2023 WynChar Camino

Post by Wynette: I posted a few days ago about the ice plant which we’ve encountered a lot of along the coast here. It’s pretty but invasive and crowds out native plants. We didn’t see a lot of ice plant today and I’ve been looking at what is native here. There is quite a bit of gorse, which I associate with the moors from reading British fiction: “heather and gorse.” I just looked up and gorse is a native of Western Europe with a majority of species in Iberian peninsula. So, it does seem to be a native here. It’s in bloom now. Pretty yellow flowers. When you see gorse, you see it among lots of other plants and sometimes you see heather as well.

It seems most of the forests we see are filled with eucalyptus trees. Of course, those are not native. I just read that they were introduced here in the 1800s and now comprise 30% of all trees in Galicia. Charlie and I noticed some were being forested and wondered what they are used for. We eventually learned they are used to make paper. There is a ban on planting new “plantations” of them. You can plant in areas already containing eucalyptus but not in new areas. I’ve heard local people here call them a scourge. They are pretty and smell good, but I always feel relief to see a pine tree instead of a eucalyptus tree.

We have actually seen a few tamarisk trees here. Those are highly invasive in the United States Southwest. We try to eradicate them along the Grand Canyon, along the Rio Grande, etc. I don’t think they are invasive here. We’ve only seen some that look like they might have been planted on purpose in someone’s yard or a public park.

Post by Wynette: Most of the Ruta Cantabrica is on paved path. However, once in a while it changes to something more natural. This photo was taken today as we were getting close to San Cibrao. Yes, this is the Ruta. AND, this is showing on Google maps (right where Charlie is standing knee deep in grass) as a normal sized road. It was pretty hard to believe that we weren’t lost. But by then, as you can see, we were nearing the end of it.

Note the Easter lilies next to Charlie. We see those quite a bit growing in the wild.

Post by Wynette: Wanted to share some photos I liked.

Especially since COVID pretty much every place accepts touchless credit cards. In our case that means Apple Pay. On this trip we have used Apple Pay for just about everything. We have spent maybe €10-15 in cash and that was at places we could have used Apple Pay but decided to use cash. It is pretty convenient and we have an instant record on the phone of every payment we made.

Everyone uses the same little wireless devices that they bring to the table and you double click the phone and tap the device and you’re done. They don’t make any distinction between paying by credit card or phone.

Of course this also means that anyone with subpoena power or maybe just about anyone period, can see the details of all the charges you make. This is true of using credit cards already and may soon be true of “cash” once digital dollars are implemented. Apparently Scandinavia is already basically cashless. There is really nothing we can do about it.

A few times we have been standing around looking at our phone looking at Google maps to find our way someplace. Nice people sometimes try to help us by giving directions. Our usual response is to listen to their directions (not always easy in Spanish, even for Wynette) and then follow Google’s directions. This works well if Google tells us to go the same way but less well if Google says to go in a different direction.

We try to direct these discussions towards finding out who they are and chatting with them. People just want to help.

Xkcd nails this, as usual: https://xkcd.com/783/

(A sign I saw in a restaurant)

Henry’s comment on the “Killing time” reminded me of something that happened on our 2022 Camino. We were in Astorga having breakfast. The place had an “English breakfast” which included eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, fried tomatoes, orange juice and coffee. The bill for two was €7.60. I left the change, two euro coins and two 20 cent coins, as a tip. The waitress picked it up and went back behind the counter and looked at the tray. And then looked over at me. Then she called another sever over and showed it to them and pointed me out to the other server. They were not noting my generosity. It was clear that they disapproved and were maybe even insulted. I wanted to crawl under a rock and I kept thinking about it for days afterwards.

The point being that tipping standards are quite different in Spain. There have been threads on the Camino forum saying roughly the same thing.

Post by Wynette: We weren’t sure if there would be a place to stop for lunch today before we got to our airbnb. And no place near the airbnb to buy food. Google said there was a bar about 45 minutes before our airbnb but we’ve learned not to trust the hours Google gives us. It’s mislead us more than once. But we decided that if we didn’t find food there, we wouldn’t starve to death. In fact, it would be good for us.

However, to our delight, the bar was open. We had an hour to kill before our airbnb check in time so we decided to hang out there. First we ordered two cafes con leche (coffee with milk) and some cold water. The owner brought us our coffee and then brought us some tapas (that we didn’t order but this does happen occasionally): two pieces of tortillas de patata (Spanish omelette) and two tuna fish empanadas. Those tortillas were the best I’ve ever tasted, I swear. And this was one of the best coffees as well. Not too long after, she brought us each another tapa. I think some kind of salty pork skin on bread. Man, they were good, too.

Then we did a crossword on our phones.

We finished the crossword and decided to order more coffee. I told Charlie “It won’t taste as good this time since it is our second cup”. But it did. Then the owner brought out some small crispy chicken wings. Again delicious. Keep in mind, we didn’t order any of this except the coffee and water. And there was so much food, we didn’t have to order lunch. (I’m not sure they had any other food than those tapas anyway.)

We finally decided it was time to go. We asked for the check. In Spain, when you order you usually have no idea what you’ll end up paying but I’m usually shocked how much less the bill is than I expect. We tried to guess what the bill might be. Charlie said, “Let’s guess even allowing for it to be less than we expect.” He guessed 9.50. I guessed 8.00. It turned out to be 7.40. That’s for four coffees, two small bottles of water, and eight tapas.

Post by Wynette: We’ve been seeing ice plant all along the way but we saw a lot more of it on today’s walk. We learned that (1) it is native to South Africa and (2) it blooms here between April and June. So, we are lucky to be here when it is blooming. We learned on a previous trip that it is an invasive plant here, crowding out native species, so I feel guilty for enjoying it. It does seem that where the ice plant is thick you see very little diversity in the flora.

Post by Wynette: We are staying in an airbnb tonight between Foz and Burela. We couldn’t find any other accommodation between these towns and didn’t want to walk the whole distance in one day (only 13 miles but a little far for our liking). Luckily the airbnb is nice and has a great ocean view. And they had a washing machine and we were able to do our laundry. No clothes dryer, as is typical here, but it’s a sunny breezy day so we think everything will dry outside on the rack on the balcony before we go to bed.

Post by Wynette: We’ve been having technical issues. I haven’t been able to do WordPress posts from my phone so I’ve been borrowing Charlie’s phone to make posts. But it’s too much to sign him out and me in so we are just using his account for both of our posts. If a post says “Post by Wynette”, that’s me, of course. If it doesn’t say that, then it is by Charlie. Except I sometimes go back and add to his posts some. And he makes suggestions for my posts.