I was out of the hotel and on the Way by 7:30 AM. Ever since I got here I have been bemoaning my inability to find a chocolate croissant. After walking a couple of blocks this morning look what I ran across.
What an amazing assortment of deliciousness. I had a fresh out of the oven chocolate croissant that was as big as a football and half of it was covered with chocolate.
After enjoying my chocolate croissant I decided to detour from the Camino and walk a lovely path that skirted the harbor. I figured this path would eventually bisect the Camino.
Everything was quiet and still this morning. It was low tide and the gulls were squawking and the briney smell of the ocean was in the air.
As I was walking along enjoying the harbor path an older gentleman stopped me and poked me with his umbrella and started yelling “Finesterre!” I nodded my head said yes and he grabbed me by the arm and gestured for me to follow him. I dog trotted behind him for about 10 minutes until we came to a weed covered stone staircase leading up and up and up, to who knows where. He then started forcefully shouting “izquierda!” Which means go left in Spanish. It sounds something like “is scared a.” I was a little scared of this old guy so I hot footed it up the stairs and when I got to the top I turned left. It took me half an hour of road walking before I finally found the Camino. I don’t know what I was thinking when I decided to detour so far off the Camino. This whole thing is not difficult as long as you follow the yellow arrows.
Once I got on the Way I was bound and determined to stay on the Way.
Check out the four yellow arrows on the right hand side of the picture. No excuse for taking a wrong turn at this junction.
We climbed up a little hill and then walked along a ridge top for a couple of kilometers.
What a lovely day for a walk on the Way.I stopped at this beach for a little break and a group of Aussies offered to take my picture.
After my little beach break I ran across a lovely white table cloth restaurant that looked like it might be a good place to have a mid morning snack. I got a table on the patio overlooking the ocean.
I ordered a slice of cheesecake and a fresh squeezed orange juice.This is Finesterre from about 7 kilometers away.This is the lighthouse on Cape Finesterre. The zero kilometer marker for the Camino Finisterre is at the lighthouse. The lighthouse is about 4 kilometers uphill from downtown Finisterre. I decided to skip the hike up to the lighthouse and go to my hotel.
I got to my hotel at 1:00 PM and check in didn’t start until 4:00. I asked the young lady at the front desk if I could get an early check in and she was more than happy to accommodate my request.
After she checked me in I asked her if she would please help me arrange for my backpack to be transported to my hotel in Muxia tomorrow. Finisterre to Muxia is around 35 kilometers and I thought it would be nice to do this hike without the extra 20 pounds on my back. She called a service and made all the arrangements for my backpack transfer tomorrow.
This is Maryann. She was so kind to me. She spent a few years in Texas when she was young and speaks English fluently.This is my room at the Hotel Vida. Very nice. I am getting spoiled!Vince and I decided to do one last dinner. He is heading home tomorrow.Shellfish paella. It looks good and it was good.
That’s it from Finisterre, Spain. I hope you are having a great day wherever you are.
I didn’t get a lot of sleep at the alburgue last night. The guy on one side of my bunkbed lost his lunch and the guy on the other side snored like a lumberjack. His snore started out on a bass note and then it quickly rose up the register so that at the end he was snoring in falsetto. I have super duper wax earplugs but his snoring rattled these earplugs out of my ears. Between the smell of the lost lunch and the unrelenting din of the snoring I didn’t exactly get a good night’s sleep. I finally had enough of the whole thing and got up, packed up and escaped the alburgue at 6:00 AM.
Cows out for a morning stroll.The first town we hit was Olveiro.
I stopped here for breakfast and was disappointed that the bar/restaurant only had toast. However, I was more than surprised and overjoyed when the bartender served my toast with butter and jam. You never get butter over here. You get olive oil. I am not a big fan of olive oil on my toast in the morning. I slathered my toast with butter and then layered on a generous helping of strawberry jam. Not a bad breakfast.
After breakfast we started climbing and when we got to the top of the hill we were rewarded with this view.
Galicia has all the water in Spain so they build dams and create reservoirs and pipe water to the dry regions of Spain. You can see the dam in the upper right hand corner of the photo.Most of the day was spent strolling on these wide smooth woodland paths.
When you get to Hospital you are 15 kilometers from Cee, with no bars or restaurants between Hospital and Cee. There is a last chance bar/restaurant at Hospital so I decided to fuel up before I ventured on to Cee.
An omelette bocadillo. It was delicious.
