Excuse me, but this is a vacation. It is meant to be a fun bonding experience. It brought me closer to my mom and also proved to us that we can do it. And I wanted to provide people with my experiences with the Camino and what I liked and didn't like. I didn't find anything like this when I was looking on the forum and I wanted to provide my own commentary. When I was looking for advice and guidance on the best way for me, I got lots of bitchiness about using a company rather than advice about which companies were good and which weren't so good.

And what I am seeing is a lot of snobs disparaging people who use companies and only do the last 100 KM. This was difficult for my 65-year-old mother, but she did it. And what I hear in these down votes or people making comments that it should be 200 KM rather than 100 KM is people disparaging my mom. We met elderly people doing it as well and the 100 KM was harder for them than even my mom. We also met families doing it with their young children and one family that was doing it with a disabled child in a wheelchair. Again, it was very difficult for all these people and I hear lots of disparaging remarks and disdain for what is a major achievement for many normal people not used to walking.

As for the two complaints that I had, I wanted people to be aware of the fact that you cannot really get money changed on El Camino. We were pretty low on money by the time we got to Santiago although we still had credit cards. And I have nothing against standing in line for two hours, but I do have issues with standing in line for two hours only to be denied the certificate because I wasn't carrying my passport, something that wasn't really made clear on either the website of the Pilgrim's office or in the guidebook I gave. I betcha that there are people who stand in line for hours only to be either denied the Compostela because of confusion over what is needed to obtain it or because the office is closing. Again, people do have a right to be angry with that lack of customer service.