Mostly caminho’s are healthy. You move the whole day. You are outside in nature. You don’t eat or snack the whole day or sit behind the computer or telephone. The people who are with us look healthy. They like to eat lots of vegetables and fruit, and not so much or no meat at all. They don’t smoke, just a few need an asch tray. I give them a plant pot.
Once a man stayed at Casa da Lima that wanted to be healthier by following a vitamin pill diet with shakes. It is not that he needed to lose weight because he was skinny. Hope he made his way with his pills all the way to Santiago.
Another time a young man came but he was not so healthy, he told me that himself. His diet wasn’t healthy, and he didn’t do sports, also he didn’t move a lot. This was exactly the reason that he was having a hard time on the caminho. Everything in his body was hurting. After Lisbon, it started with his calves, then his upper legs, and hips and back. And his feet must have a hard time too without walking experience. He rested at our place and with pain in his heart he let his fellow pilgrims go. He was so sad because they formed a nice group of two young women and an old man. The three others walked half day further to Conimbriga or even Cernache and the next day they would be in Coimbra. He would need at least 2 days to go to Coimbra. Who knows they would meet further north again. Everything is possible on the long distance walks!
Say No to Tent
Last week three young women in their early twenties came here to eat some yoghurt and coincidentally I made waffles too. Their backpacks were quite big, but I didn’t see a tent. They start to tell me their story. They slept out in the open air, without tent. Just with their backpack.
That is amazing. There are insects at night but they were okay with the repellent they carried. Their journey is from Lisbon to Porto, so they accomplished half of the trail. I saw one of the girls writing in a book/diary. They wanted to write cards for their parents, but they didn’t see cards to buy.
Good that they stopped here because I have a lot of cards from Olive farm Passeite of Marije en Gui so I gave them cards for their parents and friends in Denmark.
Say Yes to Camera
They were making foto’s with a camera, and one was charging it on our patio. I told them they could charge all. No answer, so I offered it again.
Not necessary, because they left their phones in Denmark.
What??? Well, the story keeps getting better!
Say No to Phone!
Normally you need the phone to see where you are going to sleep. Since they have a look while walking outside, they don’t need the phone for that. They wanted to have a phone detox. It was also a spontaneous idea to walk the caminho, no app that leads them, and no training. Just their backpack, diaries, camera’s and each other!