As we walked out of Hospital there was a fork in the road.
To the right is the Way to Muxia. To the left is the Way to Finisterre.
We went left. Once we get to Finisterre we plan to walk along the coast to Muxia. After we took the left fork in the Way we entered Vakner Territory.
Lions and tigers and bears oh my!This is the Vakner. I only saw the statue and I am glad to report that I did not encounter the real thing.These beautiful yellow bushes were in bloom all along this section of the Way.When the sun is out, and it was out most of the day, it is as green as Ireland.For most of the day we walked on a high plateau. For the last 3 kilometers we walked down to the town of Cee and the Atlantic. I hate walking on the steep downhills. My toes were screaming on this section.This is Cee, our final destination for the day.This is my room at the Hotel Larry. It has a tub and I spent an hour soaking in the tub. The tub now has a ring that will need to be sandblasted to remove.Pulpo for dinner with a guy, Vince from Michigan, that I met last night at the alburgue in Lago.
That’s it for today from Cee, Spain. I hope you are having a wonderful day wherever you are
I got an early start this morning and was out on the Way by 7:30 AM. I walked for about 45 minutes and then stopped for breakfast. I had a delicious omelette and fresh squeezed orange juice.
Well fueled I was back on the Way chewing up the kilometers. It was cloudy but no rain yet. It is amazing how much ground you can cover when you are walking and not huddling in a bus shelter to avoid a downpour. Most of the Way today was along these picturesque country roads.
The sky looks menacing but no rain yet. There are a lot of cows in Galicia.
I love the smell of the countryside as I walk the Camino. A friend from Springfield, Illinois once confessed that they like to drive out in the country after a spring rain and roll down the windows and smell the rich black farm ground.
In Galicia there is plenty of rich black farm ground. Most of it has been tilled and planted, with green shoots popping up out of the ground. In Galicia the smell of rich black farm ground mixes with the smell of cow manure for a truly earthy and not unpleasant aroma.
Camino watchdog.
Most dogs on the Camino raise hell when you walk by. It doesn’t take long before the agitated barking becomes really annoying. This pup was sound asleep when I walked by. I had to bang on the fence to rouse him from his slumber and no amount of banging could motivate him to get up and bark at me.
The flowers are in full bloom and the green onions are looking great.
We had one very big hill to climb before we descended into our final destination, Lago. At the top of the hill there was an observation deck where we rested and enjoyed the view.
View from the observation deck.I don’t think there is ever a completely clear day in Galicia. My bunk bed in the Monte Aro Alburgue and Restaurant.
I got to the alburgue at 1:00 PM and immediately took a long hot shower. Then I emptied my backpack and washed all my clothes. A bunch of people arrived about an hour after me and they are lined up waiting for the washing machine. Every once in a while it makes sense to schedule a short day and do laundry without waiting forever for your turn at the washer and dryer.
This is for my mother. When I got her for my mother I hit the jackpot. She loves Snoopy and Charlie Brown and the Peanuts Gang. So do I.
That’s it for today from Lago, Spain. I hope you are having a wonderful day wherever you are.
I got a great night’s sleep and got up at 6:30 AM. It took me an hour to pack and eat breakfast and I was on the road by 7:30. It rained for the first couple of hours, mostly drizzle. When it started to rain hard I always had a bus shelter handy to escape the downpour.
What a beautiful bridge.All the rain has really swollen the rivers.This is my halfway point for the day. Here in Galicia they are very proud of their cows and Galician beef.
I stopped in a bar on the way out of Negreira to get a bite to eat. The whole bar was filled with tables of guys playing dominoes.
Den of dominoes players.
From what I could gather, when it is your turn you slap your domino on the stone table top and lay it down where you are playing it. Between the rifle shot report of the slamming dominoes and the players yelling at each other and yelling at the bartender for more coffee the noise level in this place was deafening.
The bartender who came over to take my order didn’t speak a lick of English but I was finally able to order a kitchen sink omelette stuffed with everything she had in the kitchen.
My kitchen sink omelette really hit the spot.According to this horse Bucky is now on the Camino Finnesterre and is galloping for the Atlantic Ocean.Approaching my alburgue.This is where I am spending the night. It is the former rectory for the parish priest.This is the nearby church.And the nearby graveyard.I got a regular bed which is nice but no towel and no sheets. It is a private alburgue but the amenities make it seem more like a low end municipal alburgue.We did a group dinner at a nearby restaurant. First course for dinner was lentil and sausage soup.Second course was meat and cheese pasta. It was a delicious stick to your ribs dinner.
