Food was amazing all throughout the camino. If you have done the camino you would agree it is one of the best things about doing it. We always looked forward to meals everyday. There is a pilgrim menu which consisted of a primer plato (first plate) offering soups, salad, and depending in which region also spaghetti. Segundo plato (second plate) which was the main course and offered the main dishes from that area. All of them offered selections from steak, chicken, fish and vegetarian. This menu also came with bread, dessert, water, and a drink (bottle of wine for us!) all costing between 10-15 euros. It is amazing how inexpensive food is in the camino and the quality you get can’t get any better!! Everything you eat is grown in that area. The wine you drink is literally from the wineries you just walk through and gets sent all over Spain. Since it changes from region to region as you walk you are exposed to all of it. Dessert was also a treat, it was so good!! There were times where our only option was whatever was available that day if we were at a small town or village and it was just as delicious. We experienced the pintxos and tapas cultures at their very best. We ate at the local restaurants to get into the culture and try the different dishes and because it was part of our budget, however, if you prefer to go to the local supermarket and cook your own meals that is also an option. In most albergues there is a kitchen open to pilgrims. I remember the Koreans would always make a feast drinking wine while cooking as a group and they were always about 10 of them! As you can see, there is no need to worry about food during el camino, there are plenty of options and you will not be disappointed. This is also true when you are walking during the day, you will find food between towns and fruits and snacks in the middle of a forest at a very fair price.
El Camino de Santiago – Where to Sleep
One of the most important parts of the camino for us was where we were going to sleep? Hostels, albergues, and hotels are all available for reservations and you can book some ahead of time. Where you want to sleep depends on you! We did not do any bookings ahead of time because we did not want to have the pressure of getting to a particular place on any given day. We would instead look at what was available the day before when we knew where we would be that next day. This worked for us except for one occasion when we decided to keep walking a little longer and when we reached the next town it was so small that everything was at capacity! We had no choice but to walk to the nearest town which was another 3 kilometers!! Needless to say we reached the next town dragging our feet and those 3 kilometers seemed like an eternity. Thankfully it was a nice surprise and when we got there the albergue was very nice and clean and we were the only ones there!! An albergue all to ourselves actually the entire village only had 10 habitants!! it was a ghost town like many on the camino. Lesson learned, when the next town is to small plan on booking ahead or be prepared to walk to the next biggest town where you will have more options. This is exactly what we did after this experience. We slept in all types of albergues, some very nice that I will list later on, some not so nice, basic ones, some very interesting ones, and then not so good ones.
The government offers a municipal albergue in every town (almost every town unless it’s a village) which is a dormitory style accommodation where you may be sharing a room and bathroom with up to 50 sometimes more people for around 5-15 euros for a bed. We stayed in a municipal albergue one time and we did it to experience what it was like and to see if this may be something we would like to do during the camino since neither one of us had done it before and we had heard it was a nice way to socialize and meet other pilgrims. The one we stayed at was in a room with 40 people and this was the last time we did that!! It was not a very nice experience as this is when you risk not having a good night sleep (which we didn’t). You are exposed to the smells, snores, dirty bathrooms, no hot water, and anything you can imagine. Another negative in the municipal albergues that does not make it easy for all is that some pilgrims like to start early, some as early as like 4am and so the shuffling, opening/closing of doors, lights, showers, backpack zippers it all starts and you want to do is get up and g, either way everyone had to be out of the albergue by 8am. I could say that for us things went well except for the smells and snoring, for others though I remember waking up and someone had been robbed money and passports. Not a very nice memory. If you cannot afford a more private albergue or hotel, a municipal albergue would be one of your options for a budget friendly shower and bed. These are equipped for you to wash clothes, charge your electronics, everything you need for a night, just make sure you bring earplugs or headphones, shampoo, body wash, a quick dry towel, any personal items, a sleeping blanket, a small bag/purse to carry important documents and money with you at all times (even to the shower).
Municipal albergue 
Everyone’s boots stay outside
A lot of albergues or hostels also offer private rooms with a private bathroom for little more which is what we ended up doing for half of our camino. For about 30-40 euros for both we would find a nice private room with bathroom and this was very comforting after walking over 20km! Other times we stayed in albergues and would ask to only be in a room with 4 or 5 other people, that was a nice option too because now it was more personal those other 4 or 5 pilgrims were also looking for the same comfort you were. The snoring never went away because well, you only need one person to snore and that’s that! Luckily, with our headphones and music that was not a problem after a few nights or we just got used to it jaja! In a private room you are free to return to your room at anytime without worrying about waking anyone up or putting on your pajamas in the dark. In most albergues where you share a room with more people you have to be back in the room by 10pm and lights go out to respect other pilgrims that are have an early start the next day (the ones that wake you up at 4 or 5am!). A lot of people will tell you that staying in a room with more pilgrims is a must as it is tradition, however, for us, it was more important to get a good nights sleep and rest. This did not prevent us from meeting pilgrims, exchanging stories, having dinner with pilgrims, and most importantly creating friendships that we will stay with us forever.
Bottom line, we did not enjoy sleeping in the public albergues and we do not feel it is necessary if you can afford a little more. I would recommend trying it if you are planning the camino just for the experience and well you might like it! But you don’t know until you try! Also, leave some room when making a budget in this area in case you do end up going to a more private albergue.
The following are the albergues/hostals/hotels by city where we stayed that we recommend:
Keep in mind for some we did private rooms, we recommend always asking if they have private rooms to compare the price against sharing.
- Pamplona: Landaben Hotel, our starting point, 10 minutes by car to the city center but close to the camino route.
- Estella: Albergue de Curtidores. Shared room with up to 6 people. Modern and clean hostel.
