Day 59: Giant Incense Burners, Paramedics, and Webcam Adventures!

October 9: Santiago! The promised land! Without a doubt, I intended to take a zero day and explore this bustling town. You read my webcam misadventures at the wine fountain, but you didn’t read about another aborted webcam cameo in Burgos. The webcam Wassa found was indeed pointed at the cathedral I would be walking past, but it was probably a half mile away and if I was visible at all, I’d have been the size of a mere pixel.

Wassa had been wanting to catch me in real time, live on a webcam somewhere, and I found an online website in front of Santiago Cathedral at http://www.crtvg.es/crtvg/camaras-web/praza-do-obradoiro#.ULPFSoZXlLY — look for me there I told him, somewhat jokingly. “I was there yesterday, and I’ll be there again today.” Not sure when I’d be there, but Wassamatta u, I knew, had nothing better to do than watch a webcam in Spain all day, right? =)

Before leaving my hotel room in the morning, I checked my email and he was online, so I told him that I’d be leaving the hotel and probably be in front of the cathedral in as little as 15 minutes. I told him I’d be carrying an umbrella—it was raining outside, after all, and I headed out.

I arrived at the cathedral, where I spotted Vivian, the Australian women I met the first day I hiked out of Saint Jean. It wasn’t a coincidence—I’d gone there specifically to meet her. I hadn’t seen her since the day I left Burgos. She skipped a large section to Leon and had forever since been two days ahead of me. We kept in touch through email, though, and knew she was still in Santiago meeting up with all of her friends she had left behind. Which included me. =)

I told Vivian we had to stand around in front of the cathedral for at least a few minutes so Wassa would have a chance to spot us. We saw a camera on one of the buildings, and I pointed to it saying that I thought that was the webcam. The angle was right. We waved to the camera, and Vivian wanted to see us on it herself so she pulled out her smart phone, loaded up the website with the webcam, and there we were! It wasn’t a very good image of us, though. We were tiny little dots, and had we not known where we were standing, we’d have had a tough time picking ourselves out of the image. With her smart phone, though, we could also see that we were close to the edge of the photo, near the back, and we moved into a more prominent location to make it easier for Wassa to find us.

We were out there, on display in front of the webcam for probably 15 minutes or so, and later, when I got back to the hotel and got online, checked if he had seen me. He probably did, but said he couldn’t tell which of the dots were me because everyone had umbrellas. There wasn’t enough detail to pick me up. Drats. Foiled again….

Vivian and I went out for breakfast catching up on each others adventures, then she directed me to a fairly large bookstore where I went in search of a guidebook for Finisterre and Muxia, but we came up empty. It wasn’t that critical since I had maps for most of the distance, but it would have been nice.

Eventually, we headed back to the cathedral for mass. I hadn’t been to mass since… well, the very first day I started my hike in Le Puy. =) Somehow, it seemed appropriate to bookend each end of my pilgrimage with a mass.

Vivian took us to the very front for a seat on the ground in front of the very front pew. Shortly before mass started, they roped off the area where we sat, not allowing anyone else where we were. But then Hilary found us, and when the coast was clear, she ducked under the rope and joined us. =)

This mass had a few differences from the one I was at in Le Puy. For instance, this time, they all spoke Spanish rather than French. Which meant I could actually pick out some of the words they said, although they still spoke too fast for me to understand the entire sentences.

Then, I was a little surprised to see Charles, the priest from New Zealand, up there dressed in priestly robes. It looked like they took several pilgrims from various countries to speak a few words, and Charles came up and said his few words—in English since he couldn’t even pronounce the word ‘alburgue’ correctly in Spanish if you threatened him with his life. =) There were half a dozen of these pilgrim talkers, but Charles was the only one I actually knew. I assumed the others must have been priests in their respective countries as well, and they clearly spoke all sorts of languages that I couldn’t recognize. Undoubtedly, some of them were French, German, Korean, and who knows what all else. I rather liked the international spectacle.

And then, there was one other little difference: the incense burner. This was no ordinary incense burner. It’s called the Botafumeiro, a famous thurible (yeah, I didn’t know the word either) is enormous, weighing in at 80 kilograms (about 176 pounds), and burns an enormous hunk of incense as its swung dramatically through the cathedral on a pulley system. Truth be told, probably 95% of the people who go to this mass are here specifically to see the incense burner swinging through the structure.

They lowered the Botafumeiro, started the incense burning, then a priest swung it by hand as far as he could to get the thing started at which point six guys in robes pulled at the rope attached to it to swing it higher and higher and higher! Cameras flashed everywhere, an endless parade of flashing lights that gave the whole event even more appeal. From our perch in front of the front pew, the incense burner seemed to pass almost immediately over us. We could practically reach out and touch it—if we wanted our hand ripped off as it swung by.

So very awesome. *nodding*

Then it slowed down to a stop and mass was over.

I wanted to stop and see crypt at allegedly held Saint James’s mortal remains, but I decided to come back later and see it. Now that everyone was leaving the mass, the line for it was absolutely enormous. I'd come back later when things were less crowded!