That’s it from San Mamede da Pena, Spain. I hope you are having a wonderful day wherever you are.
Checkout at my hostal was noon and I only have a 10 kilometer hike today so I sacked in and did not get on the road until 11:00. I’ve got to be honest with you. After that hungover walk from Padron to Santiago a couple of days ago I was ready to pack it in and give up on the Camino. Like it was the Camino’s fault that I felt like two tons of horse apples after a long night of drinking “strong beer.”
After a rest day yesterday and a day to detoxify, today I stepped out on the Camino at the crack of noon with a bounce in my step and a song on my lips. And I wasn’t singing 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall!
I got out to the edge of Santiago and it started raining cats and dogs. Did you ever wonder where that expression came from? It really makes no sense.
I quickly jumped up on somebody’s porch and in about 10 minutes the rain stopped. That was the story of the day. It should have taken me about 2 hours to cover 10 kilometers. It actually took me 4 hours because every time it started to rain I found cover and waited out the storm.
After about an hour we were well outside Santiago walking along a beautiful stretch of the Way.
Beautiful sun dappled path.A butterfly in a snow globe and a heart in a pot of soil. Now isn’t that special.Goodbye Santiago.
About two hours into the walk a particularly nasty storm cloud started coming my way. I hustled to get to a nearby bus shelter to wait out the storm. A couple of guys that were walking behind me followed my lead and it was the three of us squeezed into a small bus shelter.
This is Paco and Danni. They are policemen in Barcelona who are taking a long weekend to do the Finnesterre Camino. Danni has done 4 Caminos and Paco has done 3 Caminos. We had a lively chit chat for about a half an hour. They told me about their work and I told them about my days as the Service Unit Attorney for the Union Pacific Police Department. When the rain let up a bit they decided to be on their Way as they had another 20 kilometers to go before their final destination. Before Paco and Danni left they scrounged around in their packs and gave me two uniform patches from the Barcelona Police Department. I just love meeting new people on the Camino.I found a bar/cafe out in the middle of nowhere and decided it would be a great place to have lunch. The bartender said they made fabulous pizzas but I wanted something quick so I ordered a PORTION of tortilla español. I won’t make that mistake again and wind up with a whole pie pan of tortilla español. It was great and really hit the spot.
This section of the Way is very well marked. Just follow the yellow arrows.
Galicia does a great job marking the Camino.
I arrived at my alburgue at about 2:30. I checked in and took a shower and hand washed my clothes. Now it should be Radler time but the woman running the place said that the bar is closed until 5:30. 😢 It would probably be a good idea for me to wait until a little later in the evening before I start draining Radlers.
It’s 5:30 and it’s time for a small Radler and some peanuts.
This should hold me until we have dinner at 7:30. They don’t salt their nuts over here. I prefer my nuts salted, but I am not complaining.This is my bed for the evening.
A French guy is in the lower bunk next to me. The minute I sat down on my bunk he started haranguing me about how tired he was and told me that he was going to go to sleep immediately after dinner and I better not snore. I told him not to worry, that I would be as quiet as a mouse and would never dream of disturbing his slumber.
About 6 months ago I got a special mouth guard that moves my lower jaw forward to help prevent snoring and treat my mild case of sleep apnea. I have been wearing it every night on the Camino and no one has ever commented or complained that I was snoring. Tonight I think I’ll leave the mouthguard out and take an Ambien to ensure that I have a long night of drug induced, can’t wake me up, sleep with the added bonus of a cacophony of snoring to annoy my French neighbor.
The alburgue has an attached bar/restaurant. I had dinner there this evening.
First course – A mixed salad.Second course – Fish and chips. They don’t do a great job boning their fish fillets so you need to be careful or you will get a mouthful of bones with your fish.Third course – A fruit pie. All in all a good meal.
That’s it from Ventosa, Spain. I hope you are having a wonderful day wherever you are.
I got up this morning in time to go to the 9:30 Pilgrim Mass at the Cathedral.
What an amazing beautiful church.
The Mass was standing room only. I got there early and got a good seat in the section closest to the altar. After I sat down about 100 Spanish soldiers filled in the section so I would up being the only civilian in this section surrounded by 100 Spanish soldiers. I offered to move but they told me to sit still. As you all know, I do what I am told to do. So, following orders, I sat still.
