I've spent time walking with a bunch of folks the last week or so, getting a tiny glimpse of the wide array of people walking here, some doing it for just a few days, others for far longer.

Last week I walked with a wealthy 66 year old Australian sports lawyer who was trying to do a week of the Camino as part of an otherwise super luxe 4 month swing through Europe, including a private car tour of southern Spain, a yacht cruise through the Greek Isles, a week each in Paris and London, etc., all meticulously arranged by his personal assistant. He was struggling and was taking a taxi at least part way to his hotel each day (one of his repeated lines was "at this age I don't have anything to prove"), but he stuck with me for a good 7 miles. I heard about his soccer-star clients, his race horses, and about his partner who had embezzled millions of dollars from his firm. But I also heard about his wife's agonizing death from breast cancer, before which he had never made a meal for himself and never even bought his own clothes. She died last year and he just doesn't know how to cope or what to do. He said he'd walked further than he would have if he hadn't met me but finally he said he had to take a taxi, so we stopped at a bar and said goodbye.

Yesterday I caught up to a couple of 40-something Englishwomen, one of them wearing a t-shirt that said "Pilgrim with Purpose". So naturally the first thing I said was "what's your purpose?" She said oh it was a joke gift a friend had given her before she went off on a week vacation/Camino walk, this being their last day. But within minutes I was hearing about how both of these women, one a family lawyer and the other a mid-level government worker, both from Brighton, were unhappy with the too safe life choices they had made and were hoping that a week's walk might give them some perspective and insight. We ended up chatting non-stop for about 90 minutes, but they were having foot problems so they had to stop.

And a 50ish Australian legal secretary living in Barbados whose life was "too easy" (is there really such a thing?), so she wanted to test herself. A 40 year old Swiss guy who owned a video rental store in Zurich for ten years, saved up dough, closed the shop in 2009, and has been traveling ever since, mostly living on the cheap next to beaches in Thailand, Goa, Turkey, etc., and who felt like he needed a good walk. He has enough money to last another couple of years and then he'll have to figure out what's next. Three 60- something retired Frenchmen I sat at dinner with last night who had already walked over a thousand kilometers! And today I walked the last couple of miles into town with a 62 year old guy from Manchester England, just given an early retirement package by the BBC, who in his early days had been a concert promoter for the Sex Pistols and The Clash. I would have loved continuing our conversation but I was at the end of my walk and he was going on another 8 miles.

I love the connection and the camaraderie and the sharing of stories and the fact that the walk goes more quickly when I'm with people. But I also feel like I'm missing something. There's something about the meditative solitude of aloneness, the being hyper aware of my environment, how it looks and sounds and smells, about noticing things. And I take poorly composed, poorly considered, haphazard, crappy pictures when I'm with people. One of the things I love more than anything is studying my visual field and trying make some artistic sense out of it, and that's lost when I'm concentrating on a conversation. So I suppose I'll keep on trying to maintain a good balance, some people time, but more solitude.

Today's walk was almost unbearably beautiful at times, and painful as well. There was a difficult steep rise at one point, but the views it afforded were phenomenal. And much of the time the landscape was an ever flowing series of wonderful abstractions.

But my feet don't like these 13 mile walks. They're good for about 8 miles, but after that it's blisters and pain. The rest I got in Burgos was good and I had hoped that had solved the problem, but I guess I just have to deal. Gotta replenish my Compeed--artificial skin-- at the next pharmacy. The rest of my body seems to be holding up well, my muscles feel strong, my knees and hips are fine, my wind is good, I have no trouble climbing the hills; my feet are the sole problem (ha ha!).

Now I'm relaxing in a microscopic 12 euro private room with shared bath in a private home/albergue. And there's a washing machine! For the first time in weeks I'm not doing the wash-in-the-sink routine. To small pleasures, as well as grand, in life!

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