Ricardo Sanchez

Is it possible that by walking around a city or neighborhood, you increase your chances of connecting with unique individuals and experiences? I believe so, and this has been my theory for many years now. This is why I enjoy taking long walks around a city, especially when I visit it for the first time. In my opinion, there is no better way to get to know a city than by walking through it.

One of my earliest experiences with this was many years ago, just months after arriving in the United States. One day, I decided to drive to the city (I was living in a small town in Minnesota, many miles away from Minneapolis) and once I arrived, I simply started walking around. I loved the experience.

Walking allows you to see what you don’t notice while driving; it lets you focus on the small details—the buildings, their condition, the people, the shops, the traffic, the smells, everything. You can also head in any direction and stop anytime.

Exploring a city is something I’ve done since I was able to use public transportation on my own. While I didn’t venture outside my own city at the time, this didn’t stop me from taking the bus or “pecero” to explore other neighborhoods and visit shopping centers, movie theaters, etc. I was probably 14 or 15 years old and lived in Guadalajara, Mexico. I was fortunate that, although I couldn’t travel to other cities at the time, Guadalajara was sufficiently large and interesting for me to explore.

One of my favorite experiences in the United States was when I visited San Francisco for the first time. At the time, we called Austin, TX, home, which was, and probably still isn’t, a walkable city. San Francisco was a pleasant surprise. I remember staying at a small boutique hotel between Chinatown and the Financial District, and it was a beautiful place. Its location allowed me to walk to many places without even needing to use public transportation. Chinatown in San Francisco was my very first experience of a Chinese neighborhood in an American city; I loved it—especially the food.

Walking around San Francisco for the first time was quite the experience; I had never experienced any city like it. It was also a great workout, as San Francisco’s steepest hills are no joke. Discovering the piers for the first time, seeing the colony of sea lions which I’m told have been camping out at Pier 39 since 1990—it was amazing! All the people walking around Union Square and Market Street was an overwhelming event, but in the best way possible. Coming from Austin, Texas, and having lived in Minnesota before that, the diversity of everything in San Francisco was refreshing.

I’ve traveled to many more cities in America since then, and some of my favorite cities to walk in are Mexico City, Guadalajara, Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende, Vancouver, Canada, Chicago, New York (all boroughs), Santa Barbara, California, Portland, Oregon, San Francisco, California, and, of course, Seattle, Washington. Outside of the United States, the list is even longer, as it turns out, other continents, especially Europe, have very walkable cities. Some of my favorite cities to walk around the world are Paris and Biarritz in France, most of Spain (too many cities to list here), Rome, Florence, Viareggio, Cremona, and Venice in Italy, Tokyo, Japan, and Porto, Portugal, to name a few.

I wish I could walk more, but my laziness often stops me from doing it as much as I’d like. A few years ago, in 2019 to be exact, I decided to walk “El Camino del Norte”, which is part of the Santiago Way or Way of St. James pilgrimage in Spain. My wife did the French way a year before, which is the most popular of these pilgrimages, and it motivated me to do it too. This was probably one of the best experiences I’ve ever had when it comes to walking and disconnecting from everything. It was a 500+ miles journey that took me about a month to complete. You walk alone, sometimes finding other pilgrims on the way, and every evening, after walking between 8-20+ miles, you stop at an “albergue” and rent a bed to sleep in—and if you are lucky, they might have showers and offer some food. This was a difficult journey, but it also allowed me to discover more about myself and my feelings than anything else I’ve ever done. It also offered me the opportunity to see all these towns and nature around Spain’s northern coast, and it was incredible, gorgeous all the way. I have a goal of doing this once again, I need to.

The feeling I get from walking long distances is hard to describe, but it makes me feel content and calm. In the last few years, I’ve added an additional activity to my long walks: taking photographs of landscapes, architecture, people, storefronts, and documenting whatever I deem interesting and beautiful. It’s one more reason to go out and explore.

I’m making changes to my lifestyle to ensure long-distance walks are part of my life for a very long time; it will be very hard to live without the ability to do it.

Hope you have a beautiful Saturday, and buen camino!