A Change is Gonna Come

Tuesday Sept 24th, 2019
Portomarin to Palas de Rei
25 km, 39,000 steps, walking day #34

and

Wednesday Sept 25th, 2019
Palas de Rei to Melide
17 km, 24,000 steps, walking day #35


Tuesday Sept 24th, 2019

My usual camino schedule included early breakfast and being out walking by 8:15 am. I decided that this day would involve a significant change to that routine. My idea was to allow the crowds of pilgrims that leave between 7:00 am and 9:00 am to do just that, while I lounged around my hotel. I figured that if I began walking at 10:00 am, that I would be able to walk in a certain amount of peace.

As it turned out, it was a good idea for many reasons. When I looked out my window at 7:00 am, it was dark and pouring rain. The early pilgrims were trudging in the pre-sunrise murk, their heads down, their rain ponchos flapping in the wind. When I began walking at 10:00 am, it was light, the air was fresh, the rain had stopped and the breeze was light. It remained overcast which is the norm for this region, but that kept it cool and very comfortable for walking. Also, as I had hoped, many of the pilgrims had already left, so the route was not as crowded as the previous day, when I was walking in the thick of the crowds. The 25 km today consisted of 12.5 km basically up, then 12.5 km basically down, with the steepness of varying degrees. Where the path was packed dirt it was a bit muddy in places, and we all looked like we had been drinking as we weaved between the puddles.

In this area of Spain there are these structures in the back yards. It wasn't immediately clear to me what they were.

A group of women from France were taking pictures of them. They gave the impression of knowing what they were photographing, so I asked them. They explained to me that these structures were corn bins. The way they were built prevented mice from eating the corn. Apparently the size of the corn bin also gave an indication of the wealth of the family. They're decorated with crosses and other religious symbols because this part of Spain is very Catholic.

The Roman bridge into Palas de Rei

When I reached Palas de Rei I checked into my hotel room. Two of the walls in my room were made up of rough, exposed stone. Previous inhabitants of the room had placed coins on the wall, where the stone had enough of a ledge to give the coin a place to rest. There was about 3 Euros on my hotel room walls!

The camino is getting us closer and closer to the coast, and seafood is beginning to show up on the menus. Tonight I had grilled scallops.

I added one of my scallop shells to the wall.

Wed Sept 25th, 2019

I left Palas de Rei at about 8:30 am.

Here's a treat for the tech writers out there - this is a sign in the elevator of the hotel.

The weather was the same as the previous day, which means overcast with the threat of rain (but it never did). The temperature was about 18 degrees C. The air was humid but the breeze was cool, which meant I got warm when I was walking but got cold if I stopped. A few times the sun broke through the clouds for a moment and it was like getting a soft kiss on the forehead from the universe.

It was a relatively easy day. The path was mostly through wonderful mature forest of oak and chestnut. The branches reached over the path and waved gently in the breeze.

We passed many farms with cows and sheep. Every farm has one to three dogs - usually large German Shepherds, a few cats, often a few horses, and a caged-off area for the chickens.

These horses were curious about us. I had the feeling that if they could, they would have photographed us, too.

These chickens all ran over to me when I came up to the fence. 

It is very funny to watch chickens run.

There is also a large kitchen garden with kale, red peppers, tomatoes, beans, squash, melons and potatoes, and a small orchard with a few types of apple trees, a few pear trees and a quince tree.

Kale grows 5 feet tall here.

Gorgeous red peppers

The perfect apple, ready for harvest.

I love the grapevines trained over the doorways.

I have learned that roosters will crow at any time of day. I have heard roosters on four different properties in the same village take turns crowing to each other as I walked through one afternoon. Roosters will also crow on a cloudy day when the sun comes out.

In every village there are homes and pieces of land for sale. Apparently this generation doesn't want to live in the family home, preferring to live and work in the larger cities, so the family homes are for sale. It looks to me like sales are not brisk, since so many places are available.

