Day: March 31, 2022

On just about every one of our Caminos I’ve had an opportunity to chat a little in Spanish with an elderly Galician. Today on our walk, we were walking by a house and a dog was barking at us loudly. We weren’t worried because he was behind a fence and just doing what dogs do. This man was walking towards us and started speaking to us, I think maybe in Gallego, the native language here, but I think he switched to Spanish because I understood him to comment about how noisy the dog was. I asked him if he lived in the village we were passing through and he said yes, “down below on the edge of the village”. He asked us about where we lived. After a little more conversation, I asked “Is it OK if I ask you how old you are”. He said 82. Charlie said “I’m 73,” I translated, and the man laughed. He then unbuttoned the top of his shirt to show us a scar and said he’d had heart surgery two years ago and he was out walking because his doctor “commanded” that he start walking. He looked quite healthy, I thought.

As we were saying adiós, I asked him if I could take his photo. He seemed quite happy for me to do so. I think he probably enjoyed telling his wife about that when he got home.

Actually we don’t know for sure either but we have a guess. We saw 30-40 of these along a paved pathway through a recreational area walking into Palas de Rei.

Way back in A Coruna I took this photo and wondered what game was played on these courts which looked a little like horseshoe courts. Eating lunch in Portomarin the TV was on, of course, and I saw the game.

I thought it was quite a coincidence, and I was surprised that they play the game on TV.

One version of this trip had us walking the Camino dos Faros (lighthouses). This is a new path along the Atlantic. It’s not considered a pilgrimage to Santiago. It goes along the coast starting about 40 miles west of A Coruna, goes to Muxia, then down to Finisterre. The people who laid it out tried to stay as close to the coast as possible at all times, usually within a few hundred feet. Since we were in Muxia we decided to start walking this camino from Muxia going east/north. It goes right by where we are staying. We wanted to get a taste of it so we can decide if we want to walk the whole thing another year.

We walked in crazy weather. It started out partly cloudy. We stopped and talked to an older man in a cluster of houses we passed. He was even older than we are, aged 82. He was carrying an umbrella. He was wise, five minutes later we felt drops, then more drops, we got out the rain coats. Then it rained even harder so we put on the rain skirts. Then it started sleeting. We pushed on and it got better and we stopped at a bar for coffee. They didn’t have food but we saw a restaurant Casa Carmela on the map in two miles and the Google rating was 4.6/5.0 stars. We called to see if it was open and Carmela said it was, so we set out for it. The weather was nicer and we took off the rain gear.

We imagined Casa Carmela would be a bigger place and we walked past it, not recognizing it as a restaurant. Carmela saw us and came out and led us back. A small place 4-5 tables, no one else there. No menu, you just pick seafood, fish, or meat and Carmela makes it for you. We choose a seafood mixture and fish. She took our order and then went back and started cooking. As you might guess, since we are telling the story, everything was extremely good.

We went on for another mile or so to the next lighthouse. Then we called a taxi it take us home.

Overall it was a great day, actually a typical camino day for us, we walked 6.7 miles, moving speed 2.5 mph, lots of breaks. The trail and views were great. The Camino dos Faros is definitely on our list now.

Tomorrow we plan to taxi to where we stopped today, walk another 6-7 miles and taxi home. On Saturday we are going to walk west on the Faros for 6-7 miles. So our “cafetería” camino is going to end with three days on the Faros.

A few days ago we stayed at a four star hotel, fancier than our usual. We reserved and the guy said it would cost 60 euro. When we got there we started the usual checkin process. You always have to give both passports. They normally copy out the information and it takes a couple of minutes for each one. This place had some kind of scanner which automated that. We mentioned it to each other and the young woman checking us in indicting something like ”pretty cool huh”.

After they enter the passport info they print a form for each of you to sign but this place (high tech) had a screen where you did it and the first odd thing happened. A form came up and I didn’t look at it carefully and signed with the stylus in the rough way you do with digital signing. Then a second form came up and Wynette noticed it had my name on it so she signed my name. Then a third form came up with Wynette’s name on it and she signed again.

Then the woman said it would be 65 euro. We asked about it and she said that was the rate. Oh well, it is not uncommon for the rates to change a bit. So then I held up my phone and said targeta to indicate a credit card payment, actually Apple Pay, which is actually a Mastercard. She said it was not possible because of festivo. What, a four star hotel can’t take credit cards on a Saturday? So we gave her 65 euro cash. Second odd thing.

We got the digital key and were about to go up to the room and Wynette says we would like receipt since we paid in cash. The woman looked a little flustered and punched some keys on her terminal and came up with a receipt but, guess what, it really is only 60 so she gives us 5 euro back. Third odd thing.

A few hours later we had lunch at their restaurant and paid with Apple Pay with no problem. Fourth odd thing.

We have found Spanish people to be unfailingly honest and straightforward so this incident surprised and puzzled us. It seems possible, even likely that she was trying some kind of scam but I wonder exactly what it was. Maybe she was just trying to skim off the five euro but that seems unlikely to me. Why go through an elaborate process and jeopardize your job for five euro? It might be worth it if she could pocket the whole 65 euro but I don’t see how she could manage that. We had a room. Our passports were in the system, surely the hotel has some minimal accounting cross checking that would catch that. So maybe it was all some kind of misunderstanding.