Vivian was the first to peal off. Hilary and I wandered around a bit before we eventually parted ways as well.

An hour after mass had ended, I headed back to the cathedral to check out the lines. There were actually two lines. One that went down to the crypt with Saint James’s remains, but the other went up to a large statue of the apostle, which I thought looked kind of like a large Buddha, which people can hug or whatever. I walked around to check out the lines where I saw Nancy and MaryK.

“Hey!” I said, “How are you guys! Did you catch mass?” =)

Nancy seemed positively freaked out, though, and told me that Jeannie was in there helping someone who had hurt themselves. Huh? I was completely oblivious to anything unusual going on.

Eventually, I pieced together the story that they had gone up to see the “Buddah,” but on the way down, a woman had fallen and hurt herself. Since nobody else seemed to know what they were doing, Nancy pushed Jeannie into going in to help. Jeannie was a doctor of some sort, so probably knew what to do better than the rest of us did. But Nancy was really quite agitated and worried about Jeannie. “Maybe I shouldn’t have told her to go in there?”

Eventually, some cathedral personnel happened along and closed off the doors leading into and out of the Buddha exhibit, and we were told that help was on its way. In the meantime, we waited around the exit for Jeannie to come out. About ten minutes later, she popped her head out asking if paramedics were on their way—this woman needs help ASAP. We told her that that’s what we were told, help was on its way. We had no idea why it was taking so long, though. We were in the middle of a major city in Spain. It seemed like help should have been practically right around the corner. Jeannie went back to the hurt woman and we continued waiting outside just chatting. I tried to cheer Nancy up and assured her that sending Jeannie in was the right thing to do and that she’d be fine. And I tried to distract her from the emergency by talking about other stuff.

MaryK was funny, though—“Oh, it’s YOU!” At which point she admitted that she didn’t recognize me at first. “Who’s this strange guy who acts like he knows us?” I’d always seen them while hiking on the trail when I always wore my hat with the handkerchief underneath it. Since I was indoors and in the cathedral, I didn’t have the hat or handkerchief on my head, she completely didn’t recognize me. It wasn’t the first time this had happened—apparently, I look quite different when I’m in town and when I’m hiking. =)
Another ten minutes go by, and even I’m starting to grow a little concerned about the lack of paramedics arriving. What the hell is taking them so long? It’s not like we were out in the boonies in some sort of obscure, hard-to-find location. We were at probably the most well-known building in the entire city, the middle of a big city! Finally, though, paramedics arrived. I still have no idea what took them so long, but Jeannie finally left the woman and rejoined the rest of us where we got more details.

The woman who had hurt herself, she told us, had high heals on, and on the steep, narrow staircase, Jeannie thought she must have slipped or stumbled and fell hard down the steps. The steps were solid rock—not wooden, or carpeted, or anything soft. Just solid rock, and she apparently hit her head pretty hard and was going into shock. She was modest, though, saying she didn’t really do anything for the woman, except monitor her pulse and making sure nobody moved her until the paramedics arrived. “And why did that take so long?” she asked us. We shook our heads. “Don’t know.”

“Well,” I told them, “you girls certainly know how to keep things interesting!”

I walked around with them a bit, and they needed to go down to the train station to buy their tickets back to Madrid. Looking at a map, I could see that the route to the train station went right past my hotel and I volunteered to lead the way. I didn’t really have anything else to do now that mass was over. They planned to get tickets for the afternoon a couple of days later, but were told that that trail was full. The 10:30 PM train tomorrow night, however, still had space, and that’s what they booked for themselves. Then I walked back towards the cathedral with them again.

I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening with them, a pleasant time. They seemed surprised that I would want to hang around with them all day. Not at all disappointed that I did, but just surprised, as if I wouldn’t want anything to do with three women that might have been old enough to have been my mother. (I don’t know how old they are—but they’ve definitely got at least a decade or two on me!)

During dinner, I got online. I had told the girls about my webcam misadventures and said that I still didn’t know if Wassa had seen me or not that morning since I hadn’t been online. So I got online


 Wassa did see a lot of people in the webcam, but he couldn’t identify me specifically because everyone was carrying umbrellas. I reported the findings to the girls. I replied to Wassa saying that that was disappointing or something, and he replied almost immediately since he was still online. Not surprisingly, really, since it was probably close to noon Pacific time where he lived. Maybe we could give it another shot?

I told him it wasn’t raining anymore—not at the moment, at least—so nobody had their umbrellas open. I’d go back to the cathedral and twirl around my open umbrella. Look for the figure with an open umbrella. I’ll be the only one this time! I told him to give me a half hour or so. I wasn’t that far away, but I was still at dinner and needed to finish up before walking down there.
The girls were headed to the cathedral again as well, so we all started off. They bumped into some other pilgrims they knew that I did not, however, and stopped to talk to them. I knew Wassa would be waiting and looking for me on the webcam, so I didn’t want to linger and continued on. “Catch up with me in front of the cathedral when you’re done!” =)

The cathedral still had quite a few people milling around, but none of them had any open umbrellas. Perfect! I opened up mine, and started twirling it around in the air to get the attention of the webcam. =) I did this for about ten minutes when I spotted two of the Australian girls I had been camping with earlier—Kathy and Emily—so we chatted for a few minutes.

