2023 WynChar Camino

Post by Wynette:

We’ve met several Latin Americans who live in Spain. They all have an interesting story. Charlie and I have discussed how perfect Spain is for Latin American immigrants. If they have a way to get here, it’s vastly safer than most of Latin America and also offers a higher standard of living. Plus, they speak the language!

We mentioned Jazmín earlier. She owns, with her husband, the wonderful hotel we stayed in in Ortigueiro. She told us she is Cuban. She came to Galicia 30 years ago when she married her Galician husband. (Aside: we have to show all hotels our passports when we check in. They very painstakingly take down all the info. When Jasmín was doing that, she noticed that she and I share a birthday!)

Javier is from Uruguay. He gave us a taxi ride to the next town past Otigueiro after we’d decided we’d had enough road walking. It is not uncommon for taxi drivers here to invite one of us to sit in front with them. (Probably just the ones who like to talk.) If we choose to do that, it’s usually me since I can sort of have a conversation with them in Spanish. He was one who invited us in the front of the cab. I told him why we chose to take a taxi and he told me that would have been a dangerous road to walk. Javier has lived in Galicia something like 20 years (I’m forgetting the exact number). He said he goes home to Uruguay to visit family every year and his mother comes and stays with him every year for a few months. He said he loves Galicia and he really loves the food here.

I asked Javier how different the Spanish language is here than in Uruguay. He said it is different but the same. He said it is kind of like the difference between British English and American English. I had often thought of it that way, but was struck that he put it that way.

Today Charlie and I ate in a Brazilian restaurant down the street from our airbnb. The Brazilian owner told us he does everything: cook, serve, clean up, and, of course, run the business. We were the only customers and we chatted with him most of the time we were there. Sure wish we’d asked him his name. And taken a picture of him. He spoke some English so Charlie could join in the conversation as well. He told us he speaks 50% Portuguese, 50% Spanish, and 10% English. I asked if he speaks Galician, knowing it is very similar to Portuguese. He said adamantly he’d never speak Galician. It is a terrible language. Not really Portuguese, not really Spanish. Not really a language. I asked how long he has lived here and why he came. He said he came here six years ago. His son is autistic and that he came to get medical help for his son. I asked if he could not get help for his son in Brazil and he scoffed and said that was impossible, that Brazil is a terrible country with a loco president. He said he’s getting good help here. He showed us a picture of his son who is now 10 years old.

It was an interesting restaurant. Every customer gets the same thing. Everything he served he told us its origin. E.g., the salad appetizer was Brazilian but the bread typical Galician. He clearly had a disdain for Galician food. He said Galicians don’t know how to cook. We might disagree, but he definitely knew how to cook as well.

He asked us if we wanted dessert. We were stuffed and had asked him to box up our left overs. (We have enough for another full meal.) But we couldn’t resist finding out what he might offer for dessert. He wouldn’t tell us what it was, just a surprise, but he thought we’d be fine sharing a single dessert and he was right. See photo below.

Despite the negative things he said about the Galician language and food, he likes living here. I asked him if he missed Brazil and he said never. He’s never gone back to visit and he’ll never return. He’s very happy to live here.

No doubt we have met others who are Latin American but they didn’t tell us. We would not have known Jazmin or Javier were not originally from here if they hadn’t volunteered the information. We’re not at all able to distinguish between Spanish accents. We’ve noticed that the Spanish cannot distinguish between English accents either. Most people know we are English-speaking but not where we are from. Recently someone asked if we were British. We’ve been asked if we are German as well.

This is a view from the park across the street. You’ve seen the inside, this is the outside. It is 13 stories, we are on the third floor. The Airbnb description said “quiet”. Let’s talk about the park.

Thursday: check in day. We wrote about the concert that night. It lasted until 10:30 pm.

Friday: another music concert, Galegote Rock, in the tent at the end of the park, still close enough to hear loudly. Ends at 12:30 am.

Saturday: the same event continues, from 1 pm to until 12:30 am,

Sunday: today, a day of rest, usually, but today there is a women’s race. They have music and announcements from 9 am to about 3 pm.

So, we’re living in a “ happening” place. Fortunately we have ear plugs since all pilgrims carry them, even if they are not staying in albergues, where the snoring can be intense.

We had lunch at a fusion place called Ice Wolf with four selections from each of: Asia, the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East. We have had a lot of excellent Spanish food but we were hungry for something different. Ice Wolf has two locations: in Pontevedra and in Vigo (about 30 miles away). Menu here.