- Logroño: Hotel FG Logroño, we stayed here on day 5 of our camino, first rest day.
- Nájera: Albergue Puerta de Nájera, right next to the river where we dipped our feet.
- Belorado: Cuatro Cantones
- Santovenia de Oca: El Oasis
- Burgos: Hotel Puerta de Burgos
- Sahagun: Albergue Viatoris. Clean, spacious and comfortable beds. Make sure to get a nice blanket because it could get cold at night.
- San Martin del Camino: Albergues Peregrinos Santa Ana. Private room with shared bathroom.
- Leon: San Francisco de Asís
- Astorga: Albergues de Peregrinos Siervas de Maria
- Rabanal del Camino: Posada el Tesin. Private room. Nice staff and clean.
- Molinaseca: Casa San Nicolas. Private room, amazing staff.
- Villafranca del Bierzo: Albergue Leo. Private room.
- Sarria: La Casona de Sarria, amazing place, there is a hotel and an albergue right next to each other, both are fantastic! Don’t miss the breakfast it is great!
- Castañeda: Casa Milia. Private room, amazing place.
- Pedrouzo: Pension Javier Pedrouzo
- Santiago de Compostela: Hostal Mexico PR
El Camino de Santiago – Was it tough?
Is it tough? Yes. We’re not going to lie and say it is easy, all beautiful, and amazing. It is all that, plus it requires all your strength, patience, and willingness to keep going. The pain is inevitable no matter how much you have prepared for your camino. We could not even imagine how tough it would be when we were back home training. On average it was between 20-30 kilometers daily for any given stage imagine that! You will feel exhausted at the end of each stage and you will be pushed to your limits at least once on the camino. Back pain, blisters, sun irritation, tendinitis, and soreness are all part of this journey. Santiago did not have any blisters throughout the entire camino (lucky!) he did have back, knee, and muscle pains. Ingrid did have blisters (amongst other pains) which became a daily routine for both of us to squeeze the fluid out, this would be painful depending on the location of the blister but very necessary in order for the blister to dry out. I remember two very painful ones, one on each little toe (weird), where Ingrid almost cried. After those two painful blisters heeled (about a day) Ingrid was a professional with blisters and the entire rest of the way they were not a problem. Everyday we would wake up with a different part of the body hurting or making it uncomfortable to even move. The positive side of all this is that once you warm up and start each day it all goes away until off course you stop for a break or finish your stage that day. There were also the days where we woke up perfectly fine, no pain, nothing! It was like magic! We were always amazed and still are of how much our bodies can change and get accustomed to as well as how we managed to keep going regardless of how much our bodies were hurting. This is a lesson we proved in the camino, that we are stronger than we think and it is all in your mind, this is so very true you just have to live it to discover it.
There will be times when you will want to give up, get discouraged, frustrated, and will think of taking a taxi or bus to the next town, don’t do it! just keep walking, I promise you will get there and it will feel amazing. Go at your own pace, take breaks, walk shorter distances, talk to pilgrims, take a rest day, have some wine along the way or a beer, it is your camino and you make it however you want!! It is not a race and everyone is equal in the camino, no one is judging, on the contrary, everyone is there to help and find their own way. You will find many pilgrims are suffering more than you at some points, you can help if needed, and then just keep walking. That’s just it! It’s so real and human that the physical pain becomes normal and it ends up being a part of your journey.
Rest days, are very important and we believe necessary if you’re going to be walking the entire camino. We took rest days in Logroño and Burgos. We also took a shorter walk of 8 kilometers to Ponferrada and stopped there. Rest days are very helpful for the body and the mind to recharge. A nice hotel with amenities such as a sauna, jacuzzi, normal towels, a nice shower, nice sheets, and the ability to sleep in without being disturbed is always good during the camino. We also used this time to wash our clothes at the laundromats around town. Using the hotel laundry service was more expensive so we took advantage of the laundromats around town for less than half the hotel rates.
Our backpacks we carried all the way 
Sunny day
Feet in the river, great for healing
El Camino de Santiago de Compostela / Way of Saint James
As many of you know, we have just completed our Camino de Santiago de Compostela (The Way of Saint James in English). If you’ve never heard of it you might be asking yourself, what is El Camino de Santiago de Compostela? In short, because it is so much more, it is a pilgrimage with many different starting points and ways all leading to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia Spain. Legend says the remains of apostle St. James were brought to Santiago de Compostela from Jerusalem and are buried where the cathedral now stands. There are numerous reasons why many follow the camino, some of the most popular ones are for religious beliefs and personal growth.
The reason we decided to do it? Ingrid was first motivated by Paulo Coelho, her favorite author, his books referenced it and it was like nothing she had ever heard about and thought to herself one day she would do this. Paulo Coelho did the camino himself and wrote a book about it, The Pilgrimage, which I recommend everyone to read. Back in 2014 Santiago’s mom decided she was going to do the camino! Once Santiago’s mom completed her camino, we were both so intrigued and motivated with all her stories and adventures that we promised ourselves we would do it together one day and experience all that it brings with it. There we were in 2018 planning 2019, our year of travels, and we think to ourselves why not start this new journey with he camino?! We would have plenty of time since you need at least 30 days to complete the entire Camino Frances (the French Way) about 780km which is the route we did except we started in Pamplona Spain about 70km after the starting point in St Jean Pied de Port France. It took us 28 days total with 2 rest days to complete around 710km always carrying our backpacks (210km we did by bike). We were not wrong about doing it and the experience is inexplicable and it is something we feel everyone should do once in their lifetime even if for a shorter period of time and you have to complete it over a few years. It’s a time to connect with others, nature, and more importantly yourself. It was nothing like what we imagined and felt like we were in a dream!!