“Did you finish 50 Shades of Grey?” I asked, curious.

Yes, they did.

“Let me guess—it ends with Anna signing the contract and that’s what the next book is about, right?”

“No, she didn’t! They break up at the end!”

Really? Wow—well, I guess that why there’s a sequel. =)

One of the character names in the book is “Grey,” and I joked that the sequel—called 50 Shades Darker, must be about a different man Anna sleeps around with named Darker.

In other news, Erin had apparently fallen ill and was getting better in a hostel somewhere. All the while we’re talking, I’m still swinging around the open umbrella as if I were Mary Poppins, and explained that I was trying to get the attention of someone who was watching a webcam. =)

They continued on, and eventually Nancy, MaryK, and Jeannie arrived they all waved to the webcam. They came to see the cathedral lit up at night, but it wasn’t really lit up at all and they were a bit disappointed about that.

At that point, I had spent about an hour swinging around my umbrella, and I figured that was good enough. If Wassa hadn’t spotted me then, he never would. I walked back to my hotel for the night and waved goodbye to the girls, already thinking about seeing them off from the train station the next day. I hadn’t decided if I’d take another day (or not) in Santiago, but if I did, I knew when their train was departing. I rather liked the idea of going down there to surprise them and wish them good luck. =) But that would only happen if I stayed in town for an extra day….

 I set with Hilary (center) and Vivian (right) waiting for mass to start. =)
Vivian took this photo with her phone which, I suppose, might be
why this one is so grainy compared to the others.

Charles, the priest from New Zealand, says a few words at mass. It was
kind of neat to see him here, not just at the podium, but because I first
met him my first night in Saint Jean. I thought I’d never see him
again after that, but not only did I see him quite often along the
trail, but we wound up in Santiago at the same time. =)

This pillar, near the bottom, is where millions of pilgrims
have worn their fingertips into the bottom of it. (If you’ve
watched The Way, this is that column.) It’s
blocked off so people can’t touch it anymore, though.

I stand triumphant in front of the cathedral.

Because, you know, you just can’t take too many photos
of yourself in front of the cathedral. =)

From left to right, Jeannie, MaryK, and Nancy.

Galicia, apparently, is famous for their octopus. Yum!

I rather liked the look of this dish with the food being
served on scallop shells. How appropriate!

 Wassa finally catches me on a webcam in front of the cathedral
in Santiago! =) The commentary is his own....

Swinging the incense burner higher and higher and higher!    
Here the incense burner goes so high, it seemed like it was about to hit the ceiling!    Here's a video from YouTube with some nice shots of the Santiago Cathedral which is pretty cool. I did NOT make this video, however. =) The only thing I really feel is missing from it is that they never actually show the swinging incense burner. An oversight, I'm sure.  

Day 58: Santiago!

October 8: It rained overnight—a lot!—but my tarp did me proud and kept me dry. By morning, the rain had stopped, but an extremely thick fog with fat drops seemed to seep into everything and tree snot from the eucalyptus trees kept hitting my tarp, so I wasn’t always sure if it was actually raining or not without looking into the clear cut of trees.

Most of the day’s hiking was an unpleasant road walk. I’ve seen photos of the Santiago Cathedral from a distance that seem to dominate the skyline, and I kept my eyes open for that, but I never saw it through the thick fog. I didn’t stop for any but the briefest of rest breaks and a drink at a trailside restaurant. I was anxious to see Santiago in person, and anxious to arrive before the rain started—a probability that seemed to increase throughout the day.

I followed the yellow arrows through the streets of Santiago until I arrived at the square in front of the cathedral, a towering masterpiece of architecture. It was the end of the Camino. Oh, sure, I still planned to hike on towards Finisterre, but //this// was the “real” end of the trail. This is where 95% of the people who walk the Camino call it quits. Looking around, I was surrounded by dozens of other people, many of which were clearly pilgrims, but nobody I recognized. I felt a little sad about that. It somehow seemed wrong to have arrived by myself like I did.

I didn’t go inside the cathedral—not yet, anyhow. Mass is held each day at noon, and I had missed it by a couple of hours. I would return tomorrow for mass, and I didn’t want to see the inside of the cathedral until then.

In the meantime, I had a reservation at a hotel to check into. I didn’t know the name of the hotel, nor did I know it’s location. I had gotten online briefly the day before at a computer station in a restaurant when I made the reservation, leaving my pack with the Australian girls at the time, so I had nothing to write with or write on after I made the reservation. The information was online, though, if I could find somewhere to get online.

But I was pretty sure I remembered that the word “nest” was in the name of the hotel, so I wandered over to the tourist office where I had my credential stamped, picked up a map of the city, and asked if they had a list of the available lodging in town I could look through. They did, and I scrolled through the list looking for a place with the word “nest” in the name. I didn’t find it, though, and scrolled through the ten pages of the list a second time to make sure I hadn’t overlooked it, but I still didn’t find it. Shoot.