Not many people in Spain speak English, especially in the less visited areas where the Caminos go. It is unusual to met someone who speaks fluent English so when they do, we often ask them where they learned.

In Teixido (a week or two ago) our server who taught us how to eat percebes was fluent and we asked her. She answered “I’m from the Netherlands.” Well, of course you speak fluent English.

I was in the foyer of our apartment building yesterday and said something in English and the 10 year old boy next to me said “Oh, you speak English.” His English was excellent. We chatted a bit. He lives in the building. I asked him if he had learned in school and he said yes and also he had spent time in Cameroon.

Today at lunch our server was also fluent so we asked her. She said she had lived in Finland. Again, of course, Finland. She had been an au pair. She also had spent some time in Ireland.

In fairness, the woman of the Swedish couple we got to know a little had lived in DC for a year as an exchange student. And the usual answer to where they learned is someplace in Great Britain or the US.

PS: Wynette has been amazing on this trip with her Spanish. It is unusual for us to meet someone whose English is better than her Spanish. It makes things much easier.

Jamón is very popular in Spain. Essentially a cured pig leg I guess. They slice it thin. You can see some on the packaged, sliced jamón on the right of this photo.

We have had some that was very good and some that was less good. Now I know why. I saw them in a supermarket a while ago and they were €40. The one on the top left is €270. The one on the top right is €130. The lower ones were €70.

We must be going native. We didn’t wait that long to order. We didn’t wait that long for the each course to come. We didn’t eat that slowly. But somehow it took over an hour and half to have lunch. And 1:30 seemed a bit early for lunch, we usually go at 2:30 or 3.

Post by Wynette:

As we mentioned yesterday, it’s across from a large park where some kind of music event was happening. We were complaining about how loud and unpleasant the music was and how it went on for ten (ten!) hours. But, shortly after we made that post last night, the music stopped. Whew. So far, it hasn’t returned.

Now to talk about the apartment itself. It’s hugely spacious and all rooms but the kitchen are quite sunny. It’s a corner apartment on the third floor (“piso 2” here) in a high-rise apartment building. It’s pretty basic with somewhat funky furnishings, etc. But we like it. Here are some photos.

Just next to our building, like 50 feet away, are three highly rated restaurants, one Spanish, one Brazilian, and one Mexican. Wynette is hungry for Mexican food so that is on our list but we went to the Spanish one yesterday because it had a fixed-price “menu” which we like.

The restaurant turned out to be a near gourmet restaurant with excellent food. Here is the menu:

This was the first fixed-price menu we have seen which has extra cost options. Big spenders we got both the scallops and the medallions.

We almost didn’t get to have lunch there. We went in and the waiter said they were completely booked up, normally a good sign but disappointing if you want to have lunch. We were in the entry area separated from the main dining room. We asked if we could make reservations for tomorrow. There was a little, round, high table there with stools, apparently for people to have drinks while waiting. As he was getting the book out, Wynette, ever bold, asked if we could eat there. He looked and thought a bit. We were both sure he would say no but he said okay. They served us there and very very nice about it.

After we were blown away by the first course we said, we are definitely coming back, so today we have reservations for 1:30 and we get to eat at a normal table, sitting on chairs that have backs! And maybe a tablecloth.

We’ve discovered that posts appear in reverse chronological order based on when they are first created, not when they are published. Hence, a newly published post might end up buried below an older post. We will see if we can fix this problem, probably tomorrow when we are less tired. In the meantime, you might scroll down a little if you don’t want to miss one of our scintillating posts, or check the list of posts in the menu (sidebar or bottom bar).

Post by Charlie and Wynette:

As we were waiting for our host to let us in we heard a band warming up in the park across the street. We have a nice view of the park from our third story living room and balcony.

Unfortunately the music is mostly not to our taste. It started with very repetitive electronic house music mainly for dancing. It has changed several times. The only one we actually liked was when we were passing by on a walk through the park. A woman with a great voice started singing an Amy Winehouse song, Back in Black.We got closer to look and the lead singer was wearing wings like what we had seen in the grocery store. Then we noticed young women in the crowd with wings. Her fans? The singer was actually quite good. But, unfortunately, her set didn’t last very long.

Our apartment faces the park and the windows don’t muffle the music much. It has gone on for ten hours now and seems to get louder and louder. It is getting pretty irritating. This is Thursday. We are hoping that it will not last the four day weekend. We’ll keep you posted about it.