Charlie. Today we walked on our first senda. It just means trail in Spanish but in this case it means the paths shown here created by the government for the Camino. They are right by roads but separated from them so they are pretty safe. They have the same surface as most modern paths and are quite nice to walk on. For you Albuquerque people they are similar to the paths they built around the UNM north golf course.
Brierly doesn’t like them. He calls them the “soulless sendas” because they are right by the road and not natural paths. It makes me think of the dementors in the Harry Potter books although the dementors actively suck out your soul and the sendas, according to Brierly, just don’t nourish your soul.
I think Brierly is too hard on the sendas. They are very nice to walk on and are safer than walking on the side of the road, as happens in many places with pilgrims occasionally getting hit by cars. The sendas are mostly by roads that don’t have a lot of traffic. Where the sendas are, there do not seem to be natural paths and, to create them, the government would have to take land away from some farmers.