I asked about Internet access, and the woman at the tourist office said that a restaurant just around the corner from there had wi-fi. Perfect! I thanked her and headed out to the restaurant.

I pulled out my laptop, but the wi-fi connection required a password. Drats. I suppose I could actually BUY something and ask for the code, but I just wanted to log in for the ten seconds it was necessary to look up my reservation details. The guy at the table next to me was typing on his laptop, and I asked him if he was online and new the password to get on. No, he didn’t. Drats!

But a woman passing by had heard me and said she had eaten there the day before and had the password. She went to look it up on her cell phone, but the password was obscured as passwords often are and she couldn’t read it to me.

“Would you mind if I just logged in with your cell phone?” I asked. “Just be second! I only want to look up my reservation so I know where my hotel is!”

She didn’t have a problem with this and gave me her phone. I don’t have a cell phone, smart or otherwise, and I’m not particularly experienced figuring out how to navigate the web on them. Trying to go back a page after clicking a wrong link, or finding the “login” button when I did get to the right website—these were all challenges for me. It probably took me close to five minutes—far longer than I would have imagined—but I finally managed to look up my reservation for the “Nest Style Hotel Santiago” and the address.

I found the street on my map from the tourist office and now knew where I was going. =) I used booking.com for my reservation (if you ever need a hotel reservation in Europe, I think this is THE website to use for it), and the woman started asking me all sorts of questions about it. She hadn’t used it before but had heard a lot about it. Since she was kind enough to lend me her cell phone to look up my reservation, I helped explain to her how that website worked and helped her make a reservation for herself in Barcelona a couple of days later. She had a reservation to fly back to the United States from Barcelona. It’s an usual option back to the states, and I asked why she didn’t get a flight back from Madrid like most people do. It’s closer and cheaper to go to.

“I’m flying US Airways,” she told me.

Now, I know a thing or two about US Airways, and I know for a fact that they have flights out of Madrid, so that didn’t really answer my question. In fact, I was planning to fly out on US Airways myself, but I planned to fly out from Madrid. So I said that US Airways had flights out of Madrid too—so why Barcelona? Just curious—no wrong answer here (except implying that US Airways didn’t have flights to Madrid—that WOULD be a wrong answer!), and she went on about having never been to Barcelona before. That’s as good as reason as any. =)

While we were talking, a waiter came along asking if he could get anything for us. I felt a little guilty taking up their table and using their wi-fi without actually buying anything, so I said I’d have a Coke. And it’s not like I wouldn’t enjoy it either. The Coke arrived, and much to my surprise, included a silver tray with potato chips on it. The bill for the Coke was 2.50 euros—kind of steep for a small bottle of Coke. The cost, I assumed, was because it included the cost of the “free” potato chips that I didn’t really want in the first place. The woman said she “accidentally” bought a 20 euro lunch the day before. “This place isn’t cheap!”

I finished my drink and potato chips, then headed off in search of my hotel. I found it about ten minutes later, right where my map said it would be, and checked in for the night. The room was small but serviceable, and I had my own private bathroom that wasn’t crowded into the size of a small closet. I hate those showers that are so small you can’t even bend over to pick up that dropped bar of soap or you have to step out of the bathroom just to dry off with your towel, so I was pretty happy to have the full-sized bathroom at my disposal. =) And all for just 35 euros. Almost all of the other hotels in town were going for nearly twice that amount.

After showering and cleaning up, I headed back to the hotel lobby and returned my key to the desk clerk. (They want you to turn in your key whenever you leave the hotel.) I asked where the nearest grocery store was, and the desk clerk told me outside, right across the street. I walked outside, and sure enough, there was a large grocery store. I felt a little sheepish that I hadn’t noticed it on my way in. =) I did my grocery shopping, then headed back into the historical town center where I checked in at the pilgrim’s office to register my successful walk. I arrived there at close to 7:00 and avoided the crowds earlier in the day.

An English-speaking man greeted me when I entered the room, and asked where I had started from. “Le Puy-en-Velay,” I answered.

He said, “So you started, what? Last week?” Obviously a joke.

“No,” I told him, “the trail was a lot more difficult than I had thought. It took me closer to two weeks!”

He congratulated me on my hike—certainly not the longest one anyone has done, but definitely one of the longer ones they see arriving into town and told me to walk up to the counter in the next room and they’ll take care of me.

I did so, and had my choice between three different clerks twiddling their thumbs. I picked the guy closest to me, and he took my two credentials, looking through them and asking me about the purpose of my journey since they give people a different compostela depending on the reason. I said something about it being a “cultural journey” for me, and they stamped both of the credentials I had used, had me fill out a form with my name, citizenship and where I started from, handed me a compostela, return my credentials and congratulated me.

The compostela, my certificate for having completed the trail. According to the church, half of all my sins have been washed away upon completion of my journey. Had I hiked in a Holy Year (the next one is 2021), all of my sins would have been washed away. I didn’t feel any different, though. The only difference was that now I had a sheet of paper that said something in Latin that I couldn’t read. And truth be told, it wasn’t even a very pretty piece of paper. No artful design. No colorful images of the cathedral. Just a flat, off-white sheet of paper.

