Camino Day 13: O Cadavo to Castroverde

We decided to sleep in, since we only had a "short" 9km day ahead of us. Funny how things get relative... ;)  Yet, I still didn't feel quite rested.  The weather was predicted to stay "cool" (8-19°C) one more day, which would help as we went up and over a little hill. As you'll see, I decided to add on an extra 5km+, just for kicks.

I checked my email and saw a reply from our hotel in Santiago: they were fine with holding the stuff we mailed them from A Fonsagrada until we arrived on July 21.

I had been emailing all the non-booking.com hotels a day or two before our scheduled arrival, just to confirm that we were indeed on track to arrive on the day we expected. So far only one hotel had lost our reservation. I knew that many pilgrims got off schedule and as a result would miss their reservations, and if the pilgrims had not arrived by a certain time, often the hotel would just assume that was what happened, and give the room away.  I didn't want to run that risk, especially since we were leaving much later in the day than most other pilgrims.

I patched up the hole in my black tights with nail polish and was ready to roll.

After breakfast, I set up HERE maps on Cathleen's phone. She said, "I should practice with this," then promptly put it in her bag. Then we set off, alongside a young woman from the Czech Republic. She had a 12 kg pack and had walked from Irun. I asked her whether she liked the Norte. Her answer was typical of others I had asked: she loved the beaches, but hated the endless highway walking.

We passed some women at their garden, growing what appeared to be the leafy greens we'd been eating in the local soups. Then we started taking our own paces.

The young Czech woman forged ahead, and Cat and I talked a little about the symbolism of her sending her "burdens" ahead (via mail), for such a low price. She thought it would "cost her less" to carry them, but it turned out she could release them with very little penalty. She didn't have to carry them after all. That brought us to revisiting the topic of expectations, and how our assumptions are not always correct.

I walked behind the Czech girl for a while, watching her pick up litter as she went. Our paces were pretty well matched.

In the middle of the forest between O Cadavo and Villages, a noise to my right startled me: it was a baby deer bounding off into the woods!

Soon after, the path went downhill, and I passed the Czech girl.

I stopped for an amazing sandwich made fresh at the food cart next to the church in Vilabade. The husband and wife team took turns at the stove and in the church. We tried to chat a little: her English was as poor as my Spanish, but she was very kind. She gave me a free pen as a souvenir.

As I ate my sandwich, woman herded her cows between me and the church. The church itself was gorgeous: 15th century Gothic style, restored in the 17th century, and declared as a National Monument. At the main altar was Santiago Matamoros (Saint James the Moor-slayer). They sold Camino passports, which I was happy to find, since mine was almost full already.

By the time I was leaving, maybe 30 mins after I arrived, the Czech girl arrived. How did she get so far behind me?

I left her there and continued on the 2.6km to our hotel in Castroverde.

After checking in to our great room with an even greater view, I didn't want to just sit in the bar, so I found an ATM, then started retracing my steps to find Cathleen.

On the way back out of town, I passed a pilgrim and asked him in Spanish whether he had seen my cousin. "The English girl? Yes! She is back by the church." I thought I might catch her in time to tell her to buy a new passport there, but she was already halfway down the road, and looked pained the idea of backtracking. So I jogged up and got her one, then jogged most of the way back. At the church, I noticed a big list of "Mexicans" on the list of visitors and exclaimed, "I know them! Men and boys!" The host laughed yes.

Back at the hotel, I crashed out on the bed while Cathleen did her laundry and took care of her feet. I slept nearly 2 hours! The bed was really comfy.

When I woke up, Cat told me about how she had broken down crying at the church, at the kindness of the sandwich lady there, and the energies of the church. The man I had questioned on my way back had walked in as she was crying and they had shared a moment. No wonder he remembered her so easily!

I went do my laundry and noticed the soap had "jabón" stamped onto it. I thought that was the word for ham, similar to the French word "jambon." It turns out ham is "jamón," and I've been ordering soap and cheese sandwiches for two weeks.  >.<  Fortunately, no waiter ever actually brought that to me.  ;D

We sat at the hotel bar drinking the local cider, watching vultures circle over head, discussing what we had "learned" over the first two weeks. I'll do a post about that on Day 14!

With some time before dinner would start being served, we walked around exploring town a little. We walked up to the fortified tower, 250 m out of town. There were no doors on any of the four sides. I couldn't figure how the soldiers would get in. As I traipsed about the base of the tower, I got pricked by a few nettles and my footsteps released a waft of scent from the mint plants growing wild there.

On the way back, we admired the crests on the local mailboxes. I considered the possibility of doing a coffee table book: mailboxes of Spain! ;) I also got a closer look at the greens we had been curious about. Some grew far over my head! I noticed many curious designs on items all over town, and asked a local shopkeeper, who told us they were Celtic designs.

http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20131203-where-is-the-seventh-celtic-nation

We ordered the 9€ pilgrim's supper at hotel, which was three courses, a drink and coffee. It was ok. We've had better, as far as quality and price.

The only other person in the dining room a guy who did our last two days in one: 42km. He didn't expect it to be that long. Lol. He asked me a few questions, but didn't seem to be listening to any of my answers, so I figured he really wanted to hear himself talk more than he wanted to talk with me.

Our meal arrived and I just stopped talking. It didn't seem to matter to the guy.  Even when I completely ignored him, looking away, and then even went onto my phone, he just kept on talking. Lol. He really did not take the hint. Lol. So I didn't worry about appearing "rude," because was already being very disrespectful to me.  Usually, I've noticed that when a person does not adhere any of the usual obvious social cues, it's because they can't recognize when they or others transgress them. Or I suppose sometimes they are just too desperate to care.

Occasionally, Cathleen would answer him, not that he listened to any of her responses, but she kept trying anyway. Finally, during dessert (which for me was a whole apple on a plate), he stopped talking, but then he started humming!  :p After dessert, Cathleen went over to his table to show him photos on her phone. Omg glutton for punishment!  I left to go back to our room. I needed some quiet time.

I've noticed that the less I walk in a day, the more tired and grouchy I get.  For example, today was meant to be a "rest" day, but less walking meant more time with people. I recognized that correlation earlier on in our journey: that I'd stop to "rest," but then people would talk to me, and I'd end up more tired than when I sat down, and would need to walk to "recover." Lol.

I went to sleep early, but woke up in the middle of the night for some reason. I checked the time on my phone (3am) and noticed my friend had messaged me that there a meteor shower that night. I thought it must fate that I woke up, so I went out on our balcony to look. Coming back in, I accidentally woke Cathleen, so we opened our window shades and lay looking out for a while, seeing a few more.