In Muxía, site of Prestige oil spill

Last night I was all alone in the amazing though somewhat bizarre albergue of Dumbría.  All alone.  It was kind of weird, but they locked me in at 10 pm., reminding me that the emergency exit was always functional.  Here I was all alone in an albergue, so I didn´t bother to put in ear plugs.  But then around midnight, I was awakened by  incessant mosquito buzzing near my ears.  So there you go, earplugs but no snorers.  There was  a LOT of rain falling all night and I was kind of apprehensive.  Then when I woke at 6 am, there was water pounding against the window.  Aargh.  When I got up and opened the window, though, I saw that the water wasn´t rain, but sprinklers.  What?  Sprinklers in Galicia?  Where it rains every day?  Oh well.  The day started cloudy, but turned just beautiful -- cool and sunny. 

Today´s walk was about 24 km, very pleasant and mostly off road.  There were endless kilometers through eucalyptus forests, and lots of little villages along the way.

 I found a café around 9:30 and as I was sitting there having my café con leche, the skies opened and it poured for about 10 minutes.  That was the last I saw of the rain. 

One of the bonuses that came from my decision to walk on this pretty untraveled route was that I could see the beautiful romanesque church of Moraime.  It wasn't open, but the outside is prety spectacular, and there was a gated door that we could peek through.  Very nice!

I am now on the coast, in the Muxia albergue, where the sea ranges from turquoise to deep blue, there are tons of boulders, and lots of huge crashing waves that are just spectacular. 

Tomorrow I walk to Finisterre, then it´s done.  Can´t believe it, it´s always very hard to stop walking. 

Halfway to Finisterre

Two days walking from Santiago, both about 32 kms, and now two more days to Finisterre.  Tomorrow I will walk into Muxía, which is the town on the coast closest to where the Prestige oil spill took place.  It´s also the place where Martin Sheen and his friends in The Way ended their Camino.  I, however, will take one more day to walk to Finisterre.

I said goodbye to the last three of my camino family last night.

 I debated staying with them and walking their route for the next few days, but it seemed like I had already "peeled off" from the group and that I should keep with my original plans.  It was really quite a wonderful group, and these three young-uns (late twenties, one from San Francisco, one from Vancouver, BC, one Quebecois) will continue together for a few more days.

I am in an albergue tonight in the town of Dumbría, and it is the most incredible albergue I´ve ever stayed in.  It is ultra-modern, huge, all amenities, and no people (so far I´m all alone, just like I started the Camino).  Most of the money to build this place was donated by the man who owns Zara, who apparently loves the Camino (or wants people to think he loves the Camino).

So, on Sunday I´ll be up at the lighthouse in Finisterre, which is now a hotel/restaurant/bar.  This is actually quite convenient because it means that I can both see the sunset and watch the finals of the Eurocup, which will pit Italy versus Spain.

Last night a German pilgrim ordered a shot of some drink I couldn´t tolerate to celebrate the birth of his 6th grandson.  It was a nice Camino moment, even though most of us never laid eyes on each other because we all walked into Santiago on different routes and have all decided to walk these days out to the coast.     

Tomorrow I reach the ocean!

Rest Day in Santiago

I have only a few minutes in between goodbyes and getting ready for tomorrow´s walk to Finisterre.  Just to say that I am in Santiago, having arrived yesterday, thankfully early on a day where temps went well into the 90s.  It is now cool and partly sunny, much more enjoyable weather.

It´s not every year that I arrive in Santiago with a Camino family.  This year there were 7 of us.  We met each other at the first albergue on the Camino Primitivo and spent the next 12 days as a loosely knit group.  We walked the same stages, stayed in the same places, ate dinner together, and sometimes walked together.  Yesterday I was the first to arrive in Santiago (not because I´m the fastest, but because I was the one who was the most scared about having to walk in 90 degree temperatures and as a result left very early).  I was in Santiago by 10:45 or so, and spend the next hour and a half as one by one the other six arrived. 