And that was my first problem: What do to with that sheet of paper. It seemed like it would be wrong to fold it up or bend it, but I didn’t have anywhere in my pack that I could safely store a sheet of paper without damaging it. Many pilgrims, I was told, buy little tubes to store it in, rolled up safely, until they get back home. I didn’t really want to carry a tube, though, and they didn’t have anymore available at the pilgrim’s office anyhow. I rolled it up and carried it for the time being, but I’d have to do something with it eventually.

Then I headed back to the hotel for the night. The laminated welcome page they had in my room said you could switch the TV to English, but the directions for that weren’t particularly clear. So I bungled around with the TV remote control for about ten minutes before I figured out how to change many of the stations into English. English! Not off the stations were in English—their local news, for instance, didn’t have an English-language counterpart. But now I could watch exciting shows like Two and a Half Men, American Dad, or CSI in English. =) Oddly, The Simpsons was still in Spanish. I knew there was an English-language counterpart for that show, but for whatever reason, it wasn’t available.

But for most of the night, I caught up on email, blog posts, and watched way too many episodes of “How It’s Made” on their version of the Science Channel. =)

Although it didn’t actually rain during my walk into Santiago,
the weather certainly wasn’t good either!

After I had checked into my hotel, though, it did
start to rain. Officially, though, I consider this a
non-rain day since I didn’t actually have to hike in the rain! =)

A courtyard outside of the cathedral.

The Santiago Cathedral! I had made it!

A woman getting her picture taken with a pilgrim statue, you think?
No, that’s not a statue! That’s a guy who makes his
living dressing up as an old pilgrim and has people pay him
to have your photo taken with him. I didn’t want to pay,
though, and took this photo of a complete stranger
getting her picture with him. =)

My compostela. Truth be told, it was a little anti-climatic as far as
certificates go. My credential I thought was more interesting
and had more sentimental value than this certificate, so I decided
to fold it in thirds until it got home. =)

Day 57: A Day With the Aussie Girls

October 7: The overnight rain didn’t amount to much, but having the tarp up was definitely a good idea! By morning, the rain had stopped and the day was considerably nicer. Partly cloudy for the most part, but those lingering rain clouds were still in the forecast for tomorrow. It seemed like “chance of rain” was becoming a regular part of the weather forecast nowadays, probably due both to the change in geography and season. So far, though, I’ve managed to avoid hiking in the actual downpours except for two days of my entire hike. =) But I had no illusions—I’ve been lucky. So far.

I walked a few kilometers with Indi in the morning, just chatting about ourselves and what we were doing on the trail. For someone I’ve camped with for the last three nights, I didn’t really know much about her. We generally walked at our own pace during the day, then when she was around, there were always four other people there as well, so it’s not like I really got to talk to any one of them beyond a superficial level. So I wound up chatting with Indi for the better part of an hour, talking about the kinds of things I’d usually talk about with people I met for the first time.

Later in the afternoon, I caught up with Emily and did the same thing. =) I kind of wish it happened earlier, though. We only had one more night before we reached Santiago, and we all intended to find lodging in town the next day. Three of the five girls would be leaving back to Australia after reaching Santiago. Two of them planned to continue on to Finisterre—Kathy and Erin—so perhaps I’d catch up with them out of Santiago. But in any case, I felt like I should know these people better considering that I’ve camped with them for the last three days. It seemed a little belated to only do that now, though.

I caught up with Kathy and Jen in Pedrouzo, who were sitting at a table outside of a bar/restaurant in the late afternoon and they were quite happy to hear that the other three girls were literally just a minute or two behind me. About five minutes went by, however, and I found myself scratching my head wondering what the heck happened to them.

“I swear!” I told Kathy and Jen, “I saw them not more than five minutes before I arrived here! I walked faster than them, but not that much faster! They should have arrived seconds after I did!”

The other girls finally arrived. Apparently, they had a stray dog run up to them and they paused for several minutes to pet it and give him attention. I knew there had to be an explanation for their delay.

We killed a couple of hours at the bar/restaurant, waiting until later in the afternoon to find a place to camp. There was still a lot to cover in 50 Shades of Grey, so Erin pulled out the book and continued the reading. They were determined to finish it before we reached Santiago and three of the five girls would be jetting off. I kind of wanted to know how it ended myself, and this was the last night I’d camp with all five of them. I wanted to get the book finished tonight!

After our two-hour break, we headed out in search of a place to camp. The trail now passed through a forest of eucalyptus trees, very much like those I’m familiar with from the Central Coast. I did not, however, want to camp among them. They’re very dirty trees, shedding bark and dropping branches and sharp little acorns. It’s very difficult to find ground by them that’s good to camp on, and these trees did not prove to be the exception to the rule. With six of us in the group, that also limited our camping options to only larger campsites. We passed a couple of places that we could have fit one or two of us, but had to pass them by.

