Author: Wynette

I ran out of time and energy last night to post photos from yesterday but did have a few I’d like to share so will do so now.

We had a rest day in Lugo today. So great to have time and energy tonight! Now, if only the internet will cooperate. It’s slow right now.

We had made a reservation to stay in a private room in the albergue pictured above but cancelled it a day or two before because we couldn’t get some clear information we needed about the reservation. (They seemed to be the world’s worst communicators.)

We ended up sleeping a few miles before this place, where we blogged last night. We were glad for the change, but when we walked by the albergue today, we were curious about where we might have stayed and, also, we were hoping they’d be open to sell us coffee and a bathroom. When we got there we tried the door (locked) and looked in the window (dark inside). So we took a photo and started to move on. Then … a man came out from further down the street and asked why we were there. I guess he’d seen us looking in the window. I didn’t tell him we were the people who cancelled, but asked if there was a bar in town. He thought for a second and then said “follow me” and led us away from the albergue. At first, we thought he was inviting us into his house. He opened some large doors and indicated we should go in. It was not a public bar but evidently the bar/cafe that was associated with the albergue. (It’s not surprising it was closed. Albergues tend to kick the pilgrims out early and close early.)

We were able to order coffees, water, use the bathroom, plan the rest of our day.

He was gruff but nice at the same time.

While we were there, he’d left the door open and several other pilgrims came in after us. He served them as well.

Yesterday, we were walking from our pension to a restaurant. We approached the woman shown above. She seemed to be in her 90s or so. She stopped and smiled at us and it seemed wanted to talk. Sometimes the older Galicians do like to chat. She looked us up and down and then said (in Spanish) “you must be peregrinos!”. Then she pointed to our shoes. We didn’t have packs or poles but we were wearing walking shoes and sandals respectively. Part of the Camino uniform. (Many pilgrims, like me, change to sandals at night to rest our feet.)

I may have misinterpreted her but what I got out of that is that she was surprised to see such old peregrinos. We have noticed that we are quite a bit older than just about anyone we have seen on this Camino (Primitivo). The vast majority of walkers we see are probably 50 or younger and most of those are probably 30 or younger. Although today, where we had lunch, we met a couple from Ireland who were probably in their 60s. They mentioned that they were newly retired.

Spain has a lot less crime than most parts of the world. Definitely less than the US. We’ve talked about this in blogs of previous trips, but we are always amazed at how trusting people are here. For example, it’s extremely rare to pay for coffee when you order it, even if the bar is full and busy. They never bring you a bill. When you are done, you walk up to the counter to pay. They, somehow, always seem to remember what you ordered. One time, last year, we forgot to pay for our coffee and a sandwich in a bus station. We remembered it after we were on the bus and many miles away. Oops.

With the pack transfer we are doing, there is a high amount of trust involved:

You pack up our bag and leave it in the hotel lobby in the morning before you set out for the day. (Have to get it there before 8:00, no sleeping in.) Often (usually!) there is no one in the lobby minding the desk. The door to the lobby might be open and certainly not locked. There may or may not be other bags along with yours.

You say a little prayer and head out. You get to your place for the night and the bag is sitting in the lobby of the place where you are staying. Again, unattended.

Obviously, this works because there is very little theft going on in these towns.

If we lost the bag, it would be a huge inconvenience. Possibly enough of a problem to halt a Camino since you need just about every item in that bag or you wouldn’t have brought it on the Camino. Of course, we don’t transfer things that would be a major problem to lose: e.g., medication, passports, phones, etc.

But lots and lots of people do pack transfer and so far, I haven’t heard of anyone not getting their bag eventually. If the bag wasn’t there when they arrived at their place for the night it wasn’t because of theft, it was a screw up of the transfer company or some screw up in communication.

This morning in Lugo, we weren’t sure where our bus would be parked in the bus station so we made our best guess and I asked a woman in line if this was the bus to A Fonsagrada. She said yes and was very friendly so we talked while we were waiting, about 15 minutes. She was so nice and cheerful in the reserved Spanish way of being friendly.

