2012-10-05 Friday

2012-10-05 Friday

Portomarin / Palas de Rey

Camino day 28. Today's segment is 26Km. 

We all (Terry, Nancy, Paulo, Gunther, Jeovan, Adela and I) got together for breakfast at 0730, and we hit the trail by 0820.  It was very cold, due to a mist that covered the valley. A steep hill faced us as soon as we left the town, and by the time we reached the top and the sun light began to hit us, and we had to stop to take jackets off, we were sweating from the exhaustion. 

The day turned out to be a beautiful one, sunny, very few clouds, in the high 60s to low 70s range with a cool breeze blowing; a perfect day for walking. 

The first village with a bar was 8 Km away (Gonzar,) we arrived there eager for a coffee break. When were having our coffee with pastries, seated at an outdoors table, Adela took her tennis shoes off, her feet were full of blisters, she had started walking just a few days ago. Later, when we got up to leave, Adela was still tending to her feet. About 10 minutes later, Terry caught up with us, I asked him "Where's Nancy?" and he replied that she had stayed behind in the cafe with Adela. 

We arrived at the next village with a bar, Hospital, 5 Km further away, and stopped for a lunch break and to wait for Nancy. We finished eating our sandwiches, and Nancy still had not arrived, Terry started to became worried and nervous. We usually are spread out at most 10-15 minutes apart between stops. The most Terry and Nancy have felt behind because of difficult terrain is 20 minutes. Nancy was now 45 minutes late. Terry told us to go ahead, saying he would stay and wait for her, but we had none of that, we will stay together to wait for Nancy. 

There was a taxi parked nearby, but no taxi driver. Terry wanted to hire the taxi and drive back looking for Nancy, and wanted someone who spoke Spanish to go with him. I said I would go with him, but that we should wait a bit longer. I was not too concerned yet because the trail in this segment is well marked and there is a lot of people walking this segment since many pilgrims came just for the last 100 Km; there was no way she would go off trail, and if something had happened to her and Adele we would find out sooner or later. The trail splits just before the village, the main one is thru the village, the alternate one bypasses the village. From where we were seated we could see the split and the two trails, if Nancy followed our protocol, she would not take the alternate, she would come to the village to find us in the first open bar. But, nevertheless, just in case she takes the bypass, Paulo went out and sat on a low stone fence at the split, to wait for Nancy.

Terry was impatient and went off to find the taxi driver, and he came back with a local guy Terry thought was the driver, but he was only a friend of the driver who was somewhere else in the village. The guy spoke a little bit of a broken English, I engaged the guy in Spanish, dragging the process a bit to give more time for Nancy to arrive, but unfortunately, the guy told Terry, in his broken English, that his wife was not the only person that was "missing", that the local police was searching for a Korean woman that had been missing for 3 days! Terry almost had a heart attack when he heard that. Luckily, Nancy and Adela just came around the bend, she was more than one hour behind. Adela was wearing Nancy's Teva sandals. Nancy was late because she stayed a long time in the previous bar helping Adela tend to her feet. 

Since all's well, we left Nancy and Adela at the bar for their lunch break and we took off, Terry stayed with them. We took another break about one hour later and waited for Terry, Nancy and Adela to catch up with us. Finally, at 1530, we reached our destination in Palas del Rey, the Pousada Las Cabañas. 

We showered and ate "Octopus Galega Style" for snack, delicious. Laundry was self service, and it was my turn to do it. There was only one washer and one drier, with people waiting line. Ahead of me were a Californian couple, she in her late 60s, he in early 80s, and Gunther. The "laundry room " was just a shed between two of the buildings, Gunther and I brought chairs to sit on in the shade between the buildings while we waited our turn. The Californian woman was standing there waiting for her laundry to finish, and I brought another chair for her to sit as well, and she said "why don't we all have a party while we wait for the laundry?" She went the bar and came back with a bottle of a good chilled white wine. We went back to our rooms to get glasses, and we all chatted and drank wine while we did our laundry! This is the Camino, there is always something unexpected. 

We all (party of 7) had dinner together at the hotel's restaurant, we were too tired to go anyplace else for dinner.  The menu did not have many options, but the food was good and plentiful. Unfortunately, our waiter was brusque, impatient, and had a terrible body odor. We gradually won him over, and he mellowed out a bit, but nothing could be done about his BO. We had a long dinner and enjoyed each other company, the jokes and the wine flowed freely.