Eventually, we reached an area that had been clear-cut. There was, technically speaking, space available, but it was an ugly little space. The ground was torn up, lumpy and in disarray, more dirt than grass. Kathy wanted to stop there, but I felt certain we could find something better up ahead, so I asked them to wait a bit before setting up camp and I’d run ahead on the trail to scout it out for better options.

I left my pack with them, then started jogging up the trail. I had absolutely no doubt in my mind that I could find something better than that miserable wreck of a campsite. I jogged and I jogged, up a hill towards the Santiago airport. The airport was hidden below the trees out of view and when a plane took off, it darned near scared the crap of me! Woah! I found a few natural-looking clearings out of the eucalyptus trees, but they were covered in thick vegetation with thorns on the brush. I probably jogged for a half hour, certain I’d find a good site to camp just around the next bend in the road.

But I didn’t. I finally gave up the search and started the long job back to the other girls.

Huffing and puffing, I reported my findings. “Yep,” I told them sadly, “This really is the best place to camp for at least the next couple of kilometers.”

We set up camp, and the girls wanted to hear me read 50 Shades of Grey again, so I read a chapter and a half before they got too tired and went to sleep. I was a little disappointed not to reach the end of it. I wouldn’t know how it ended! Oh, well. I guess it didn’t really matter all that much….

A little happy graffiti on the trail. =)

It looked like they were building a new highway across the
trail at this point. The torn up line extended as far as
the eye could see in both directions. Muddy mess is what I’d call it!

A trailside memorial for a hikers that never made it to Santiago.

The only thing worse than walking next to a road is
walking ON a road. So I’m at least grateful that they have
this path next to it, separated from the traffic. =)

Erin reads aloud from 50 Shades of Grey as Jen looks on. =)
(The other girls are here, but they’re around the table off the left
side of the photo.)

In search of a place to camp. But first, we needed to get out of town….

The tunnel here was kind of amusing to me since it seemed
so unnecessary for a road with such little traffic! =)

Day 56: Photo Shoots and Ukuleles

October 6: It did sprinkle a bit overnight, despite the weather reports predicting otherwise, so I was more than a little happy I had set up my tarp to keep condensation off of me. It would have been a particularly miserable night had I not done that! =)

Kathy and Jen packed up early and hit the trail before sunrise once again. The rest of the girls took a bit longer. I deliberately hung back a bit to attend to some bodily functions after they cleared the area. It would be a lot easier for some privacy where we camped, well off the busy pilgrim path, than it would be on the trail.

Late in the morning, I saw a young woman with a clipboard walking in the opposite direction on the trail. Taking a survey of some sorts? I waved politely, intending to walk past her, but she shoved the clipboard at me. At the top was a paragraph in Spanish, and just below it another one in English which said that she was deaf and mute and raising money for the cause. Now, I don’t mind giving money occasionally for good causes, but frankly, I didn’t know this woman from a hole in the wall. For all I knew, she’d go home and pocket it herself and call herself a good cause. So I shook my head and tried to tell her no, but she kept pushing that clipboard in front of me pointing at the part saying that she was deaf and mute.

Annoyed, I took the clipboard, added my name to it, and for the amount donated, I put a big fat zero. I shoved the clipboard back at her and pointed to it. Comprende now, little lady? Then I walked off.

I couldn’t help but feel a little bit of pleasure smacking her around like that for being such an annoying little twit, but a little part of my brain was asking myself, “Was that rude?” Well, of course it was rude! But was it really deserved? Essentially telling a supposed deaf mute to “shove it”? I hoped anyone else she shoved that stupid clipboard at would see my big fat zero and inspire them to do the same. =)

I stopped in Melide for a nice long lunch break. I ordered pizza, which may not have been the worst pizza I ever ate, but it would definitely be there near the bottom of the list. I read a bit from my Kindle to kill some time, when Hilary and Brent came in—neither of which I’d seen for weeks! Hilary seemed as surprised to see me there as I was to see her, so I walked with them for the next couple of hours. Actually, I mostly walked with Hilary—Brent went on ahead as Hilary and I caught up on each other’s adventures. 

While walking with Hilary, I caught up with Nancy and her friends, Jeanne and MaryK, who’d been hoping to see me all day in order to take pictures of themselves walking down the trail. The day before, I’d been talking to them about “action shots” of people walking down the trail, and I guess the idea percolated with them since then since now they wanted me to take photos of them walking down the trail with their camera.

“You realize,” I pointed out, “that anyone can take your photos, right? You didn’t actually need me for that!” But I found the whole thing amusing anyhow. =)

Nancy gave me her iPhone for the photos, and the three of the started walking down the trail.

“Cut!” I yelled. “That’s not going to work. The sun is behind you guys and you just look like silhouettes. Let’s have you walking in the other direction.”

So they turned around and started walking along the trail in the wrong direction. “Looks good!” I said, and I clicked a button and the iPhone turned off.

“I think I did something wrong,” I told them.

