Technology

I know all the arguments for NOT taking technology but I AM taking my techno toys with me. My tablet weighing in at 471 grams; Phone at 170 grams; charger, cords, power adapter and ear phones 132 grams and power storage block and spare battery 184 grams. That all adds up to 947 grams of digital weight. In old fashioned, pre-digital terminology, that means just over 2 lbs! I am already 3 lbs overweight so by cutting technology and my guidebook  I could be meeting my weight goal but then you wouldn’t be entertained reading about our adventure as we go. So technology stays.

I have prepped my tablet and phone with a few apps:

• Alertcop – press a button and a Spanish cop should appear pretty quick but I hope not to test this.
• Google maps with downloaded maps for offline use along with gps waypoints marking the routes, albergue, etc. Useful for finding your way back to the Camino.
• VPN-to ensure a private encrypted connection to the Internet.
• Podcast Republic – can’t be without CBC NxNW and Vox Today Explained.
• Libby – she will read audiobooks from my library to me.
• Overdrive – I will read ebooks from my library to myself.
• TripAdvisor – useful for booking places to stay, things to see and discussions about places.
• Rome2rio- how to get from A to B without walking.
• Google translate. In case I never get past page 1 of Spanish for Dummies.
• WordPress for keeping you in the loop on our doings.
• Camino Frances – someone made an app for pilgrims!

I have stocked up on music (Gregorian chants), podcasts and a few books:

• Marching Spain by V.S. Pritchett who marched 300 miles across northern Spain in 1927
• When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi, a doctor, writer and poet, who wrote this as he coped with terminal cancer. It seemed to cover some spiritual ground. After all, this IS a pilgrimage.
• Spanish for Dummies. Pretty self-explanatory and accurate.
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skoot who was fascinated by Henrietta and her cancer cell line which unbeknown to her ( she died in 1951) or her family for many years, is used for medical research all over the world.
• I am contemplating adding Don Quixote. Seems like a good fit.

And, should all the technology fail, I am bringing the bible of the Camino Frances, A Pilgrim’s Guide to the Camino de Santiago – a practical and mystical manual for the modern-Day pilgrim aka Brierley’s bible (277 grams). This, in case all the technology fails.