Wynchar Camino 2025

We have talked about, okay complained about, the rain in this blog but we have seen blue skies as well. It stopped raining in early evening and we were able to go out for a walk without raincoats. There were lots of others out walking, too. Somehow that doesn’t show up in these photos.

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.

• Camino walking: Pontevedra to Caldas de Reis, 7.0 miles in 4:06, moving 2:49
• Note on walking versus moving: our app, wikiloc, automatically keeps track of pauses. I walk a little faster than Wynette so when I get 50-100 feet ahead I stop and wait for her. Wikiloc records this as a pause. So the moving is my moving. Wynette is probably moving more than that. The pauses also count coffee stops.
• Elevation: up 68 feet and down 233 feet, a pretty flat day.
• We didn’t do pack transfer today because our destination was an apartment with no one to receive it. But it was fine, only seven miles and pretty flat. And Wynette graciously carried some of the weight I usually carry. And no Japanese liqueurs. And we ate all the granola and fruit for breakfast so didn’t have to carry it.
• We were walking along the trail and we came upon this large tree across the trail with no easy way to get around (see photo). It must have just fallen since this was the central Portuguese Camino with hundreds of pilgrims passing through. We managed to get over it, despite our advanced age. We had gone maybe 200 feet and we heard a truck pull up, looked back and saw two more pilgrims climbing over it. A minute later we heard the chain saw start up. I’m sure they made quick work of it. We saw this same pair of pilgrims several more times during the rest of the walk, at each coffee place we stopped at.
• And one of those coffee places was a real gem, the Oasis Cafe. It was in a private home right along the path. It looked like they had converted, and expanded the garage. Run by a family, we were served by the grandson. We had coffee, of course, and a Spanish tortilla, which was excellent, clearly home made. It was so good we had the raisin cake, also excellent, clearly some grandmother was involved. We saw an older woman and her husband was clearing dishes. Wynette asked the guy about it and he said yes it was his abuelo. Wait a minute, abeulo not abuela? Yes, the old guy clearing dishes made the heavenly tortilla and raisin cake. Never assume.
• We are in a spacious apartment tonight, we each have our own room!
• And we had a really good Easter lunch, especially the salad.
• Some off and on rain but generally a very good day.

My grandmother used to make a really good raisin pie that she called “Larkin Pie”, I think because she got the recipe from a friend named Mrs. Larkin. (Mom, you’ll have to tell me if I’m remembering this wrong.) Well, I had some raisin pie today and it reminded me of my grandmother’s pie.

We are back walking on the Camino. Not a long walk today but we stopped at two different places (the only two places to stop between Pontevedra, where we started, and Caldas de Reis, where we stopped). They were both neat places.

The first was the one that had the raisin pie (pastel de uvas pasas.) It really was good and the raisins were huge.

We both ordered a coffee and I asked for a tortilla (Spanish omelette) with bread. The young man behind the counter told me to grab a plate and help myself. It was delicious. Later I happened to notice the raisin pie. After eating the tortilla, I wasn’t hungry but I knew if I didn’t try the pie I would never get over regretting not trying it. (It’s the only one I’ve ever seen on the Camino.) So glad I did.

I loved the bar. It was in the converted garage of someone’s house on the Camino. Clearly family-run. We spotted an older women in the kitchen and Charlie said “I’m sure she’s the cook and she’s probably his grandmother.” When we paid, I told the young man “muy rico” which is what you say to say the food was very delicious. He lit up. I asked him who was the cook. He said “mi abuelo” (my grandfather). I did a double take. Surely I had misheard him. But he verified, yes, his grandfather.

The pie and the tortilla only cost 2.50 each.