Lots of hugging, laughing, followed by a big group meal, and a couple of strong shots of something for the more intrepid.

 Then the teary goodbyes started.  Two of the madrileños (well, actually one Salvadorano and a madrileño) had to leave last night, the third one this morning.  And then there were four of us, all of whom will start for Finisterre/Muxía tomorrow.  I expect that when I come back to Santiago, though, I will be alone. 

So ends another camino.  I´ve probably written this before on my other camino blogs, but every year when I walk into Santiago, I wonder if I will say -- ok, I´m done, this is the last Camino.  This year was lining up to be a pretty good year for that to happen, because it was rough at the beginning, both physically and mentally.  But the last two weeks have been amazing, and I´m still hooked and starting to wonder which Camino I will walk next year. 

But first, there is a Spain-Portugal soccer game to watch (semi-finals of the Eurocup 2012), a four day walk to Finisterre, another day in Santiago, and a reunion with the three madrileños next Thursday in Madrid before I get back on the plane.

A wonderful day on the Camino

Well, I am now two days from Santiago.  This morning, I left around 7, knowing where I was going but not knowing whether my Camino friends would be coming with me.  I told them where I was going and said goodbye.  By about 11:30, I was in Melide, octopus capital of Spain.  There was a huge weekly Sunday market.

 

 

After my market visit, being careful not to overload my pack, I spent two hours in one of the "pulperías", octopus houses, waiting with some other peregrinos for my friends to arrive. I had some pulpo (yum) and decided to walk on, thinking that perhaps they had changed plans. 

Today´s walk was wonderful.  Though the elevation maps show it as flat, there are innumerable ups and downs of 100 - 200 feet, which are noticeable when you are carrying a pack of 15-20 pounds.  Even though it was Sunday, in every town there were people up and about, milking their cows, or working in the fields.  I talked with lots of them, trying to imagine life in their little pueblos.  Glorious. 

This was the day we merged with the Camino Francés.  It was incredible, during the 5 kms from Melide to the tiny town of Boente, where I am, I saw more people than I have seen in total in the past two weeks.  I got to the albergue in the mid afternoon and saw no one I knew.  A few hours later, all my friends arrived and all was well again. 

Emergency medical care in the TERRIFIC albergue in Boente.
So, we now have two days to Santiago.  There are all sorts of people on the Camino.  I was talking this afternoon with a Korean girl of 14 who speaks English fairly well. She is with a group of eight friends and a teacher who is a few days back unable to walk with a swollen foot.  So here is this group of  kids walking through Spain unattended, unable to speak Spanish, but not a care in the world. 

I will arrive in Santiago on Tuesday and spend two nights there.  Then on Thursday, my last little jaunt to Finisterre.  It´s all ending, I am so sorry to say.  But first we will have a birthday party tomorrow night, because one of our group has a birthday.  Can´t wait!

In Ponte Ferreira, one day from the Camino Francés

I think that as soon as I finished my last post, it started to pour.  It rained all Wed. afternoon, evening, and through the night.  Two Spaniards got up at 4 to start to walk and they woke up the whole albergue with their noise.  I got up, looked outside at the horrible weather and curled back up in my bag.  A few hours later, we packed up and wet outside, and though it was grey it was not raining.  When we got to the little hamlet of Paradavella, a bar was open for coffee and toast.  Everyone stop there, and the owner warned us over and over about how we should not continue on the Camino (because of last night's rain) but rather stick to the highway.  As a result, the many pilgrims who listened to him missed out on one of the most beautiful stages of the Primitivo, with ups and downs through woods and green pastures, through little hamlets with rivers running through, just simply beautiful. 

 

Luck stayed with us the whole day, we saw some sun and it made walking through those green tunnels of mud much easier with no rain coming down.  Actually it was a beautiful day -- so beautiful, that when we got to our planned destination, we decided to call 8 kms further on and book a pensión.  The big elevation changes are all over now, so I don´t have to worry about losing too much steam at the end of the afternoon. 

