2012-10-01 Monday

2012-10-01 Monday

Vega de Valcarce / O Cebreiro

Camino day 24, distance : Today's segment is just 12 Km long, but we have to climb 700 meters to the village of O Cebreiro on top of a 1,330 meters high mountain. Nancy's knee is hurting, and she will take a taxi to the top, I called a taxi to pick her up at 1000. I will send my backpack with her. 

I woke up not feeling well, something I ate Yesterday disagreed with me and took some medicine. We had breakfast at 0800, but I was still not feeling well, so I told Paulo and Terry to carry on without me. If I improve by 1000, I will  walk up the mountain, if not, I would go by taxi with Nancyi. Toni had left earlier.

Luckily, the medicine took effect, I gradually improved, and I decided to took off at 0930. The trail was rocky and uneven. The temperature got up gradually to low 60s with sunny skies. It was hard going uphill, but it was a glorious walk,  the views were fantastic. 

Pilgrims with laundry hanging to dry

Camino trail

I was walking at a fast pace and quickly overtook the 4 Spaniards; it was not surprising since they have take frequent breaks to rest and smoke. The two doctors smoke 2 packs a day each! And Dr. Fernando is a geriatric doctor and works at a hospice; he sees the daily painful deaths of the lung cancer patients. 

I also passed Maude, the young Canadian girl from Montreal, we have been meeting almost daily since Leon. She said she was walking slower than usual because she was also battling stomach problems.

It was a new and refreshing experience to walk all by myself for a long stretch. During the first week, the four of us walked together, in a pack. Starting on the second week, on occasion we would space out but kept within sight of each other, but usually walked in twos, the pairs changing. Since then, I have tried to walk for at least 40 to 60 minutes by myself, early in the day, just me and my thoughts, before resuming the pairing up and the Camino socializing. 

Erico, near O Cebreiro

Erico, nearO Cebreiro

I was surprised when I caught  up with Paulo and Terry, about 30 minutes from the top, I had expected them to arrive at O Cebreiro way before I did. We walked together to the Village, Nancy and Toni were waiting for us at the entrance. I ended up doing the 12 uphill Km in exactly 3 hrs, arriving there at 1230. 

About 1 hr later, Gunther arrived, he walked faster and longer in the last 2 days to catch up with us. It's great that Gunther is rejoining us, but we are sorry that we are losing Toni. He needs to arrive in Santiago on the 6th, our plan is to arrive there on the 8th, so he will walk faster and go ahead of us, starting tomorrow. 

Church in O Cebreiro

Our hostal: Casa Carolo

Erico and the view from O Cebreiro

O Cebreiro - Tatched roof house

O Cebreiro - Tatched roof storage building

O Cebreiro: Pilgrims catching the last sun rays of the day

We showered, hand washed out clothes, and set them up to dry in the sun. The air is dry and there is a breeze, they should dry quickly. 

My laundry

At 1430, the Gang of Four and Toni got together for our late lunch/early dinner, Gunther could not join us, he still needed to do his laundry. The Spaniards had not arrived yet. The Pilgrim's lunch was simple but satisfying, washed down with a bottle of a good Rioja wine, selected by Toni.

Yesterday the Spaniards gave us information about places to stay for the remainder of the Camino, and today Paulo called ahead and booked rooms for us for the 7 nights remaining on the Camino. We have "just" 155Km to Santiago!

2012-09-30 Sunday

2012-09-30 Sunday

Cacabelos / Vega de Valcarce

Camino day 23. We left at 0700, without having breakfast first, and picked up Toni, he was waiting by the albergue. It was still dark but with a glorious full moon. We walked briskly to fight the cold to get warmer, climbing the long but low grade the hill just outside the town. Forty minutes later we stopped at a bar in the next little village for coffee. 

We missed a left turn on the trail, we were walking along a paved road and missed faded yellow arrow painted on the pavement indicating that we need to go off on a dirt trail along the vineyard. We had passed it for almost a quarter of a mile when a driver, recognizing that we were pilgrims off the tray, stopped and told us to go back. We were walking and talking, completely oblivious, we probably would have walked a long way before realizing we were no longer in the Camino.