I learned she lives in Madrid but grew up in a small village near A Fonsgrada. She was in Lugo visiting her older sister, who was with her. Her sister was a sweetheart as well. They were on their way to visit their childhood home.

They asked about our Camino and we told them of our plans to start in Grandas de Salime. They were telling us how beautiful the country is that we’ll be walking through. When we got on the bus, the woman pointed to a seat and told us to sit there to so we could see all the pretty scenery from the bus.

After we got to A Fonsagrada and had a mandatory cup of coffee, we got a taxi to take us to Grandas de Salime. The driver pointed for Charlie to get in the back seat and for me to get in the front seat. (This is not unusual.) And he was a talker. He apologized he didn’t speak Spanish very well since his primary language is Gallego (Galician). Of course, he spoke great Spanish as far as I could tell. As I’ve experience before, I can understand Galicians speaking Spanish easier than some because they are speaking their second language so perhaps use a simpler version, like me. He talked a lot and fast. I could understand maybe 60% of what he said. Enough to get the gist of what he was saying. (It was a bit exhausting trying to concentrate and understand him for that 30 minute taxi ride.)

He grew up in tiny village near A Fonsagrada. They lived a very simple life. Didn’t get electricity at the house he grew up in until the 1990s. He went to boarding school in A Fonsagrada.

We crossed the border between Galicia and Asturias on the taxi ride. (We are in Asturias!) He talked about how Asturias and Galicia are different autonomous regions in Spain. Different health systems, for example. Talked about how the Asturians speak Castellano (regular Spanish) although they have a lot of vocabulary unique to them. He mentioned that there are four languages spoken in Spain: Catalan, Basque, Galician, and Castellano. He also let me take his photo.

Up to now, we’ve been walking the Camino Portugués de la Costa. That Camino starts in Porto and ends in Santiago. We started in Porto but ended in Caldas de Reis, about two stages early. (Or 4 of our short stages.) This was our plan all along. Today we took a bus into Santiago and then another bus to Lugo.

Lugo is on the Camino Primitivo. (So named because it is the first camino.) Tomorrow we’ll take a bus and then a taxi to Grandas de Salime. We’ll walk from there to Melide. That should take us about 8 walking days. We are starting kind of in the middle of the Primitivo. The first half of the Primitivo is too difficult for us to contemplate. Long distances between towns. Huge elevation changes. But this later part is doable and we are excited to get to experience it.

Our expectations: The Camino Primitivo will feel very different than the Portugués. It will be more rural, through lots of small towns that might no longer have inhabitants if it weren’t for this Camino passing through. We’ll probably see lots of pilgrims but not as many as before. Certainly, there will be more ups and downs, and, of course, we won’t be walking along the ocean. We hope to find lots of fabada beans to eat.

The weather forecast is good! Not a lot of rain. Quite a bit warmer. You’ll probably hear us complaining about getting over-heated again. (Sorry.)

Melide will be the end of our walking. That’s where the Primitivo meets the “main” Camino Frances. We won’t continue on to Santiago from there. (We walked that distance on our first Camino in 2013. ) Instead we will catch a bus to Vigo and spend a week there before heading home to New Mexico. Charlie’s grandnephew Noah is in Spain right now doing a semester abroad. He is going to spend some time with us in Vigo. We are looking forward to that.

I’m posting this partly because I like the photo (Charlie’s iPhone). But, with all the rain, we’ve noticed the streams seem very full. In one bridge crossing, the water was almost touching the bridge. And, this morning, we came across this (photo above). No avoiding getting our shoes wet. But, luckily the water wasn’t too deep and didn’t go inside our shoes and the waterproofing actually worked.

I was about half way through it and five bicycles started through and went around me. I basically had to freeze. I’ll just say this: Walking pilgrims and biking pilgrims have an uneasy relationship.