I got into Melide at about 1:00 pm, quite hungry. Melide is known for its restaurants that serve Pulpo (octopus), so that is what I sought for lunch.

I went to the restaurant that had the best rating on TripAdvisor and had a lunch of Galician Octopus. Yum.

Boiling the octopus in large cauldrons.

Plating the octopus - a swirl of olive oil, and a sprinkle of paprika and salt.

My lunch - a platter of octopus

Upon leaving the restaurant, I ran into my Brazilian friends Eliana and Evendro and they invited me to join them for a late lunch! They were meeting other friends in an hour to have octopus at the restaurant where I had just eaten. Of course I said yes! We walked around the older section of Melide for an hour and investigated a few churches, then returned to the restaurant.

Beautiful stained glass window.

An ivory cherub.

Evandro says it's priceless and that's why it's behind glass.

So I had "second lunch" with Eliana and Evandro and their friends Laurie and her husband. Laurie and her husband are from Baton Rouge. He is completely blind and Laurie has 5% vision. They are doing the camino on their own, using online maps and an app for booking accommodations as they go. That's pretty impressive.

Outside Pulperia (Octopus Restaurant) Ezequiel.

Eliana and Evandro love to have their picture taken.

We were in the restaurant for a few hours, sharing stories of the past and present, and sharing hopes for the future. I didn't have another meal, but I did have dessert when the time came (soft cheese and quince jam). It was a lovely afternoon.

I'm only a few days from my destination now. The way I'm feeling is similar to how I felt when I was a few days away from starting this whole journey. A little nervous, a little anxious. I have become accustomed to the calm routine of the last five weeks and I know there's going to be a huge change when I get back to home and work. I'm thinking about how I can carry the camino with me after I leave Santiago de Compostela and return home.

Decisions

Choices are the hinges of destiny.
Pythagoras

Monday Sept 23, 2019
Sarria to Portomarin
24 km, 36,000 steps, walking day #33

I was talking to Paul from Ottawa at breakfast this morning. He had been based in Ottawa with the Canadian Armed Forces. He retired after 36 years of service. When you retire from the CAF, they will pay to settle you anywhere in Canada that you want. (I'm sure certain conditions apply but we didn't go into that). He said that after a career of having all the decisions made for him, making the decision about where to live was too difficult, so he stayed in Ottawa. (Please see blog from Aug 26th, 2019 entitled "Thoughts on Freedom" where I discuss that concept).

This squash vine decided to make a break for it...right over the garden wall.

After we talked, I thought about Martin from South Africa. After dinner in Fonfria he brought his guitar out into the sitting area and was playing quietly. I had brought my tablet out into the sitting area and was writing, and enjoying listening to him play. A woman came and began talking to Martin. She interrupted his playing with provocative, shallow and generally irksome talk. I watched him being polite but not thrilled. I soon tired of the scene and returned to my room. When I saw him at breakfast, I complimented him on how patient and tolerant he was with the woman.  He replied that he would have preferred to remain alone, playing his guitar. I asked him why he didn't say so at the time. He said he had to decide whether to request the solitude that he thought he wanted, or to just go with what the camino was giving him that evening, to "go with the flow" as he put it. That is a difficult decision, to be sure. One must decide whose needs come first - one's own or someone else's, or let the universe decide.

"I'll keep some extra roofing slates" decided the farmer.

Galicia is cloudy and cool and damp. Do I wear my fleece? I usually only need it for about an hour, (until the temperature rises or until I get to the top of the first hill), and then I have to carry it for the rest of the day. Another decision. Door number one: No fleece and take the chance of being cold for an hour, or Door number 2: Wear the fleece for an hour then carry it for 4 - 5 hours? I chose door number one. Turns out it was a good decision. It really wasn't all that cold, and the first hill came very quickly, after which I was good and warm.

Cow pic of the day.

Walking out of Sarria, the camino is now very crowded. It's almost impossible to walk without seeing or hearing people. It's an abrupt and uncomfortable change. It requires a conscious decision to be accepting of this new reality, frequently, throughout the day.