Hilary grabbed the phone from me. “Let me do it,” she said. She seemed to know how to work those infernal devices, and I let her have the phone. The girls started walking again and Hilary took a series of shots. Click! Click! Click! Looked like a paparazzi! =)

Nancy must not have heard all the clicking going on, though, because after Hilary finished, Nancy suggested that maybe we should take “another” one. “Don’t worry about that,” I replied, “Hilary probably got a half a dozen of them!” She was very efficient. *nodding* =)

Then I wanted my own action shots of them with me in the photo, so I gave Hilary my camera and took some more photos.

I caught up with Kathy and Jen in Castaneda, who were happy when I reported that the other Australian girls I had seen only an hour earlier. They weren’t far behind, and sure enough, they showed up in short order. A couple of them went into the bar to order drinks and got sucked into a Spanish soap on the TV. Erin stayed outside and pulled out her ukulele—a small instrument, but remarkably large for hiking with. But it wasn’t the size that surprised me—it was that I had no idea at all she had even been carrying it. She hadn’t taken it out before, and you’d have thought I’d have noticed her carrying something so large.

So she played the uke a bit, which sounded quite pleasant, and I watched fascinated. I’ve always wanted to learn how to play that. Or a guitar. And when I told her that, she kept insisting how easy it was and told me she was giving me a lesson whether I liked it or not. =) Okay, she wasn’t that forceful about it, but she did push me into lesson showing me a few chords—at least after she had to explain what a chord was because frankly, I didn’t know. I’d heard the term before, but it meant nothing to me. And I took a whack at “Hallelujah.” It wasn’t pretty, without a doubt, but I was more determined than ever to learn how to work these darned contraptions someday.

Eventually, the Australian girls and I headed back out in search of a place to camp. We found some nice pine trees a few kilometers out of town and set up camp among them. In the pine trees were wonderful—a nice, thick layer of pine needles is my favorite ground to sleep on. So soft and cushy. Better than a mattress. =) It also made setting up my tarp a lot easier with plenty of tree to hang it from. Setting up the tarp was definitely a necessity this time—the air was already spitting out an occasional drop of rain and rain was most definitely in the forecast overnight.

One of the girls dared me to read a chapter from 50 Shades of Grey aloud. They didn’t think I’d have the guts to, but oh, yes, I did. No problem! So I took my turn reading, covering two chapters of Anna trying to decide if she would or would not sign the contract and a sexual encounter or two. The girls apparently thought my reading of it was absolutely hilarious, especially as I read one of the sex scenes. The book is told from the point of view from a woman, so the sex scenes are from the point of view of a women, but they said when I read it aloud, it made the scene sound like two gay men having an encounter. “That’s funny,” I reminded them, “I always thought they sounded kind of Australian myself! Straight Australians, though…” =)

After two chapters, though, my mouth was getting dry and tired so I handed the book off for one of the other girls to continue reading before we finally all went to sleep for the night.

We follow yellow arrows a lot, and we follow scallop shells a lot,
but scallop shells formed into a yellow arrow? Brilliant! =)

I don’t really know what this is. An oversized bird house?

Pilgrims on their way into Melide.

On our way out of Melide, we heard really loud music which was coming
from here. The trail continues on the back side of this makeshift stage.
It was, according to signage, an “orquestra feminina” and
a “Chicas Show.” I’m all in favor of chica shows! =)

Pilgrims at a fruit stand along the trail. Emily, one of the Australian girls,
is the one with both her knees wrapped. That always made it easy
to identify her from a distance. =) Erin is the person half chopped off
on the right. I don’t know who the guy in the photo is.

I stage an “action shot” with Nancy, Jeanne and MaryK (from right to left).

 

The Australian girls stop on the trail to pick figs.

I set up my tarp close enough to the tent
so I could hear them reading 50 Shades at night, but
as it turned out, I’d be reading a couple of chapters myself! =)

Day 55: A Leisurely Walk

October 5: It was a beautiful day for hiking! I woke up to fog and a heck of a lot of condensation, though. Two of the Australian girls got early starts and were hiking before sunrise. The other three left after sunrise, at their own pace. I was, not surprisingly, the last to leave camp. =)

The trail out of camp climbed a small hill and no more than 100 feet up, we that pushed through the fog to blue skies.

In the middle of the afternoon, I stopped to dry out my ground sheet, tarp and sleeping, throwing them out in the sun in an empty field of grass. I read my Kindle for a half hour as other pilgrims walked past, then repacked my gear and continued on.

In Ligonde, I stopped for a break thinking I had another hour or so to hike into Palas de Rei where the Australian girls were planning to meet up before finding a place to camp. So far as I knew, the two girls who left before sunrise were still ahead of me. The other three, I was pretty certain, were still behind me, but they might have passed me when I had my nose in the Kindle or was lounging around with my eyes closed. How would I know? So I wanted to make sure to get into Palas de Rei to join the girls again for camping.

Nancy and friends—who I met the day before—were there and about to leave as I arrived, and someone had asked how far it was to Palas de Rei. The answer: 10 kilometers.