The morning light came in gradually over the hills revealing a glorious day, sunny and without a single cloud. The temperature gradually rose to low 50s, a great day for a brisk walk, I did not feel cold or hot, but I kept the windbreaker most of the day. 

One hour after Cacabelos we entered the heart of the Mercia grape wine country, we walked on gravel roads on beautiful rolling hills with vineyards on either side of the road. After Villafranca del Bierzo, the Camino went back to paved tracks along highways, all the way to Vega de Valcarce. 

Erico and the vineyards

More vineyards

Erico and a monument to pilgrims

When we stopped at Trabadelo for snack,  about 9 Km before Vega,  we met a group of 4 Spaniards from Saragossa (or Zaragoza inSpanish,) 1 men and 3 women, and we all walked together to Vega. Along the way, we discovered we are staying at the same place: Casa Rural El Recanto.  The Spaniards are doing the Camino in yearly stages, this is their fourth and last year, they started at Villafranca today and will reach Santiago. Two of them are medical doctors, one a nurse and the other a high school teacher, and they area all close friends.

We checked in and decided to go to lunch together, the 9 of us. There are not many options to eat in Vega, and the food was nothing to brag about. The house we are staying has just 4 rooms, so we are the only guests with full use of the house. During lunch, we decided to take advantage of the house facilities and bought bred, cheese, ham, and wine for an evening snack at the house. The only problem with our plan was that the house had dishes and glassware, but they were in a locked cupboard! We had to improvise and bring the water glasses from our respective rooms to drink the wine. We improvised and enjoyed the good cheese, ham and bred, washed down with a good wine from the region. A good time was had by all.

Paulo, Terry, Nancy and the people from Zaragoza

Our hostal

Evening wine and cheese party

2012-09-29 Saturday

2012-09-29 Saturday

Molinaseca / Cacabelos

Camino day 22. The Gang of Gour and Gunther met at 0700 for breakfast and then we hit the road at 0745, walking by the albergue where Toni joined us and we all walked together to Ponferrada, 7.5 Km away, arriving there at 0940. 

Nancy, Terry, Erico, Paulo, Toni and Gunther arrive in Ponferrada

We went to see the Knight's Templar Castle, but it opens only at 1100, although the guide indicates a 1000 opening time. We had coffee in a nearby bar and decided to keep walking instead of waiting for the castle to open. Gunther is staying in Ponferrada, a friend of his from Germany that is walking the Camino got sick, and he will stay with her today and tomorrow to provide moral support. He says that he will walk longer distances in the next few days to catch up with us before we get to Santiago de Compostela. We said our farewells and the Gang of Four, plus Toni, carried on.

Ponferrada: Knights Templar Castle

Ponferrada: Knights Templar Castle

Ponferrada: Knights Templar Castle in the distance

We stopped in Fuentes Nuevas for a quick lunch. Nancy was complaining of knee problems, and Terry complained about tight muscles. Soon after we resumed walking, Terry and Nancy fell behind, but the Camino was well marked and Paulo and I carried on. 

For most of the way, until about 5Km from Cacabelos, the trail was along paved country roads, and the sceenary was unapealing. Then we started walking among vineyards where people were collecting the Mencia grapes to make wine. 

Paulo, Toni and I arrived in Cacabelos at 1410, having walked 23 Km. Paulo and I checked in at the Hostal Santa Maria and Toni went to the Albergue. I went back to the first bar into the city to wait for Terry and Nancy, and sat at a sidewalk table having a beer while I waited for them, they arrived 20 minutes later. 

The GoF (Gang of Four) went out to have lunch before the restaurants close. First, we went to a crowded restaurant, full of locals, usually a sign of good food, but they had a 30 minutes wait; we ended up going to the Meson Apostol, recommended by our innkeeper, where we had an excellent lunch and a couple of bottles of a very good local wine. 

Local beef steak and fries

We had just finished lunch, when the restaurant owner came by to ask if everything was all right, chatting with him, we learned that he is also a wine producer. He ended up giving us a lecture on wine making, even bringing some grapes he picked from his vineyard this morning and his spectrograph to show us how to see the sugar content of the grape, one of the factors to determine when to collect grapes for winemaking. He said that his grapes  are going to be ready for harvesting on Monday. He gave us free tastings of his cognac and of his licquour. Paulo and I bought a bottle of his wine to drink later. 

