Day: October 17, 2014

You see these in every town. This one seemed pretty out of the way.

We got to Santa Catalina. This was another “senda” along a highway but the walk varied a lot.

We didn’t stop to quiz Pilar on all five languages. Camidas Caseras is a local dish with 6-7 meats where you eat the meat first, then the vegetables then the broth. Huge portions they say.

This church is right next to our albergue. The next picture shows a more accurate view of the weather. This is as you enter Santa Catalina de Somoza. You can see the church steeple, front view of one in first picture that is shown from the side.

Not sure which one it is.

Full question: Are there a lot of “single” pilgrims (including those with partners who have left them at home)? And are there lots of couples, like the two of you? And groups of friends (two, but not couples, or more)?

Wynette. We have met many people doing the Camino alone and maybe at least half of those have a partner back home who didn’t want to come or couldn’t come. Thanks to the Internet and cell phones most seem to be staying in close touch.

Tonight at dinner we sat with three other pilgrims, one from Lebanon, one from Russia, and one from Brazil, all doing the Camino alone. We didn’t find out their exact situation but the Lebanese woman was fairly young (20s) and the Brazilian woman (40s?) mentioned she had two grown daughters and the Russian man (50s?) told us he got a call the first day of his Camino telling him he had become a grandfather. The Lebanese woman had started in Le Puy. So our rough estimate is that she has walked something like 1200 kilometers with about 300 to go. Wow!

I could name more doing-it-alone pilgrims we have met. (E.g., lovely Ria who we met at our casa rural night before last and met again on the trail today, photo above.)

We’ve also met lots of couples, but I think we’ve met more single walkers than couples. It could be that it’s easier to meet people who are alone because easier to strike up a conversation.

Of the people we see walking but do not meet, probably more are in pairs. But no way to know for sure if they are a “couple” or just walking together for a bit.

We haven’t met very many groups, but a few. For example, the other night we met an older man walking with his son and daughter-in-law. (All from Florida.) The man and his son had done the Camino together two years ago and on that Camino the son met his wife-to-be. They got married last year and now the 3 of them are doing the Camino together. The same night we also met another American couple, from Minnesota, who had a woman friend walking with them.

This was at an albergue where we stopped for coffee. 9 euros for a bed, 3 more for sheets, I would definitely take that. 4 euros for the short wash cycle, 5 for the long cycle, 2 each to use the kitchen.

We talked to a volunteer there who was German and there were two more Germans who worked there. We stayed at another place that was run by a German so maybe it is a German thing. I like the idea myself, you can get exactly what you want.

Note the complex wifi password. Almost in hexadecimal but not quite.