The Cardinal said the Mass, in Spanish. Sitting through a Mass in Spanish is kinda like sitting through a Latin Mass. Most of you don’t remember those Latin Masses. When I was a kid I was an altar boy at the Ursuline convent’s 6:00 AM Latin Mass. There was no way in the world that I could keep my mind from wandering pretty far afield during those early morning Latin Masses.
I got Communion from the Cardinal and that’s a pretty big deal.
After Mass all the soldiers congregated around the altar for a special blessing from the Cardinal.
There will be no swinging of the Botofumiero, the infamous Big Smoker, during this visit. The Botofumiero is out of commission for a month undergoing repairs to the apparatus that swings it.
They are hanging the Big Smoker in a side chapel while they repair the apparatus that swings it.
I wanted to go to confession while I was in the Cathedral. I went by a side altar where a priest was hearing confessions in Italian and English. At least 50 people were waiting patiently in this line. Most of the people waiting in this line were Italian. You can draw your own conclusions from that.
I walked by this side altar where there was a German priest hearing confessions in German and English. There wasn’t even one person in line. You can draw your own conclusions from that. My heritage is mostly Viking Dane with just a smidgen of German, so I thought this might be a good priest to hear my confession. His name was Father Gustav.
After we got done with the preliminares I got right to the point. “Bless me father for I have sinned. I cheat at golf.” Father Gustav looked at me with incredulity, finding it hard to believe I would confess and ask forgiveness for this unpardonable sin. I explained to him that when I play in the Hansen Golf League, I improve my lies in the fairways and rough. I don’t take penalty strokes for lost balls, I just pull another ball out of my pocket, drop it in the fairway and loudly proclaim, “I found it.” And worst of all, on occasion, I report a lower score on a hole where I actually shot a higher score.
Father Gustav told me that he was a golfer and my cheating at golf was an unpardonable sin, but as a priest hearing my confession he was duty bound to offer me forgiveness and absolution. So he made the sign of the cross and said: “Your sins are forgiven. Go in peace and sin no more.”
I was taken aback. “You mean I have to stop cheating at golf?” Father Gustav shot back: “That is exactly what it means. You don’t get forgiveness or absolution unless you promise to end your golf cheating.” I thought about that for a minute and told Father Gustav that I would need to put a bookmark in this confession and spend some time thinking about the pros and cons of abstaining from cheating at golf. Father Gustav improvised and gave me a provisional forgiveness and absolution. According to Father Gustav this provisional forgiveness and absolution will be automatically revoked should I ever cheat at golf again. We’ll see what happens the first time I am tempted to cheat at golf. I am less than sanguine about my chances of making Father Gustav’s absolution and forgiveness stick.
I worked up an appetite sparring with Father Gustav over the fate of my golf game and my immortal soul. So I headed down to my favorite restaurant in Santiago.
This is a stir fry chain where you can get a quick, delicious, cheap meal packed with vegetables.My curry rice stir fry was beyond delicious.After lunch I met up with Grey and Janet for a rooftop tour of the Cathedral and an opportunity to view the Portico of Glory.
I spent some time with Grey and Janet along the Way. It was nice to run into them in Santiago. They are such nice people.
In order to get up to the rooftop we had to climb 105 steps. And I thought this was a rest day.
This is the roof of the Cathedral. The tiles are stone slabs three inches thick and slanted at a 30 degree angle. I didn’t know that I have a touch of acrophobia until I got onto this roof, and the wind started to blow and it started to spit rain.
A series of pictures taken from the roof of the Cathedral.
After we completed the rooftop tour we got to spend 30 minutes viewing the Portico of Glory. Master Mateo supervised the building of the Cathedral and at the main entrance to the Cathedral there are three doors. Around these three doors, he carved his masterpiece, the Portico of Glory. This entrance is not open to the public. In order to see it you have to buy a ticket and join a tour. They wouldn’t let us take pictures, so no pictures of the Portico of Glory on the blog. I suggest you Google Portico of Glory to get the complete lowdown and see some pictures. What a shame to limit access to this masterpiece.
After we finished the tour we found a bar where we had tapas and a couple of drinks and swapped Camino stories. It was so nice spending the afternoon with Grey and Janet. Meeting and spending time with beautiful souls like Grey and Janet is my favorite part of the Camino.
That’s it from Santiago, Spain. Tomorrow I start walking to Finnesterre. I hope you are having a wonderful day wherever you are.
