Behind the Albergue Door: Inspiration Agony Adventure on the Camino de Santiago

popping up inconveniently while jogging, hiking, playing tennis or kicking homeless people in the ribs. We just felt lucky it didn’t occur until day 28.
    Solution:
    She asked the woman at the front desk of the albergue in Foncebadón for some ice and before she could even specify that it was for her leg (as opposed to her drink, or to build a small outdoor hockey rink) the woman reached under the counter and came up with a bag of ice specially prepared for just such occurrences. The ice helped, and then, just to be on the safe side, she also awkwardly favoured that leg for a few days which helped her calf, but unfortunately led to several new , and less familiar, aches and pains, as well as the nickname Tipsy.
    Problem:
    Feet
    In an overall, general aching sort of way. Just a constant ache that comes from strapping all your belongings on your back and walking, walking, walking, all the damned time. The kind of ache that makes you groan like you’re having a catheter removed every time you take off your shoes and put your feet up on a chair. The kind of ache that leads you to opt against showering after eight hours on the trail just so you don’t have to stand up. The kind of ache that makes you stumble when you get out of bed in the morning like a war vet after an afternoon at the Legion. It never really got any better even though it was the sort of thing we all assumed would pass over time. Eventually we learned why, from a friend who had previously hiked the six-month long Appalachian Trail – apparently “it takes a good six weeks or so to get your feet under you”. Hmm, didn’t see that little destroyer of hope in the Camino brochure.
    Problem:
    Blisters
    I am, and was, very happy to report that although I did have to fight through some sporadic blister outbreaks, when all was said and done, I had it much easier than most. Probably partially due to having good hiking shoes that I’d already worn on previous treks, and partially because my feet are far too flat to create much friction, like the last kleenex tissue lying in the bottom of the box. Even so, I did get a few blisters here and there, especially during the first week, but kept them under control by drawing on the vast wealth of blister knowledge available on the Camino (see below). But even then, every time I got to thinking blisters were a thing of the past, only a concern for the foolish, the tenderfoots, the fetishers, suddenly a new blister would appear as if by magic, as round, shiny and irksome as a ball of petroleum jelly and lint. It was especially disheartening when I discovered a new blister at the end of day 32 of all things. Sure, it had been an unusually long day in and out of the rain and subsequent rain puddles, but to have a new blister appear after more than four weeks of doing little else but hiking and tending to my feet felt tantamount to finding out you had a wet dream after you nodded off at the table during your 80 th birthday party.
    Blister Solutions (and the Camino Pharmacists Who Make a Good Living off Them)
    As you have probably gathered by now, blisters were far and away the most common physical grievance among pilgrims voluntarily torturing themselves on the Camino. And, while there was certainly no shortage of free advice being handed out by us pilgrims who routinely credited ourselves with improbable levels of knowledge on all things hiking - from how much water should be consumed hourly when hiking in short pants to how much noise is too much noise to make with walking sticks to what type of sunglasses are best for surreptitiously staring at cleavage - far and away the most commonly shared tidbits of advice involved blisters. How to avoid them, how to treat them, how to keep them from getting infected, how to make people at home understand they aren’t a laughing matter. Unfortunately, as one might expect when receiving such vast amounts of information from so many different sources occasional contradictions and discrepancies arose. Sorting out truth from myth, the efficacious methods from the futile, the useful ideas from the bullshit that just made things worse, well, that was the real trick. So here is the list and, while I’m tempted to tell you what I think really works and what doesn’t, who’s to say I know any more than the next guy?
    Cover your feet in Vaseline
    Apparently, the idea is to make your feet all slimy and slippery like a spunky greased pig at a town fair. And I’ll bet you’ve never