Month: January 2025

Which shoes to wear on the Camino (Part III)(With free Camino shoes spreadsheet!)

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Enjoying my Nike Juniper trail shoes

Which shoes should I wear on the Camino? This is arguably the most asked question by folks preparing for the Camino. Everybody who has walked the Camino has an answer and is happy to tell you all about it. But nobody who has walked the Camino has your feet. So you can only answer the question.

Not surprisingly, one of the most viewed posts on my blog tackles precisely this question, you can read it here: Which shoes to wear on the Camino?

But I am nothing if not professional, and I noticed the spreadsheet on that post was from 2022; with the mad advancements in shoe technology and rampant Capitalism, I should do a new one. So I did, voila.

There is little to add to that original post, but I do have some thoughts that I did not elaborate on back then:

Some pilgrims are more prone to blisters and foot issues than others. I am not a specialist, but it might depend on how much training you have done in those shoes, how appropriate those shoes are for your particular circumstances, weight, stride, mileage, etc.

The shoe is only 50% of the equation; your socks are the other 50%. I use mostly wool with no stitching or seams. I still wear some Darn Tough socks from my first Camino in 2017! Then I got some Icebreakers from New Zealand, which are 60% Merino wool. You want the socks to fit properly to eliminate friction between the shoe, the sock, and your feet.

Sam, the first (and only) person to tell me about Camino prep, told me to lather Vaseline on my feet before putting on my socks. It works for me, in 4 full Caminos I have only gotten a couple of blisters, and they were my fault, not the shoes nor the socks…

During my Camino Aragonés, I walked some stages with Juan Gameros, a hardcore Mexican mountain guide (follow him on Insta: juan_gamerosmx). He wore Injinji toe socks, and he swore by them!

So you must find your magical shoe/sock combo that works for you.

In the attached spreadsheet, I only ranked 25 shoes by going to some random Internet rankings. The number of shoes and the number of criteria prove that there are shoes for all types of feet.

I was delighted with the Nike Pegasus Trail 3 from last year (read about it here); So this year Celia gave me a pair of Nike Juniper Trail II. I have already taken them out a couple of times and I can’t wait to walk the Camino this Summer!

Buen Camino

  • The spreadsheet is in Excel format so you can sort, add, or manipulate it as you want, enjoy!
Which trail shoes 2024 – 2025Download

Donate blood (if you can), you have enough to share!

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For years I was not able to donate blood, as I had lived in England during the Mad Cow epidemic (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease if you want to get technical) in the 80s -yes, I am an 80s kid.

This was very frustrating since the health community really did not have enough data and evidence for not allowing people to donate blood, but recently they changed the rule, and we can donate blood again!

Donating blood in Florida is a bit different -yes, Florida is special, and not necessarily in a good way. They have these red busses that go around collecting blood. A couple of times a year they go to our school.

So if your health allows you to do it, find the time to donate blood wherever you might be, someone you will never meet will really appreciate it!

Oh, just make sure that half an hour after you donate you do not go running in 30º humid Florida heat. Someone I know really regretted it and had to walk back a few kilometers…

Spanish Baroque in Boca Raton

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As soon as I found out that the Boca Raton Museum of Art had an exhibit about the Spanish Baroque, I booked a visit for my classes and then went to check it out for myself.

The paintings are courtesy of the Hispanic Society of America in New York, which has organized this exhibit, and which will then travel to a couple more cities.

Splendor and Passion: Baroque Spain and Its Empire is a small but very good-quality exhibit. You are welcomed by a local artist’s interpretation of Velazquez’s Meninas, and then you enter to discover paintings by the real Velazquez, Murillo, and el Greco (whom I would put more into late Renaissance than Baroque, but I am nitpicking). If you love the chiaroscuro, if you love Baroque art, this one is for you!

The Boca Raton is a fairly small museum, with most of the collection being 20th C art. But since you are already there, you might as well check it out.

So, if you are in this suburban wasteland that is South Florida, and you need a little injection of beauty, art, and culture, head over to the Boca Raton Museum of Art. You are welcome.

Ávila, a great excursion from Madrid

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If you are Catholic, you probably know Ávila from Saint Teresa. Otherwise, you might know this city because of its history, Medieval wall, or its sweets. Avila is a UNESCO World Heritage site and it is less than two hours North of Madrid, and a great and recommended visit.

It had been a long time since I visited this city, but I recently had a getaway with Celia. We took the train from Madrid, which was an adventure, having to change trains in El Escorial. We hit the city running, visiting El Real Monasterio de Santo Tomás straight from the train station. Sto. Tomas has one of the purest Gothic churches in Spain with an altarpiece by Berruguete, possibly the most famous Spanish artisan in this field, it also houses the tomb of the Infante Juan, Ferdinand and Isabella’s teenage son, three beautiful cloisters, etc.

We had the traditional steak for lunch and explored Saint Teresa’s home, now turned into a chapel -although they have kept her original room! We toured the Medieval wall, one of the finest in Europe, the Gothic cathedral, St. Teresa’s convent, all the beautiful little streets, sweet shops, and many palazzos, and squares. Since the visit was during Christmas, we got to see a few amazing Nativity scenes as well.

So, although Toledo and Segovia are better known day trips from Madrid, Ávila is in a remarkably close third position.