WHO ARE PILGRIMS…

Who are pilgrims? You, me, him, her, them. Pilgrims are everyone. They come from all over the world to walk Caminos in Spain. Name the country and there are probably pilgrims from there. They come from the United States, they come from Korea, Gabon, Mongolia. They come from Irak, they come from Fiji. They come from everywhere.

They are young, old, teachers, tech types, students, retirees. They are artist, farmers, the unemployed. They do the Camino on foot, on bikes, on horses. Last year ninety four people did them in wheelchairs.

Why do they walk? Many for religious reasons. Many for spiritual reasons, or in hopes  of becoming more spiritual. Some, like us, for the adventure and the challenge. Some, to finally accomplish something big in their life. Although millions have done the various Caminos, it is still a nice accomplishment for anyone. Some find they are, or have become the person that hope they could be. What is the reason one walks the Camino? For more reasons than I could ever think of.

What do pilgrims look like?

They are everyone, and I think they all believe in the goodness of the human spirit. A pilgrim lost his ID and money on the Camino and had it returned to him. Pilgrims believe one can achieve things they once thought they couldn’t. They are friendly, which is simple, but always nice. They share with each other, and they give what they have to make life easier for others on the Camino…and probably in life.

Caminos are not easy. They are designed that way perhaps to make one appreciate life. Not necessarily to suffer, but to make one aware that although life isn’t always easy, with some work we can survive. That if we learn to help each other we can all be better people.

The pilgrim walks between, maybe eight and twenty miles a day. Some less, some more. They do what they can. They walk for hours on asphalt, or through forest. They walk up and down hills. Some big, some small. They walk through big cities and little pueblos. Sometimes they even walk across golf courses. Some hop on buses or taxis. No pilgrim should be judged for the way the handle the Camino. “It’s their Camino” as they say. They will all learn something on The Way.

BACK ON EASY STREET…

Well after a rough day getting nowhere, today we actually got somewhere. Caldas do Reis to be exact. A little town about forty five minutes south of here by bus. Three days away if you are walking. We took the bus. Forty five minutes.

The days started slow, like all days here. We walked in the rain to the bus station. There,  Patricia met a woman who had lost her reading glasses. She said it was rough without them. She tried to go back out into the streets to look for them. Of course she never found them. In true pilgrim spirit Patricia reached into her pocket and gave the lady her’s. The woman was very happy and could see again. Nice way to start the day.

We went to Caldas do Reis to visit a restaurant we had gone to on the Camino Portuguese last year, Taberna O Muiño. Last time we ate a small meal, but upon leaving we saw the waitress bring out some big ass steaks to other customers. We said if we ever came back we would have a steak. A big ass one.

From the outside one might think the restaurant is just an old abandon building.

But fortunately it isn’t. It’s a popular restaurant that we found by chance.

We got to town an hour before they opened. No, it wasn’t because we were starving, but rather, that’s when the only bus got us there. We were the first customers in. It filled up quickly however. We looked at the menu, but already knew what we were going to eat. Yes, steak. A big ass one.

It was thick, juicy, and tasty. Of course the bread, and red wine were good too. French fries seem to be the number one side dish in Spain. That’s okay. They were great too.

Stomachs full, a little drunk, we left happy campers. Short walk back to the bus stop and back to Santiago. Tomorrow is our last day here before we take an overnight train to Madrid to go home. We are going to try and get a few walking hours tomorrow morning for some unknown reason.

WALKING IS EASY…

Walking is easy compared to trying to get a room in Madrid over the next few days, which right now for us is just about impossible. Of course one wouldn’t think that, but it it’s a national holiday and after several days and many hours we found nothing. Perhaps if we spent four hundreds dollars a night we might find something, but that is only a “might”. The city is booked. If you’ve ever been to Madrid you know there are hotel rooms everywhere. I mean everywhere. But we cannot find anything. Nothing. It is hard to believe. We could probably keep looking, but now, we are ruining our trip by spending so MANY HOURS online looking.

This all started a few days ago when we started trying to get a train out of Santiago. There was nothing. Most of the trains were booked. We found a few at strange times that took around ten hours. The fast trains get there in less than six hours. After we realized trains would be hard to find, we decided to switch over to looking for a room in Madrid. That’s when disaster struck. No rooms. No trains. Days and hours looking and nothing. Not the way we had planned on spending the last few days of our trip.

Santiago is currently packed with pilgrims. All the rooms here are booked. Not sure how we managed to find three straight nights here at the same hotel. I did remind them that we had stayed at this hotel before. Not sure if that helped anyway. The thing is, with all the pilgrims here it is fun. Seeing all the different people. All the people here are not really a complaint. Everyone adds to the good spirits here.

What is our final plan? To stay in Santiago still another day and take an overnight train Tuesday to Madrid. From the train station we will go straight to the airport. We had hope to visit some places we like in Madrid, but that isn’t going to happen. Santiago is not at all a place bad place to hang out, but for four days wasn’t the plan.