You can always sit and rest if you need more time to decide.

Around the time I was getting hungry for lunch, the camino provided me with a unique and fascinating experience. I came across what looked like the usual open air restaurant with tables and chairs, but this one had a buffet and a little box with the word "Donativo" on it. A elderly lady sat at the end of the table to assist and supervise. This place was serving lunch and you paid what you wished. They had everything one could want on this buffet. Thinly sliced Serrano ham, cubes of delicious cheese, bowls of olives, sliced sausages, cheese croquettes (something I order in the restaurants because they are so awesomely good), breads, French toast, fried egg sandwiches, chocolate crepes, fruit, hot and cold drinks. I decided without hesitation that this was the place that would make me happy. I made my donation and had the best lunch yet on the camino.

Easiest decision of the day!

Shortly after lunch I passed a significant point today - the 100 km way marker. That means I am 100 km from my ultimate destination of Santiago de Compostela. I began in Roncesvalles at a distance of 790 km from Santiago de Compostela, and when I passed that way marker it meant I had walked 690 km. I have 5 walking days remaining. During those days I will complete the final 100 km and then return home. I have to begin deciding how I will translate the things I have learned here on the camino into my "real" life.

The 100 km marker.

Cat pic of the day.

Even pilgrims must stop at train crossings! 

No decision necessary.

The Last 110 km

And so the last segment of the journey begins.

Sunday Sept 22, 2019
Triacastela to Sarria
21 km, 30,000 steps, walking day #32

This morning began as usual. Alarm went off, checked the weather at present location and the day's destination, packed up and went to breakfast.

Breakfast was interesting. It was in the restaurant next door. When I entered it was crowded and noisy. Tables were full, and there were people, backpacks and walking poles everywhere. I showed one of the staff my ticket, indicating that I had a full breakfast. She made the universal sign for "follow me". I followed her through the front area, through a mid-back area and even through a servery-type area. We finally emerged into the safeguarded and almost secret full-breakfast-backroom. I felt like I was part of a secret privileged society. The buffet included my favorite Serrano ham. There was a regional specialty on the buffet, too. Local O Cebreiro cheese, which is a soft cheese and to accompany it, quince jelly. The cheese was like a cream cheese but a bit drier so it would break a bit when being spread, and a bit sour like quark. It was divine to eat it on fresh bread with the quince jelly.

The walk began at 8:15 am. It was cool enough for me to wear my light fleece for the first time. A lot of the path today led through forest. The path had "walls" on both sides that were covered in moss, ivy, wild marjoram, brambles, and flowers. I was walking between what I called two living walls. It smelled so clean and fresh and green. Water from the occasional spring tricked down the wall.

I was walking through cattle farm country. I didn't anything important to think about, so I thought about unimportant things, like: Why do farmers leave that one tree or clump of bushes in the middle of the field? Cows stand around a lot. I wonder if cows get bored? What would a cow do if it was bored? What is boredom??

Almost always, brambles (thorned blackberries) grow beside the path. Sometimes they somehow manage to grow upwards into the trees and then turn and grow back towards the earth, creating a thorny curtain over the path.

Sometimes they grow out sideways into the path. I imagine they are reaching out to greet us, or maybe they are trying to catch us and hold us in place.

There's an amazing mix of plants here - maples, evergreens and palm trees grow side by side.

The fall harvest is coming in now - corn and pumpkins are ready for harvest.

I have arrived in the town of Sarria. It is 110 km from here to Santiago de Compostela. If one wants their certificate of completing the camino, the minimum distance needed to be covered is this 110 km. Huge numbers of pilgrims begin their camino in Sarria or towns just before Sarria, and I have seen the route become more crowded by the day, ever since leaving Leon. I wonder what tomorrow will be like.

