It has been some time now since I last posted to this blog. Reading back over my last post I see that I never let you know that I made it to Santiago. Well I did. I had a great last couple of days of walking and arrived in Santiago a few days earlier than expected, feeling great with the exception of a pretty bad cough. I spent a couple of days exploring the city and meeting up with friends I had made along “The Way.”

Before returning home I spent a couple of days in Madrid seeing the sights and yes walking for hours on end around that beautiful and busy city. It took awhile to get used to the noise and crowds of Madrid after so much calm on The Camino but I enjoyed myself throughly.

Now that I have been back from my walk for a number of months I have had many chances to reflect on the experience. I can easily say that it was certainly one of the most interesting/challenging/fun/rewarding things I have ever done. By the time I reached Santiago I, along with my walking companions, was quite clear that while we saw no need to do this exact walk again we all agreed we wanted to do something like it in the near future. The fact that I would never walk the Camino Franc again was pretty well set in my mind – that said I am already thinking about doing it again for my 60th birthday as this walk took place in the year I turned 50. Oh well, so much for making up my mind.

MY NEXT ADVENTURE:

This May I will be trekking to Machu Picchu, the ancient Inca site in Peru, by way of the Salkantay Trail. This is a very different experience and opportunity. While the Camino was 500 miles in 30ish days this trek will only be 30ish miles in 5 days. That said this trip should prove to much more physically demanding as it takes place at times at attitudes of over 16,000 feet. My schedule is to fly out of JFK on May 4 arriving in Cuzco, Peru the following day. Spend 3 days in Cuzco (the ancient capital of the Inca empire) acclimatizing and visiting the many Inca ruins in the area. At that point I will hook up with my guide and begin the trek to Machu Picchu, God willing and my lungs and legs surviving I should get to Machu Picchu on the 11th and return home on the 13th.

I will hopefully post from Cuzco both on my arrival and departure.

I love to walk, explore places new to me and to meet folks from different places and walks of life; The Camino did this for me and I look forward to the same from this newest adventure – now it is time to get back into shape.