This is me struggling on the driveway from the alburgue out to the Camino this morning. The whole day was a struggle.
Last night after our wonderful group dinner we went upstairs and our host, Diego, lit a fire in the fireplace.
Fire in the fireplace. Nice and cozy.
I casually asked Diego if he had any after dinner liquor at the bar. He said he did and invited me to join him at the bar. Susan from England and Cecile from Spain joined us at the bar. We sampled a number of liquors but couldn’t find one that hit the spot. We finally decided to just have a beer. Diego said he had a special beer on tap that was brewed in San Sebastián. According to Diego it was very good and very strong. I didn’t exactly understand what he meant by strong. But the beer was very good and everyone in the group was very thirsty.
Diego let me pay for the first round but after that he keep our glasses full and refused to let anyone pay for the beer.
Diego told us his life story and we three pilgrims discussed why we were walking the Camino. Susan’s story was heartbreaking.
She met her husband Hugh when they were both 19 and it was love at first sight. They were engaged within a couple of months and married four months later. Hugh was a nationally renowned trumpet player. They had three children and a wonderful life together that included a summer home in Wales.
A couple of years ago Susan and Hugh were at their summer home for the weekend. On Sunday Susan asked Hugh if they could stay for an extra night. Hugh wanted to leave but Susan talked him into staying. That night Hugh got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, became disoriented, and fell down a flight of stairs breaking his neck. As a result of this injury Hugh was a quadriplegic. He lived for 18 months after the accident and passed away six months ago. Susan and Hugh were married for 43 years.
Susan has been carrying Hugh’s ashes for 14 days on her Camino, starting in Porto, trying to find the perfect place to spread them. She surprised everyone by announcing that she had decided that the grounds of the alburgue would be the perfect spot to spread Hugh’s ashes. Diego thought that was a wonderful idea. With brimming mugs of beer in hand we accompanied Susan as she spread Hugh around the grounds of the alburgue.
I didn’t get to bed until midnight and by that time I was pretty inebriated. Good thing I had a bottom bunk. There is no way I could have climbed into a top bunk.
When I woke up this morning I felt awful. On top of a raging hangover it rained on and off as I struggled to get to Santiago.
I have 10 more kilometers to go before I make it to the cathedral in Santiago. I finally made it to the cathedral!I don’t look too bad but I am very road weary.Something new in Santiago. A Ferris wheel.This is my room in a small hotel a block from the cathedral. It is small but cozy.
That’s it from Santiago. I am going to rest here until Friday and then I plan to walk the 90 kilometers to Finnesterre. I hope you are having a wonderful day wherever you are.
Vilanova de Arousa to Padron is about 30 kilometers. You can walk the 30 kilometers or you can take a boat. I made a reservation for a boat. There were two choices. A large covered boat.
This is the large covered boat.
Or you could make a reservation on a small boat where you sit outside.
This is the small boat where you sit outside.
I decided a couple of days ago to reserve the small boat. It sounded like fun to sit outside.
When I got up this morning the weather looked ominous. I got an email from the boat operator that they would sail come hell or high seas and we better wear warm clothes and prepare to get wet.
My reservation for the small boat was for the 10:00 AM trip. The big boat showed up at 9:00 AM and I begged the guy to let me ride with him as a stowaway. No dice.
In the hour between the departure of the big boat at 9:00 AM and the arrival of the small boat at 10:00 AM the rain stopped and the sky kinda cleared.
Nice weather for a river cruise.
The first stop on our 1 hour river voyage was a tour of the mussel gardens.
There are hundreds of rafts in the river that are home to mussel gardens. According to our boat captain/tour guide, this is a big business in this part of Spain.
The next stop was the first station in the 12 stations of the cross.
First station of the cross.
Some local entrepreneur decided to start this whole boat trip Spiritual Variant thing a number of years ago. In order to make the boat trip spiritual instead of just a way to avoid walking 30 kilometers to Padron, they erected 12 crosses along the shoreline of the route to Padron and called it the Stations of the Cross Variant. Not one person in our boat knew anything about the stations of the cross and they all gave me a blank stare when I tried to explain it to them.
Another Station of the Cross.The ruins of a fort the Spaniards built to defend against the Viking raids.
The boat dropped us off a few kilometers outside Padron. The walk into Padron was pleasant.
