October 24th, 2013

MY MOST EMBARASSING CAMINO MOMENT:  Okay, yesterday afternoon we had to cross this stream over a bridge made of four big rocks that rose about three feet above the stream.  The third of these four rocks was long, narrow, uneven, and ´way wobbly.  You don´t even want to know how many people it took to get me across that rock  Finally a guy with a prosthetic leg selling things by the side of the path limped over and pushed through the crowd, grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me across!  Tom bought something from the guy, I passed around my very heartfelt  "muchas gracias"´s, and, grateful as I was to be rescued,  I kind of wanted to jump into the stream and swim away fast!  (If I knew how to swim, that is, which I don´t!).  Anyway, in "The Way" it did not  rain at all like it does in this region even though it appeared that Martin Sheen and his friends were on the Camino the same time of years as us, so I just want to know, what´s up with that?!  The Camino was uber-crowded yesterday, most ot the pilgrims walking in groups and carrying day packs or no packs, and the roads were busy with tours buses, I expect to transport the tour group pilgrims to the casas and the crowded restuarants along the way where the buses were parked.  The guide book warns us not to be annoyed by or feel  self-righteous over the tour group pilgrims who now populate the Camino, and I don´t feel that way myself, as I believe that everybody has to do their Camino in their own way.  Your Camino-Whatever-It-Takes-To-Make-It-happen might be a tour group, my Camino-Whatever is the laundry services.  There were also lots of groups of kids on the Camino yesterday, they appeared to be middle-schoolers on field trips.  As you can imagine, the Scoutmaster was feeling somewhat nostalgic, the boys reminding him of his scouts as they tossed pebbles at each other, teased the cows, and ran their sticks along the walls.  In the midst of the crowd I found the Irishman I talked to yesterday.  He expanded upon his comparison between Galicia and the Ireland, remarking that he was also reminded of the Irish countryside by the smell of the pigs.  Though I don´t recall seeing  pigs since I´ve been in Galicia, (though ham, bacon, and pork filets served with piles of french fries seem to be major staples of the Spanish diet, and ours since we´ve been here!)  we see cattle, sheep, goats, and sheeps everywhere we go, and the air of the the farm villages is permeated by the aroma of manure, so much so that at times I´ve thought I could smell it in my freshly washed clothes and in the bed linens!  Anyway, yesterday afternoon the rain let up, the sun even came out for a while, and we´d hoped to walk from Ponte Campana-Mato to the town of Ribadiso, but by 6:20pm we were still in the middle of the forest, the last albergue we´d tried in the village of  Castaneda was full, and we were still good 1.5kms from  Ribadiso.  Then we came across a wooden sign in the forest that said "Casa Milia 500 meters" above an arrow pointing to the left down a small path.  Though I felt like Hansel and Gretel follwoing the sign to the witch´s house, we followed the sign until the forest path ended in a highway and we saw another sign that said, "Casa Milia 50 meters" above another arrow.  We follwed the arrow until we came to a beautiful stone house, the "Casa Milia",  where we were greetied by a sweet-looking grandmotherly woman in a country-print apron who invited us in.  Was she going to put us into her oven and bake us into gingerbread pilgrims?  Not all!  The Casa Milia turned out to be a beautiful place, but rather than the heavy stone and wood timbers of the other Galician casa rurals, this place was more country chic, with pale yellow walls, blond wooden shutters with lace curtains, country prints and tole-painted ceramics.  Our room was really nice, with french-door windows that looked out over the mountains.  Our room was 35 euros and the dinner 15 euros each, but it was a wonderful dinner, a family-style meal that we shared with our two French dinner companions and the only other guests in the casa: Didier, a retired family doctor and Bernard, a retired policeman from Marseilles, Camin obuddies for the last few days .  Anyway, the first course was a pot of the spinach potato soup, followed by a beautiful salad - no tuna, but nobody seemed to mind! - then a lovely platter of cock (as opposed to chicken - not sure what the difference is, but the Frenchmen could definitely tell)  and the standard mountain of hot, freshly made french fries.  For dessert Tom and I had flan and Didier and Bernard adventurously ordered the quince compote, not sure exactly what they´d get, and they just laughed when the dis turned ouit to be a mound of jam and two thick slices of cheese.  How did jam and cheese go togehter, we all wondered, but they chalked it up to a memorable Camino culinary experience!  The laundry service was a tad pricey, 10 euros, but our clothes came back beautifully folded and, thankfully, dry! 
Today is anothe rainey day so far, but we´re on lur way, our goal for today being 15 kms to the town of Salceda.  Rain or sun, may you all have a happy day!  Love, Patti 8)