I met up this evening with Patricia and Richard. It's her 65th birthday tomorrow. They will celebrate in Paris after finishing the camino in Santiago. I also met up today with Marco (my camino Vin Diesel). He fell on the rocks after leaving El Acibo (the same place we heard that someone fell and dislocated their ankle). He broke his arm and was wearing a sling, but he's continuing to walk. I met Martin from Belgium here and I met back up with Dan from Michigan. Pilgrims tend to spend most of their time in the old part of town looking at the churches and castles, and the old part of Sarria is very small, so if someone is in town, it's going to be pretty easy to meet up with them.

The last 110 km. The last six of thirty-eight walking days.
Feets don't fail me now!

Epic

Epic: A long poem or story, narrating great deeds and adventures.

Friday Sept 20th, 2019
Las Hereirras to Fonfria via the O Cebreiro pass
20 km, 36,000 steps, walking day #30

and

Saturday Sept 21st, 2019
Fonfria to Tricastela
10 km, 15,000 steps, walking day #31


Friday Sept 20th, 2019
It was difficult to leave Las Herreiras for so many reasons. It's such a very pretty little village/hamlet. As with most little places on the camino, it developed longitudinally along one east/west street along the walking route. Because of this, all the buildings faced the mountains and the farm fields directly across the road.

 

West view from my window. 

After I took the picture of the mountains and the cows, I realized that the white horse had photobombed me, which made the whole thing much more epic!

East view from my hotel window

The day started out a little misty and very green.

Today was the climb to O Cebreiro pass. Las Herreiras is at 705m above sea level.
O Cebreiro is at 1300m above sea level. There is a business in town that provides horses, so some people can choose to do the climb on horseback. The man in the picture below (the man behind the horse) owns the horses and the business. He will take 5 people at a time up the mountain, walking beside the horses and riders as they negotiate the rocky path. It costs 35 Euros (about CAD 50) for the two hour ride. He does that climb almost every day. Scholarly discussion took place the night before, regarding the acceptability of riding instead of walking. It was a lively conversation and it made for great evening entertainment. One school of thought allowed that although it would likely have been financially prohibitive, that horses did exist and could have been available to certain pilgrims in the earliest days of pilgrimage. People embracing other schools of thought felt uncomfortable with taking anything that could fall under the classification of "easy way" and were determined that the whole of the pilgrimage should be done on foot. Considering that the climb was going to be gruelling, I completely understood the people who chose to take a horse or taxi - especially the people who were wearing knee braces and lots of bandages on their feet. Once again - "we all walk our own camino" certainly applies, as does the principle of "acceptance" and especially the principle of "no judgment".

This horse wrangler walks to the alto (the top) almost every day.

The walk definitely was long and steep, but certainly could be done by taking one's time and walking carefully. It was hours of climbing up followed by more climbing up.  I met up with a number of members of my camino family at the first village on the way up called La Faba. It's at 920m above sea level. As you can see we're still feeling good.

L-R: Evandro, Eliana, me, Jane Terese, Elen

If you have been reading this blog, you may remember that Evandro and Eliana are dentists in Brazil. As it turns out, Jane Terese is a dental assistant from the north of Norway. As it further turns out, Evandro and Eliana spent three years in Norway. And most epic of all, Eliana worked in the south of Norway, in the dental office belonging to Jane Terese's nephew.  Jane Terese is 75 years old and is in fabulous condition. She is always laughing. I think she's awesome.

Eliana and Jane Terese are speaking fluent Norwegian with each other.

A Brazilian dentist who just transformed in front of me 

into a fluent Norwegian speaker. Pretty epic. 

They have just discovered that there is only one degree of separation between them.

My mind is officially blown. Epic.

Today we officially crossed the border from the Autonomous Community of Castile y Leon to the Autonomous Community of Galicia. I have fun taking pictures straddling borders when the opportunity arises. I think it's kind of epic to do that.

We continued climbing through chestnut forest and we paused often to look out on views over the Valcarce Valley. My walking companion and I shared a running joke: “Hey – look at that beautiful green spot down there!”