• Another rest day. We did pack up our packs and walk the half mile from last night’s hotel to tonight’s hotel. They were not the same because of busy hotels for Semana Santa.
• Yesterday we ate breakfast at a nice little cafe very close to our hotel, our usual fried eggs and toast. Three video screens playing videos from what appeared to be the late 1980s, on some MTV channel. This surprised me since I thought MTV had stopped playing videos. This seemed to be the video equivalent of a Spotify playlist. We enjoyed trying to identify the songs without looking at Shazam on our phones.
• This morning we went back to the same place (same video play) and he recognized us and remembered our order. When I got up to pay he suddenly remembered something and got my glasses off a high shelf. I had left them but didn’t realize it. I’m not used to wearing glasses, only recently needing them, and don’t usually wear them.
• Speaking of playlists, we were in a bar for lunch a few days ago and they were playing all rockabilly, my favorite genre. I think I can say without fear of contradiction that rockabilly is the greatest music ever made. Besides the classics they had some deep rockabilly cuts that even I had never heard. Shazam heard: Party Doll by Buddy Knox, Let’s have a party by Wanda Jackson, Summertime blues bu Eddie Cochran, Bluejean bop by Gene Vincent, Woo Hoo by the 5.6.7.8’s (!), Good golly miss molly by Little Richard, Ubangi stomp by Warren Smith, Rebel rouser by Duane Eddie.
• We had a great lunch at Micazo Ramen: a ramen bowl and an udon bowl. Afterwards the waiter offered us, on the house, a sample of a Japanese plum liqueur called umeshu. He claimed the recipe was 3700 years old. It was good but we didn’t buy a bottle. It wasn’t that good and I’m not lugging a bottle of booze in my backpack.
• Now we are sitting in a lovely common room with big windows looking out on the square. I love to watch the rain and wind while sitting inside in a warm room.
• The rain patterns here are so different from what I am used to. You’ll get a light drizzle and then clear up and you get some sun, then it clouds over and you get a heavy rain, then a light rain, etc, etc, etc. In New Mexico, if it rains for 15 minutes straight it is quite and event.
• Miles walked per Wynette’s watch: 5.76
• Flights of stairs climbed (equivalent): 9, mostly in our pension

As Charlie wrote in his diary last night, we taxied to Pontevedra yesterday. I’ve had a bit of a sore throat/congestion. It isn’t bad at all and luckily hasn’t affected my energy much. But it was hard to face a long walk in the rain yesterday.

Pontevedra is such a pretty town. Tonight we are staying in the cutest little pension. It’s been very restful. We checked in here at noon today. We found a great bar on the corner. (It was warm, they actually closed the door!) We found a Japanese noodle restaurant nearby and had a terrific lunch there today. We found a grocery store nearby to get pastries and pudding for dessert.

We stayed in a regular hotel last night. It was a lot more expensive and not nearly as delightful. But the hotel did give us a room at 9:30 yesterday morning which was great. We found a place near to it that made us breakfast. Lola la Reina del Raxo. https://www.raxerialola.com/

We went back to Lola’s this morning for breakfast. When we walked in, the man behind the bar remembered us and told us what our order had been. Of course, we had the same. We liked the place a lot. Excellent fried eggs and toast, excellent coffee, friendly service, and 80s and 90s MTV on the TV. We were rocking to very young Britney Spears, Amy Winehouse, Beyonce, Lady Gaga. When we got up to pay today, the man walked over to a shelf and handed Charlie his glasses. Charlie had left them there yesterday and did not even know they were missing since he uses them only for distance. (Charlie did say, as we were walking to the bar, “Hm, I forgot to bring my glasses; oh well, we aren’t going far.”) We were flabbergasted that we happened to go back to the same place and the man remembered us and Charlie got his glasses back even before he knew they were missing.

Sidenote: Last year on the Camino, Charlie lost a part of glasses (progressives) as well. That time we never found them.

• Today and tomorrow will be rest days for us. Wynette has a tiny bug of some sort and the rain continues to come down so we decided to take some time off. We took a taxi to Pontevedra and are just hanging out. It looks like rain for 3-4 more days and then some better weather.
• Today is Good Friday, a big holiday in Spain, and most stores and a lot of cafes are closed. They also closed around 2 yesterday so we had trouble getting stuff for our in-room dinner. We were directed to the “24” store, very minimal, and it closes at midnight, despite the name. We got some canned lentils and heated them up in the microwave. They were quite good.
• Walking today per Wynette’s watch: 1.03 miles. Flights of stairs: 0.
• Miles in taxi: 12 or 13
• Successful cafe manchados ordered: 1

Video of taxi ride (4 seconds): https://photos.app.goo.gl/YmpDiLgss55M25b39

Or maybe it really should be “stained milk”. Lately, whenever I order coffee, I’ve been asking for “café con leche” (coffee with milk) and then adding “with extra milk”. This morning, where we stopped for breakfast, I did this as usual, and the woman who served us told me in her quite good English, “we call that manchado“. She said, “think of a white tee-shirt that has a little coffee stain on it.” Milk with just a little bit of coffee. Mancha is the Spanish word for stain. Same word as in “Man of La Mancha.” So, manchado means stained. So, I need to be ordering café manchado. Cool!