When we returned to the hotel we met two Brazilian women, they are from Belem, walking the Camino together.

At 1900, Toni came by our hotel with Claire, a pilgrim from Ireland, he brought a fresh local cheese, I went to the nearby bakery to buy bread and I bumped into Jamil and invited him to join us.  The guy at the front desk allowed us to use the empty breakfast room for our wine, cheese, and bread "dinner." Jamil told us that he's wife decided to join him for the remainder of the Camino, and is arriving in Vega de Valcarce tomorrow, our next destination. Before we finished the bottle, Nancy joined us, Terry was too tired and stayed in their room resting. 

2012-09-28 Friday

2012-09-28 Friday

Rabanal / Molinaseca

Camino day 21: 26.5Km to Molinaseca. We met for breakfast at 0700 and took to the Camino by 0745, the Gang of Four plus Gunther, Toni sent an SMS saying that he woke up at 0530 with all the noise the pilgrims were making in the albergue, and hit the road.

Today we are clearing the highest point of the Camino, 1505m high, we are starting from 1150 meters, so the ascent is much easier than the Pyrennees, but the descent is longer and steeper, all the way down to 610m.

Nancy and I sent our packs forward, and Paulo and Terry put their heaviest items in our packs. 

The forecast is for a light drizzle this morning, with temperature 4-5C. Luckily, the rain did not came, but it was very cold. I wore almost everything I had: short sleeved T-shirt, long sleeve T-shirt, long sleeve shirt, down vest, windbreaker, and wool socks as mittens. But I still felt cold. When we started going uphill, Terry and Nancy (surprisingly, considering her knee) went ahead with a fast pace. I tried to keep up, but soon I started sweating while still feeling cold on the face and legs, I gave up the pursuit and slowed my pace to avoid sweating.

When we got to the first village, well, it was actually an abandoned village, with stone houses falling apart, with just one house inhabited, the private albergue, Gunther and I were complaining that we were sweaty and cold at the same time, it was difficult to regulate the temperature: if I zipped the windbreaker down, I would start freezing, if I took the buff off, my head would feel cold, if I put the buff back on, I would start sweating, If I took the wool socks/mitts off my hand to help dissipate the heat, the fingers would freeze... Sweating at this low temperature is not a good thing, and the temperature was dropping further as we went up the mountain. 

Abandoned stone house

We stopped a few minutes at the albergue to rest and have a coffee to regain some warmth. Nancy took off ahead of us as we were paying the bills and dressing up to face the elements again. We continued the uphill walk and battle with the cold until, 1.5 Km later, we reached the top and encountered the Iron Cross, an iconic point of the Camino, were the tradition calls for the pilgrims leave the stone they bring from home.  The rock or stone symbolizes the weight of your sins or issues that you are carrying, leaving it at the iron cross means redemption, that you have overcome. 

Nancy was there to wait for us and to take pictures, but soon she darted off ahead of everybody else. I dropped the stone I brought all the way from home in the pile, and we all took turns taking pictures at the Iron Cross. A few minutes later Terry took off at a faster pace to catch up with Nancy, Paulo, Gunther and I lingered a bit and then started the long descent. 

Erico at the Iron Cross. Note the pile of pebbles

Chappel at the Iron Cross

The descend is steep, with rocky terrain, very tough on the knees. Three Km later we came to a cafe, in the middle of nowhere, called Manjarin. This is a folkloric place, run by a Brazilian that did the Camino many many years ago and decided to stay. He was not there, he was on another town for a Templar's conference. 

Gunther and Erico at Manjarin

Loose rocks on the trail

the scenary

Erico on the Camino

GUnther, going down hill

Erico and Paulo

Layer we caught up with Nancy, she had to slowdown in the steepest parts because of her knee. I asked where Terry was and she said he must be ahead. At that moment, her choice of words did not trigger any red flags and Paulo, Gunther, and I forged ahead. There were many people in the Camino today, so there was no problems in leaving her behind. 

It was still cold, but the wind diminished because we were on the wind shadow of the mountain, sweating was no longer a problem because going downhill you do not exert yourself as much, but the legs and the knees take a heavy pounding. I am glad I do not have the additional weight of the backpack.