Next Camino we do we’ll make all train and departing hotel reservations before we leave the U. S. The Caminos seem to be getting just too popular. Of course we’ll continue to do Caminos. It’s just that making reservations shouldn’t be harder than walking the Camino. In the meantime we’re having a blast.

NOT A GOOD DAY…

Today was not a good walking day for us. Oh, it looked beautiful, in fact as beautiful a day as we have seen on the Camino, but it wasn’t a good day.

(By the way, i’m at the mercy of the Camino internet which is sometimes good and sometimes not so good. It is not allowing me to download photos at the moment. You’ll have to visualize a beautiful setting and the rest.)

Our walk is officially over, but we decided to walk back to Santiago rather than take a bus like most do. We are certainly not against taking a bus in this case, but we decided to walk because we still have a few days to go. We were going to walk from Muxia to a small town called Dumbria. It would be a nice short day…or so we thought.

The day started like any other day. We were tired. We did not want to get up, but off we went, eventually feeling great as we always do by mid-morning. The views are nice. The weather is perfect, and we feel pretty strong. The waymarkers (yellow arrows) on this Camino day, that are used to guide people along are meant for the people walking the opposite way, toward Muxia and not the other way around. What one does is just follow them backwards. Sounds easy enough. Plus there would still be a few markers guiding us along, although this Camino stretch is known for not being well marked. I am in complete agreement with that statement.

Things seemed okay for a while…a short while unfortunately. We couldn’t find very many markers to help us. It was one wrong turn after another, after another. If nothing else it could have been a nice day to get lost, but after a while it started to become ridiculous. We probably got lost about seven or eight times. Each time losing ten to twenty minutes. What should have been an easy four hour day turned into a long seven and a half hour day…and it got hot…and hilly.

I could have been better reading the guide book, but even that gets tricky as it tries to guide you over many miles. Patricia was quite understanding as I continued to fail to follow the guide.

One tries to maintain a good sense of humor and good spirits, but it becomes more difficult as the clock keeps ticking away quickly and you don’t have a clue as to where you are. We were tired and we were lost. You stand there frustrated unable to think as you try to think. We tried to support each other until even that fell apart.

Finally we walked into Dumbria, found our not so nice hotel with a not so nice host, who didn’t feel like getting us any snacks as we drank our cold beers. I think a local customer who was there, guilted her into giving us a little bread and cheese.

Patricia, tired, decided not to have dinner and stayed in the room. I went down to the dark dining area, and actually a decent meal of chicken and potatoes. Not all days on the Camino are good ones. Some are just plain lousy. This was one of them.

 

THE END OF THE ROAD…

Well, sort of…

Here we are entering Muxia, the final official destination of our Camino.

From this day on every Camino will be frosting on the cake. Sorry for the cliche. This was an important journey on the Camino, and it is a sort of closure in that we finished a portion every pilgrim eventually wants to do.

The walk was a good one. Not too long, with good company, and a nice place to sleep last night. Here we are with our Camino friends, Gerry and Beverly, and our host Yolanda.

If you’ve seen the movie The Way, which we have seen over twenty times…probably…the movie ends in Muxia, here at the Sanctuary.

The walk today was very scenic, like most days on the Camino. One good thing about  Caminos is that you can always count on good vistas throughout the day…most of the time.

Most Camino days are between ten and eighteen or so miles. One walks on asphalt, highways, small country type road, and through forest and mountains on dirt roads. You can bet that your walk is usually going to be up and down, with many long stretches of hills.

You’re probably going to walk either up hill or downhill to enter or exit a town. It’s wierd. It seems rare to just walk straight into a town. And the distance you are told to reach your town is probably as the crow flies, because it always takes longer that you expect. Many finish the days stopping for a beer. I’m sure beer sales are great along the Caminos.

Here are some scenes from today:

View from our room.

 

Another beach along the way.

 

Hard at work.

 

Why did the chicken cross the road?…oh never mind.

I mentioned at the top of this blog entry that we were almost done. While we have officially ended our Camino, we are going to try and walk for another couple of days to Santiago.

The walk to Muxia was great. Now we will see if we can savor the next couple of days on the road.

THE END OF THE WORLD…

We have now arrived in Finisterre. Up until the middle Ages, this was considered the End Of The World. Now it is a place where many pilgrims go to, perhaps, feel a true sense of completion, although the Caminos officially ends in Santiago.

This is where many pilgrims come to feel as if their Camino is truly over. On the Atlantic where one can’t go any further west.

Many pilgrims who don’t walk here come by bus from Santiago to see Finisterre. Everyone at some point wants to arrive here. The fortunate ones get to walk here.

The last couple of days have been short walks. About ten miles each day. Although the day before these two was a twenty mile days. That is a lot for anybody.