So, yesterday we arrived in Lugo, a city with Roman walls and a beautiful historic center.

 It was a lovely sunny day, the start of three days of fiestas in Lugo -- called ardus luxus or something, they seem to mainly involve grown-ups and children dressing up to look like Romans or visigoths and then consuming huge quantities of alcohol.  Any thought I had of spending a "rest day" in Lugo was quickly dismissed by about 3 am after we had had 3 hours of loud, drunken singing in the streets outside our window.  It continued all night and by 5:30, I just decided to get up and go.  The streets were still packed with people of various stages of inebriation, and the plazas were filled with bottles, garbage, etc.  Just as I was leaving town, around 6:15, the poor sanitation workers arrived to start cleaning.  The city will be spic and span by 8 am, just in time for Saturday´s round of partying to begin. 

So, we walked out of Lugo and had a nice day through green Galicia. 

We once again stopped at an albergue and decided it was too early to stop walking, so we took a rest, ate lunch, and on we went to this little town of Ponte Ferreira, whose main attraction is a 7' long Roman bridge.  But we are now only 22 kms to Melide, town of octopus fame, and this is where my camino (the Camino Primitivo) joins up with the Camino Francés and the hordes that will be walking.  I will have two more days into Santiago, where I´ll spend two nights and then start my last walk of the year -- four days out to Muxía and Finisterre, on the coast.  Can´t believe how little is left. I´m not ready to stop walking yet, but maybe that will change when I am on the moving sidewalk of humanity that they call the Camino Francés. 

Spain plays France in the Eurocopa quarter finals tonight, so the albergue has hooked up a special tv screen for all the fans to watch.  Since there are both Spaniards and French here in the albergue tonight, it could be interesting.

Internet two days in a row!!!

I had a very good 29 km walk today into the large-ish town of Fonsagrada. It´s one of those towns you see hours and hours before you arrive.  And then right before you get really close, there is a steep descent, which you know means that you will have another ascent to get into town.

 Perfect weather, a couple of pretty strenuous ascents, and not too many rocky paths on the way down.  The albergue is about 2 km out of town, in the hamlet of Padron, but I decided to come back up so that I could use the internet.  AND so I could eat my first pulpo gallego. Gallego style octopus is very simple, just boiled and then seasoned with olive oil and salt.  I love it but can´t eat a lot at one sitting.  So that means that a bunch of us will go and share a big plate.  Now that we´re in Galicia, it is pretty easy to find, but there is a very highly regarded pulpería here. 

Evidence of  la crisis is everywhere.  Here in town there´s a four star hotel sitting empty and for sale.  Lots of businesses are shuttered.  People in Galicia seem to be less optimistic than some of the other places I´ve been walking.  The few I´ve talked with all seem to think doom is about to descend, and maybe they are right.  But I´ll go do my bit for the economy by buying some octopus. 

Two more days and then we´ll be in Lugo, which has some amazing walls and lots of Roman remains.  Mosaics, villas, museum, etc.  There is also a big Roman re-enactment festival of some sort going on, so things will be hopping.  Maybe I´ll get to see a gladiator or two.

Five days on the Camino Primitivo

Well, I´ve had a little bit of everything.  One day hot and sunny, next day 7 hours of rain, then a sunny cool day, then a day with mist so thick you couldn´t see more than 20 feet in front of you.  Finally today, it was cloudy and cool, but the sun is starting to peak through so we think the weather is changing. 

I´m feeling like Goldilocks right now -- this Camino is just right.  Not too many people (like the Francés), not too few people (or better said, no people, like the Salvador and Vadiniense).  I´ve fallen in with a group of six others.  We are doing the same stages and wind up staying at the same place, running into each other along the way, and eating our evening meal together.  One of the young women in the group was a chef so we are well taken care of. 