One hour and a half later, I came to the first village on the other side of the mountain, Acebo, having left Paulo and Gunther a bit behind. Terry was there waiting for us, seated at an outdoor table of the first bar, enjoying a coffee with Pamela. First thing he asked me was "Where's Nancy?" I said with a straight face, "I last saw at the Iron Cross, when she took off ahead of us." His eyes almost popped out of the sockets, "Are you kidding me?"  "No," I answered. I asked what was going on, why he had not seen Nancy, considering that he had departed the Iron Cross to catch up with her.  He said he had taken off walking fast to catch up with Nancy, but he never saw her, and when he came to the village he stopped to wait for us. He wanted to go back up the mountain to look for her, or continue walking, maybe she had not stopped at the village, but I told him to wait a few more minutes, Paulo and Gunther were behind and they may have seen her, that I doubted she would continue beyond the village without waiting for us, and went inside to get a cup of coffee. I was just pulling his leg, but wanted to prolong the joke a bit longer. Gunther arrived before I could alert him, he told Terry that Nancy was slowly walking down the hill, and Terry calmed down. When Nancy arrived, the mystery was solved. What happened was that she went off the trail for a nature call, and Terry must have gone by just as she was doing her business, that was why he did not see her. I came clean and told Terry that I yes, I had seen Nancy, I was just pulling his leg. 

Erico in Acebo

Again, Nancy took off before the rest of us did, this time Terry went with her, he stayed with Nancy for the reminder of the day. At the next steep downhill stretch I passed them, Nancy increased her pace to keep up with me but soon felt behind and later Paulo and Gunther passed them. 

Sheep dog

Abandoned farm house

Erico, taking a break from the stone, hilly descent

When we got to Molinaseca, the three of us stopped at the first bar at the entrance of town, just across the stone bridge built by the Romans, to wait for them while drinking beer. We sat at an outdoor table watching the pilgrims all came across the stone bridge with wobbly legs, or walking like as if they were stepping bare feet on glass shards because of the blisters or sore fit. 

We can see Molinaseca!

Erico at the entrance to Molinaseca

Molinaseca's Roman bridge

Molinaseca street

Erico at the Roman bridge

Terry and Nancy dragged themselves in just as we were ordering our second round of draft beers. We did not arrive in any better shape, today was brutal. My legs are the sorest they have been on this Camino, but luckily my knees or ankles did not give me troubles. 

After Terry and Nancy had their beers, we walked the remaining couple of blocks to our hostal: Pousada de Muriel. At 1900, Paulo and I wend down to the hostel bar to have a drink, Gunther was there on one of the outdoors table, smoking and writing on his diary. We decided to go out for dinner, I went back up to the second floor to call Terry and Nancy for dinner, but their room doorknob had the Do Not Disturb sign, and I did not knock on the door.

Paulo called Toni and he came from his albergue to meet us, and we went out looking for a place to eat dinner, there were not many options and we ended having dinner at a restaurant near the roman bridge. We were almost finished when in came Terry and Nancy, I told them that I had gone up to their bedrooms, but saw the "DND" sign. It was not their room, the innkeeper mistakenly had given me the wrong room number. 

Dinner's first course

Roman bridge at night

2012-09-27 Thursday

2012-09-27 Thursday

Astorga / Rabanal del Camino

Camino day 20. Today's segment is 22 Km. We woke up at 0700, packed our backpacks, and then met with Terry and Nancy to go out for breakfast. We bumped with Toni and Gunther as they were leaving for the Camino. We leisurely had our usual breakfast of coffee and toast while we waited for the Cathedral to open, at 0900. 

The Cathedral is big but nowhere near the size, beauty, or style of Burgos's or Leon's; but it's certainly worth a visit. This city was an ancient roman city, with some excavated roman ruins almost in front of our hotel. There's a catholic temple in here since the 3rd century. 

We saw the other attraction, the Palace designed by Gaudi, from the outside. This city is also famous for its chocolate and butter cookies, and we walked around the old city center while waited for the shops to open, Terry and Paulo wanted to buy to buy some. The shops only start to open at 100 at the earliest. Paulo also bought gloves, it's getting cold in the mornings; instead go gloves, I use my extra pair of wool socks as mitts, it works quite well. 