Beautiful park in Padron.Saint James the Moor Slayer. I stopped in this church and said a prayer for everyone, especially the Moors who got the sharp end of Saint James’ sword.Chickens along the Camino because I know that some of you like chickens.Lunch in Padron. My first bocadillo. This is old school hay harvesting.Great shot of an hórreo. They are protected by law and if you have one on your property you must maintain it.I hate the rain but the flowers love the rain. And the rain in Spain does not fall mainly on the plain. It has been falling on me!This is my alburgue. The Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is really old school. I love it.I washed and dried my clothes!!!!Group dinner at the alburgue.Peppers and sausage.Salad.Steak and spuds. And now a fire in the fireplace.
That’s it from just outside Padron, Spain. I hope you are having a wonderful day wherever you are.
When I got up this morning in Barrantes I looked at forecast for my destination, Vilanova de Arousa and it looked like rain. I had a nice breakfast at my hotel and practiced asking the front desk clerk to call me a cab, in Spanish. Then I looked outside and the rain seemed to have subsided. A smart person would have ignored the temporary lull in the rain. A smart person would have asked the front desk to call them a cab, por favor. As everyone reading this blog knows, I am not a smart person. Instead of calling a cab I put on my rain pants and my rain jacket and set off for Vilanova de Arousa.
This is the tree shaded path leading out of Barrantes. Just a little bit of drizzle so far.This is the river. It is pretty swollen from all the rain this area has received this spring.I was walking through vineyards for the first half of the walk.
The second half of the walk was along the coast and you can imagine what happened when we got to the coast. The wind started blowing and the rain came down in sheets. I finally got to my alburgue and my warm cozy lower bunk bed.
My nice cozy lower bunk bed.
I have all my wet clothes hanging on a dryer rack but I doubt they will be dry by tomorrow morning. My shoes are soaked and there is no hope that they will dry. I am praying that the rain stops so I can get out this evening and have a nice dinner. I deserve a nice dinner.
That’s it from Vilanova de Arousa, Spain. I hope you are having a wonderful day wherever you are.
We started the day with a 10 kilometer hill climb up to Armentiera.
This is a communal wash basin. Every Spanish town we have walked through seems to have one. In the days before washers this is where the local women would come to wash their clothes.This is a donativo drink stand. Inside that ice chest there is a variety of sodas and bottles of water. Take what you need and pay what you can.The view from half way up the hill.This is an apple.These are horse apples. I saw a bunch of these piles of horse apples on the trail. The Colorado Cowboy on the Camino has plenty of experience tracking and deciphering based on piles of horse apples. It was clear to my expert eye that these horse apples came from a horse that has an apple allergy. Don’t ask me to explain. It is very technical and complicated. You just need to trust me on this. The only horse I know on the Camino with an apple allergy is Bucky. He must have escaped from his fenced field and now he is out ahead of me on the Camino. I wonder who will get to Santiago first, me or Bucky.This is lunch in Armentiera. I ordered a tortilla español. I meant to order a slice of tortilla. Why in the world would I want the whole thing. It was very good but I could only eat half. I think the waitress brought a whole tortilla just to jack me around. After lunch I went to Mass at the church in Armentiera. It was a full house and I enjoyed the service. I usually join in with some sort of mumbo jumbo when it is time for the congregation to play their part in the Mass. At this Mass, right before Communion, the congregation started signing what appeared to be The Battle Hymn of the Republic. I know that tune so I was able to sing along enthusiastically. I have no idea why they would be singing The Battle Hymn of The Republic as part of a Spanish Mass, but I was glad to have an opportunity to really participate in the Mass. I said a prayer for everyone
Just outside Armentiera there is a section of the Way called The Path of Stone and Water. It was spectacular.
Back in the day this stream powered a number of small sawmills.The remains of one of the sawmills.
The following pictures should give you some idea of the beauty of this path.
After we walked the 5 kilometer Path of Stone and Water we had to walk another 3 kilometers to find our hostal.
I should be walking the wine route instead of the Path of Stone and Water.As I was walking in the countryside to get to my hostal I ran across Whitey. He told me that he saw Bucky a couple of hours ago galloping hell for leather down the Camino toward Santiago.
When I finally got to my Hostal it was closed. 😱
I started calling phone numbers and finally got a woman who didn’t know a lick of English, but with my Spanglish I let her know I had a reservation and needed to get in to my room. She was there in a minute and gave me a room upgrade for the screwup.
Very nice room!
That’s it from Barrantes, Spain. I hope you are having a wonderful day wherever you are.
AbeAndMarkontheCamino 