The last time I walked the Camino Primitivo, there were essentially no other women, and no young people.  This time, there are lots of both.  My little group consists of two Spanish guys (40s and 50s), a Salvadoran guy in his late 30s, and three 20-somethings (a woman from US and two Canadians).  We all get along, and have laughed a lot. 

What has made this Camino especially nice is that we have been staying in some special albergues.  Our first night out of Oviedo, we were up on a hill, in an old school building looking out over the Asturian countryside.  The hospitalero cooked dinner for the 20 of us and we sat outside and enjoyed it to the max. 

Our second albergue was just what the doctor ordered after a full day of walking in the rain.  Alejandro, the guy whose house it is, was a taxi driver for 14 years in Madrid.  He gave it up after he walked this Camino, bought an old run down house right on the Camino and has turned it into a spectacular albergue.  He washed our clothes in a washing machine, made us dinner and breakfast, and served us wine made by friends from Galicia.  The evening was capped with a few pretty great card tricks! 

 

 

Then we had a day of green pastures, mountain views, little stone villages.  It was an incredible walk, through the town of Tineo, and then on a few more kms to the little hamlet of Campielllo, where a woman named Herminia has captured the pilgrim market.  She owns and operates an albergue, a casa rural, a bar/restaurante, and a few non-pilgrim ventures (such as the local outdoor "bowling alley") as well. 

 Coming into Herminia's albergue, ready to use the industrial sized washing machine!

Yesterday´s walk is one that is described in all the guidebooks as dangerous, remote, etc etc.  Well, it´s not that at all.  The 7 of us set out together and knew we´d be sticking close together.  We had a thick mist the entire way.  We made a lean-to out of a couple of ponchos and huddled under them for a quick lunch, but it was a long dreary day.  The high points were walking through a big group of wild Asturian horses (I learned why the Moors were unable to conquer the Asturians -- apparently it´s because they used big horses ill equipped for mountain dashing, while the small nimble Asturian horses were able to run circles around them). 

Our albergue last night had heat pouring out of the radiators but cold showers, go figure, in the small town of Berducedo.  There is a small municipal albergue (about 12 beds) and a private albergue and casa rural..  We ate in a restaurant that was recently bought by a young Spanish guy who lost his job.

 The Spanish system is a fairly sensible one, I think -- the new owner told us that since he qualified for full unemployment benefits because of his work history, he had the option of taking a lump sum unemployment payout, so long as he could show that he was going to use it to open a business.  Well, he took over what used to be a fancy restaurant in this tiny town and turned it into a more down-home kind of place.  Dinner served whenever you want it, but only one choice.  You get two fried eggs, four slices of lomo (cured pork), french fries, and a big lettuce and tomato salad.  Topped off with regional wine, 8€. I ´think it´s a pretty good business model, much better than his predecessors who served fancy prix fixe seven course meals.  Not sure that appeals to many peregrinos. 

Today, there was a descent of 3000 feet.  Oh my knees.  Down to another dam and reservoir. 

That of course was followed by crossing over the dam and ascending back up to the town where we are now.  Luckily, there was a nice hotel/cafe on the side overlooking the reservoir with a very nice terrace.  The young-uns had beer.  I stuck to coffee.

The climb back up, to the town of Grandas de Salime was hard -- not quite 3000' up but close.  So even though it was a short day of 20 kms, it was tough.  There's a brand new albergue in this town, it's just terrific, great kitchen so our young sous chef could go to town and feed us all!

I´m sorry I´ve not been in touch, but there is very little internet on this Camino.  In a few days I´ll be in Lugo, but it will be the weekend, so I´m not sure I´ll find internet there either. 

My feet are fine, they just look a little ugly.  Can´t believe I´ve got less than 200 kms to Santiago, but I´m going to forge on to Finisterre and Muxía if my body cooperates!