Coming to Finisterre was the important completion of our second phase of this trip. For us, to walk to Finisterre is in some ways a weigh off our shoulders. It seems that everyone has a different Camino they want to do, although the Camino Francés is the most popular, but everyone seems to agree the Finisterre is necessary or definitely something they want to complete. Now we have.

Next we will be off to Muxia, further north, to finish our last phase. It is about eighteen miles from Finisterre, but we will take our time and do it over two days. Muxia was where Saint James saw the Virgin Mary. Muxia is, to some, an important part of the walk from Santiago, although many pilgrims are happy just to get to Finisterre.

 

Celebrating with a few friends in Finisterre. The man on my left, John, lives a few miles from me. What a small world.

 

Starting the day in a town called Cee in the rain.

 

A cat standoff along the Camino.

 

Almost there. That is Finisterre in the background.

 

The view from our room. Nice.

 

Everyone helps the pilgrims.

 

Finally for today. We all learn things on the Camino. Patricia decided to leave her hairdo must-haves at home and just make do. Well, in true pilgrim fashion she found a way to fix her problem. Her hair roller is now the empty tube from a roll of toilet paper. She’s so smart.

NOTE TO SELF…

Buy a waterproof camera for next Camino. Fortunately we made friends with someone who had a waterproof camera and he took a couple of photos of us in the rain.

 

YESTERDAY WAS NOTHING…

Turns out yesterday was nothing compared to today. Who would have guessed? Yesterday was fun because it made for a good adventure, but really it was a very very difficult day to walk in. Worst rain day ever of all the Caminos we have ever done until today. Yes, today was worst.

Still no pictures. Camera sat double protected deep inside my backpack. It would have gotten it’s ass kicked by the rain trying to take pictures today.

Ten minutes out of the hotel we were soaked. Drenched. Which one is worst? Soaked or drenched? Whichever is worst that’s what we were. At one point I mentioned to Patricia, that if nothing else, we couldn’t become any more wet…I was wrong. Our feet were floating in our boots. We probably should have had on life jackets. I’m not making any of  this up. It was wet.

Not sure if I’ve ever seen this much heavy rain fall over several hours. It was coming down sideways and it hurt upon contact with the skin…or in my case, my face. It’s weird, you’re not really frightened by this, but it is a bit worrisome. You’re walking through the hills with no where to hide to protect yourself if needed. Little lake-type bodies of water are forming everywhere that you’ll have to cross. And the rain just keeps coming down hard…for hours. Much of many of the Caminos are through the hills and forest. Slipping into a cafe or building is usually not going to happen, or is it even an option.

Today’s walk was a little over four hours long, and it probably rained hard for over three hours, mostly non stop. Imagine your shower at home on cool full blast crazy mode and you’re right under it for three hours. That’s a piece of cake compared to today. That was most of the day.

When we finally arrived soaked at our hotel Patricia said, “Ray, why don’t you take a nice shower?” “A shower? Really?” I said. “Baby, I’m cleaner now than I’ve been in the last few months.”

Tomorrow we finish up the second phase of the Camino ending up at Finisterre on the coast. The end off the world as they believed it to be way back when. From there, the third phase, a one or two day walk to Muxia. After that we start walking back to Santiago.

For now we are dry and in our room. The rain should mostly end tomorrow, but we just had a wet and wild two days.

OH BY THE WAY…

…and to the last blog entry add:

Lay down a thick foundation of rocks that you will trample over with each step, and lots and lots of mud. Now you’re getting closer.

RAINDROPS KEEP FALLING ON OUR HEADS…

That is Patricia getting ready for our walk out of Negreira into the rain. How much rain? Unfortunately that was the big surprise. Imagine yourself putting on all you hiking gear, aiming a hugh fan at yourself as you jump into the shower, put the water on cold, full blast, walk in place on an up and down incline board, and walk like this for four hours…. Oh, and fill up your boots with a pitcher of water. Well, now you are only kind of imagining what we went through today.

Today was wild. Where are the pictures? There are no pictures. Today was not a day to take even the slightest chance with a camera. I took one of Patricia in the rain, but I was standing inside the hotel. After that forget it. It rained, and it rained, and it rained… And then it rained some more. And it came down sideways the entire time. The wind was blowing so hard the rain actually hurt against your face. And it lasted for four hours. You actually begin to be more curious about how bad it would get rather than wishing it would end. You want to see how much you can stand. Turns out we can stand a lot.

We were drenched. Socks, underwear, backpack, sandwich in the backpack. Everything was drenched. But we make it…kinda. We still had four hours to go. Today was about a twenty one mile day. That is a lot. It will be the longest Camino day on this trip. Thank god. We played word games, and recited quotes from the movie, The Way, to distracted ourselves. Eight hours later we walked into Olveiroa. Were we tired? Shit yeah.