I turned around. “What?!” Seriously? We couldn’t be that far away! That would make it a solid two hours of walking away! I’d been walking a lot slower than I thought I was! I cut my rest short and continued hiking. Just in case there weren’t any Australians still behind me, I didn’t want to show up in Palas de Rei late!

I arrived in Palas de Rei two hours later, and took a quick detour to a supermarket for supplies. As I walked through town, I kept my eyes open for the Australians knowing they’d be hanging around somewhere. Then I heard, behind me and faintly, someone yelling, “Ryan!” I looked back and there was Kathy. Ah, good! My Australians! =) Although I was a little surprised I had walked past and didn’t see her earlier. Glad she saw me, though!

When I saw where Kathy was sitting, I wasn’t surprised I missed her. A bit off trail, at a bar, that was hard to see between the cars. Jen was there as well, but she was inside on the Internet. Kathy took a table outside and acted as lookout to intercept any passing Australian buddies and myself. =)

“So where are the others?” Kathy asked me.

“I don’t know,” I answered truthfully. “The last time I saw them was probably 9:30 or so in the morning, maybe two kilometers out from where we camped.”

When I’m actually walking, I walk at a pretty good clip, and I knew Emily had two knees that were causing her problems. Everyone knew that since they were both wrapped up. She wasn’t walking fast, and I knew that I hadn’t passed them since 10 kilometers before. If anything, I stretched my lead over them. “It might be awhile before they arrive,” I told Kathy.

Jen finished up with the computer station inside and joined us outside, and we moved to some steps closer to the trail. The easier to intercept the other girls later. In the meantime, I started to cook dinner because, why not? I didn’t have anything better to do at the time. =)

I cooked dinner. I ate dinner. I cleaned up the dishes afterwards. And still the three Australian girls hadn’t arrived. Sunset was getting close, and our maps looked like we might have to walk a few kilometers out of town before we found any suitable places to camp. I really didn’t want to set up camp in the dark, and I told Kathy and Jen that I’d hike on ahead and find a suitable place to camp while it was still light out. When I found something, if it wasn’t in plain view of the trail, I’d leave a note or sign in the trail pointing the way.

As I picked up my pack, ready to head out, the other girls finally arrived. They still needed to resupply at the grocery store themselves, and I volunteered to watch their packs as they did so. Kathy and Jen went ahead to scout out a place to camp instead.

They did their grocery shopping, then I headed up the trail alone to catch up with Kathy and Jen. The other three stayed behind to eat some snacks and rest their feet for a few minutes more.

I caught up with Kathy and Jen a couple of kilometers out of town as one of them was scrambling through the brush off the side of the trail. “No,” Kathy was saying, “there are homes back there.” Looking for a suitable place to camp, obviously. We walked a bit further down the trail where a dirt road led off to the right. We couldn’t see very far up the dirt road, but it seemed worth while to check out. It led away from the busy road we could hear on our left, and it looked like there weren’t any buildings or other man-made structures around. The girls volunteered to watch my pack as I jogged out on the dirt road to scout it out.

A couple of minutes later, I found a site that would fit all of us in the trees. It was a little dark among the trees, and the ground had a lot of small branches and debris that would need to be kicked out of the way, but the site would work in a pinch. I’ve camped in worse! =) I walked a bit further out onto the road, though, looking for better options, eventually coming to a fork in the road where a field had been cleared and looked absolutely wonderful. It was a little more exposed to anyone who happens to walk or drive past, however.

Regardless, either of those sites would be suitable. I jogged back to the girls waiting at the intersection, who—in my absence—apparently had a disturbing encounter with a local. I guess he thought they looked suspicious hanging out there, and they were quite happy when I returned. I reported my findings and said I’d like one of them to decide which of the two sites they’d prefer to camp at—in the trees but kind of dark, or in the open but where it was light and breezy. =) I picked up my pack and Kathy went with me. Jen stayed back, but tried to hide in some nearby bushes in case the strange man they saw earlier came back. She was to stay there to intercept the other Australian girls and let them know where we were camped when they caught up again.

“Basically,” I told her, “just follow the road. You can’t miss us, regardless of which site Kathy chooses. If, somehow, you miraculously do miss us, just don’t go past the fork in the road.”

Kathy looked at the first site, agreeing that it would work, but I pushed her onward to the cleared field and she definitely liked that one better. She started setting up her tent and I started setting up my tarp. It wasn’t supposed to rain overnight, but I wanted to set up my tarp anyhow because condensation the night before had been so terrible.

It was only about a minute before the rest of the girls joined us.

Once we were all settled, 50 Shades of Grey came back out, which they read aloud deep into the night. =)

Pilgrims rest and drink at the Casa Molar.

A new cigarette pack that I hadn’t seen before! =)

Attack of the GIANT ANTS!!!!

This is SOOO a weeping angel! I tell you,
if you’ve seen Blink, this little statue will
give you nightmares! =) Where is Doctor Who
when you need him?!

Another statue, outside of a church in Palas de Rei.

When I was taking this photo, a local started talking to me, telling
me all about the statue, and that the two people
were dancing. “Really? You don’t say!” =)