Epic and breathtaking views.

We finally arrived at O Cebreiro. Everyone visits the Iglesia (Church) de Santa Maria Real. It dates back to the 9th century and is the oldest church of the camino that is still standing. A number of miracles were said to have occurred there.

A short break for some camino humour. 

As we were walking along a narrow path that was raised up and away from the motorway, I saw some horns (attached to cow heads) appear over a small rise about 50m ahead of me. There was a stone wall to my right and a drop to the road to my left. I said "Uh-oh". I looked at the stone wall to my right, and quickly calculated that I couldn't get over it. I looked at the drop to the road on my left. Not a lot of choice there. I figured the drop to the road was certainly survivable if carefully done. My walking companion and I scrambled down to the road just in time to let the cows and the cowherd pass.

Each cow slowed down and looked at us as they passed.

The sky was blue ahead of us, but black behind us, and we started to hear thunder. Turning around, I could see that it was raining heavily behind us, and I hoped that we could out run the storm which was definitely heading in our direction. These mountains in Galicia are the first objects encountered by the wind that as been blowing across the Atlantic for 5,000 km. The guidebooks foretold that this creates an abrupt and significant change in weather immediately upon entering the Galician mountains. Chubascos y tormentas (rain showers and thunderstorms) and niebla (thick mountain fog) are the camino norm while in these mountains. For the first time we pull out our rain ponchos and waterproof pack covers.

I arrived at my Albergue (a type of pilgrim hostel) just as the rain began. I was very grateful to find out they would be serving a communal dinner in the great round dining hall. Served at the table, family style, it was more than anyone of us could eat, for the princely sum of 9 Euros. 

Communal dinner - at least 60 people. 

The mood was fabulous as more and more delicious food came out of the kitchen.

Huge soup tureens were placed in front of every four people.

Nick from South Africa was serving up. 

He mugged instead of posing!

He said he met the cows on the path today, too. 

He said he stood still on the path and the cows walked around him, 

but I needed my feet too much to risk that!

First course was Caldo Gallego, a specialty of the region.

It's a thick soup of greens, potatoes and beans. 

It was hot and filling and fabulous.

Private label red wine.

Dinner continued with platters of a stew of peppers and beef that melted in your mouth, and platters of perfectly cooked rice, accompanied by all the red wine you wished to drink, bread, and finally another regional specialty for dessert called Tarte de Santiago, a moist almond cake. After a very long and very tiring day of up, up, up then down, down, down, it was exactly what we needed. It was an epic meal. We all staggered back to the sitting room to digest. 

Some epic evening mountain weather.

Saturday Sept 21st, 2019
Albergues are more simple than hotels or casa rurals. Freshly squeezed orange juice for breakfast was dispensed out of this vending machine. You could watch the oranges through the glass window as they were being squeezed. I'd never seen anything like that before!

There was also a vending machine where you could purchase knee splints, medicated ointments and rubs, personal care items, and of course the Compeed blister dressings. Fortunately I still need none of those items.

I only had 10 km to walk this day, so it was going to be a true rest day.  It was cold and misty. Fortunately a lot of the path was lined on both sides by earth or rock walls, which provided excellent protection from the worst of the wind.

Galicia is a cattle farming region.

She stopped bathing her calf to check me out.

This tractor has its own glass house!

It was nice to see some sunflowers again.

This chestnut tree is estimated to be 800 years old.

One of the farmhouses in the village of Tricastela. 

The three castles no longer stand.

Lunch for one. Right after this was served some new friends who I had met the night before walked into the restaurant, so I invited them to sit at my table. Over our lunch we had a nice visit and compared how our morning walk had gone.

Sign in the restaurant. Apparently women in Spain stand on one leg 

and touch their face, and the men point at themselves in a mirror.

After lunch, I followed my rule of "Rest Day": I checked into my hotel and had an epic nap.

I always include a cat pic from the day, if at all possible.

These succulents really like the wet weather.

Galicia