of transportation: Bicycling. What does Santiago know about bicycling? They whiz by on the trail. They travel in packs. They have no real community as they move too quickly.

2. Backpack carrying services. This is obviously not allowed. People stay at albergues and ship the packs ahead to meet them the next day.

3. Tour groups. Packs of these people carry water and a smile as they hike along, taken only to see the pretty parts. They wear clean clothes to speed down the trail where they are picked up and brought to hotels with showers and beds and sheets and yummy restaurants. They flood the trail. Santiago hates them. I know he does.

4. Section hiking. Some people do a part of the trail every year. Some people find this is not a real experience.

5. Lots of friendly competition about the real starting point. There´s a rivalry between those (me) who did the hardest etapa of the traditional Camino Frances and those (Iain and others) who started 3 days later in Pamplona. Wimps.

6. Alone or with others. There is quite a bit of discussion over whether one can have a true Camino experience while walking with others.

7. Albergues or hotels.

8. My favorite is the 2 Spanish couples who remind me of Lucy and Ricky and Fred and Ethel, though a bit older. Fred drives the bags to the next albergue every day and then he walks back along the trail, telling people that he is walking back from Santiago.