Astorga's Cathedral

Palace designed by Gaudi

We left town at 1030, it is cold, 8 Celsius, 46F, but it's sunny, and 20 minutes later we stopped to shed the jackets. It took us almost 2 hours to hit our stride, we were all a bit lethargic, I guess we did not fully recover from Yesterday 's long segment. Today, Terry, who likes to go out in front, hung back with Nancy, and by the first stop, Km 9 from Astorga, they were 10 minutes behind. 

On the second stop, an hour and a half later, we waited for them for 15 minutes and resumed walking when we saw them in the distance; it would take another 5 minutes for them to arrive where we were, and we were getting stiff with cold, we needed to get moving. 

Paulo and I arrived in Rabanal at 1530. This is a small village, 57 inhabitants, people live here since the medieval times, all houses are stone built. I arrived tired, the leg muscles pretty sore, hoping I will recover overnight because tomorrow we have to face the highest mountain of the Camino, at 1550 meters. We saw Toni and Gunther at the entrance to the village, they had arrived much earlier. Toni is staying at the albergue, while Gunther is staying at our hostel, the "El Refugio Real." We agreed to have dinner together at 2000.

Erico arriving in Rabanal del Camino

Paulo and I sat at the hostel bar to wait for Terry and Nancy to arrive, while drinking beer. Soon they arrived, and we had another round of beer with them. Today we had to hand wash our dirty clothes, there's no laundry service at the hostel, and Toni had told us that the albergue 's coin operated washer and drier were broken. 

Rabanal: view from my hostal window

At 1900, we all went to the chapel for a Gregorian chant service by the monks of the Benedictine Monastery "San Salvador del Monte Irago" located in the village. We found a place to seat, but it soon got jam packed, standing room only. The medieval chapel was rustic but beautiful in its simplicity, and the service was memorable. Afterwards, the six of us returned to our hostal for dinner, a basic but tasty Pilgrim's menu for 10 Euros. 

We are 242 Km from Santiago de Compostela.

2012-09-26 Wednesday

2012-09-26 Wednesday

Mazarife / Astorga

Camino Day 19. We left the hostal at 0730, still dark, cold (low 40s) and windy. Luckily the rain stopped.  I started the walk wearing 4 layers: a short sleeved T-shirt, a long sleeve T-shirt, a long sleeve shirt and a jacket (wind/rain shell), but I still had to walk briskly to warm up a bit. Nancy and I shipped our backpacks to Astorga.

The day remained overcast, no sun at all, it warmed up a bit, but the cold wind stayed with us all day long. I kept all layers, when going uphill, I would zip down the outer shell halfway, to avoid overheating and sweating. If you sweat on the uphills, when you get to the downhill part the sweat cools off quickly, and then you get chilly, not good for you at all.

One of the downsides of jumping ahead as we did, is that we got out of sync with all the acquaintances we made during our journey, they are now 5 days behind. We miss Linda and Kathy, they were great trail buddies. We need to friend a whole new group now.  Some of the great experiences of the Camino are the interactions with fellow pilgrims: friendly smiles, the "Buen Camino" greetings, and brief encounters at the rest stops or at the day's destinations, when we acknowledge each other, and comment on our experiences. 

There are many people starting the Camino in Leon, we easily identify them, they are the ones with huge packs, clean clothes and shoes, and with some fat in the legs. The veterans have packs that have already gone through some culling of unnecessary items, and have lower legs that are just bones and well defined muscles.

Yesterday, we met are Maude, a 19th year old Canadian from Montreal, she started in Leon, and Toni, a 50-ish lawyer from Barcelona, just retired, also starting from Leon. Today we met Gunther, a 55 year old German from Hamburg, a former banker who had worked 6 years in Venezuela and speaks fluent Spanish. 

I met Gunther at the first break after Mazarife, he was sitting at an outside table by himself, and I asked if I could join him, the other tables were taken. We ended up walking all the way to Astorga together. He asked me where we are staying in Astorga and then made  a reservation at the same hotel we had reservations. Toni also joined our group, the six of us walking in pairs  or threesomes, chatting, or just walking in silence.

We passed an American woman from Atlanta, walking alone, with a huge back pack, she had also started in Leon; it was the biggest and heaviest pack I had seen. She was struggling with, it but pretended that everything was allright. At one point she dropped her water bottle, Paulo moved quickly to pick it up and she said stopped him, saying "no thanks, I will get it," and with difficulty, she bent down and picked it up. 

At the outskirts of Astorga we passed a couple from Canada, both in their late 60s or early 70s, he had a day pack and she had none. What called my attention was how slow she was walking, laboring hard to keep going, almost looking as if she was drunk. She made frequent stops and the husband patiently waited for her. We bumped into them every day from then on, at the beginning of the day she would be walking faster, at the end of the day, barely walking, but they kept going.

We finally arrived in Astorga at 1530, having done 32 Km in exactly 8 hrs, including 3 stops to rest and eat, not bad, considering that we had to go up 3 mountains of more than 900 meters each. I was tired but happy, because for the first time, I did not have knee or ankle pain, just general muscle soreness due to the exertion, and I did not take pain medication today. We are staying at the Hostal Residencia La Peseta, an excellent hotel, by the way, I highly recommend it.

We had to rush to eat, because the restaurants usually close at 1600 and only reopen at 1930-2000, we were too tired to search for a cheaper restaurant and went to the hotel's restaurant, considered the best of the town, in operation since 1871. Paulo and I wanted to try the "Cocido Maragato," a regional dish that had been recommended by Toni, we had seen several ads for restaurants offering the Cocido.

Toni joined us for lunch, Gunther is vegetarian and had gone out to eat a cheese pizza. Toni is staying at the albergue, Gunther at our hotel.

Paulo and I ate the famous Cocido Maragato.  The dish's concept is similar to our Brazilian feijoada's, they cook every thing together (all kinds of pork meat and sausages, chick peas, cabbage) but they serve them separate, followed by an angel hair soup with the liquid of the "Cocido." It was delicious. But, like a feijoada, after you eat the Cocido, all you want is rest.

Cocido Maragato - the meats

Cocido Maragato - the legumes

Cocido Maragato - the soup

Nancy and Terry ate the 3-course fixed menu, a white beans soup with chorizo , braised veal with mashed potatoes, and ice cream, plus the house wine. Terry said that it was the best restaurant meal he ever had. 

Toni, Nancy, Terry, Erico and Paulo - all happy after a delicous meal

After our late lunch/early dinner Nancy and I volunteered to take the dirty clothes to be laundered. We were told that the Pilgrim's albergue had coin-operated machines, but when we went there we learned that it was not coin operated, but the washing and drying was done by the "hospitaleros", the people who run the albergues, for 3 Euros a load, we have 2 loads.  However, this service was reserved for pilgrims stating there, I had to beg the hospitalero to grant us an exception, which he did, provided that we came back to pick up the laundry at 2130, but no later than 2200 when the doors close.

Terry wants to get up late tomorrow and visit the city attractions, or possibly stay a rest day tomorrow. Paulo wants to keep going. Me met up at 2000 at the hotel's bar to plan next day's itinerary. After some back and forth we agreed to get up late tomorrow (breakfast at 0800) and visit the Cathedral and the local museum but leave the city by 1100 so we can reach tomorrow's target city, 22Km away, by 1700 at the latest. To make sure we have a place to stay we consulted our guidebooks, and called a few hostals, found one with private rooms with baths, and made reservations. 

Gunther showed up at the bar and joined us at our table, he wants to walk with us for the next 2 days before stoping in Ponferrada to visit with a friend, so he made reservations at the same hotel we have reservations in Rabanal, and we together selected and booked a hotel in the following city, Molinaseca. 

Paulo called Toni to join us for drinks, he is staying at the Pilgrim's albergue, and he came, limping, he felt down and twisted his ankle when stepping down the latter from his top bunk at the albergue. Toni and Gunther want to leave earlier tomorrow, so they agreed to depart together at 0800, we will depart by 1100 at the latest, and we will all meet in Rabanal. Toni departed shortly before 2200 to get back before the albergue's door closes, and Terry and Nancy soon retired, while Paulo, Gunther and I finished our wine. Gunther then treated us to a round of "chupito de orujo com yervas," a homemade liqueur of herbs, using as a base orujo, a destilled spirit made of grape skins and seeds that are byproducts of wine production. It was the first time I had this delicious drink.