I went to Muxia in search of a healing rock for back pains. I don’t suffer from this ailment but some members of my family and friends do. The legend says that the Virgin Mary appeared to St James on a boat that became the rocks in Muxia. One special rock has healed many people with back pains but you must crawl underneath it nine times in order that your prayer for healing is answered. So I did this and asked for healing for all whom I knew needed it greatly.

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It was a great day weatherwise and I enjoyed being outdoors with the sea waves crashing against the rocks. It was not cold and I could have stayed here for a longer period but we needed to catch our only bus back to Santiago at 2:30pm. I have done what I needed to do so it was alright to have a short but very sweet time in Muxia.

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It is April 20 today and I am currently in Chane Spain. I have tossed/donated most of my camino clothes and other items. I have cleaned up real good for return to civilization. Some of the clothes I brought with me, regular clothes do not fit anymore and so I am having to donate these too. Yes I have lost some weight, not too much but it is noticeable when I put on pants and jeans.

I sign off on this adventure of a lifetime and will continue on the rest of my European trip. My log book will be my writing vehicle from now on.

Much love Hilda

We took the bus to Fisterre today. The Spanish people calls it Fisterre. We were looking for the healing rock but found out that this rock is in Muxia not Fisterre. However if you are a childless couple, Fisterre has a healing spot noted to reverse barrenness of women.

I am glad to have visited Fisterre. Your camino does not really end until you have visited the end of the world.

At the main lighthouse here, there is the mile marker that shows “0.00 kms” to show the end of your journey. Speaking to Penny, a Canadian from Toronto, she says that today is her last day on the camino having arrived in Fisterre. We will also take this as so.

We left Fisterre at 3pm and returned to Santiago at 6pm. We received more information about the hotel parador’s tradition of feeding 10 pilgrims 3 times everyday for free.

Marybel and I took part in the tradition this evening to round off our pilgrim’s journey. We shared the meal with 4 other pilgrims.

Even though we have not found our healing rock, we had a fine day today at Fisterre and a decent free meal at the hotel parador.

We will head out to Muxia before we leave Santiago. We are now positive about the whereabouts of our sacred rock. Keep tuned.

We woke up at a decent hour and left for the Hotel Parador at around 9am. We are taking in the famous breakfast buffet at the hotel where they serve caviar and mimosas for breakfast. I may be gaining all of the ten pounds I have lost if we continue to eat like this. However, we could not help this one. For me, it is to add another valuable experience to my list where I can say I visited and ate breakfast at one of the oldest hotel in Spain. Being at the Parador is like being at the Fairmont Banff Springs.

Breakfast was delicious and yes, I finished several glasses of juices (mimosa and all).

After breakfast/brunch, we headed to the Cathedral to attend mass once again and this time to properly visit St James tomb. I placed the bracelet I carried for close to a month on my wrist, just outside his tomb. I knelt in front of his tomb and asked that he grant all your prayers and desires.

I also managed to record how they swung the huge incense burner above the church goers heads. A very impressive event!

On this day, I also did the historical walk and enjoyed the architecture of the buildings I walked past. In the evening, I attended mass again at 7:30pm and Marybel volunteered to read the second reading and did a good job of it.

Tommorrow morning we will go to Finnisterre. I will seek out the purported healing rock and will once again ask for healing for myself and others who need it very much at this time.

Peace and love
Hilda 🙂

We woke up today and did not have to go anywhere except to the Pilgrims’ office and the noon mass at the Cathedral. What are we going to do with ourselves?

The pilgrims office opened at 10am. Prior to visiting this office, we visited the Santiago tourist office. Here, we found that there is a walk to participate in where the path goes around all the historical sites near the Cathedral. It will take 3 hours to complete. Well, that is an option for the day.

We arrived at the pilgrims’ office sharp at 10 am and there was already a long line-up of peregrinos. We stood in line to await our turns for questioning and obtain our certificate. The questions would be: did we walk all the way? What are our reasons for doing the camino? Religious or other? If you state other, your certificate will not be in Latin. So when it was my turn, I state that I did the walk for religious purpose and got my Latin “Paper of Honor”. My name Hilda was also written in Latin, HILDAUM. Marybel’s is Mariabellaum.

I calculated the distance I have walked and it is 395 kms, not the 762 kms that I originally intended to do. It is still quite a feat for someone like me who has never done something like this before.

Later at the noon hour, we took in the pilgrims’ mass. The priest announced how many pilgrims arrived from which country but did not mention names. We missed the part when he announced Canada.

I have to say this. When I took communion in Ponferrada, the host got stuck to the roof of my mouth. My mother always said that it was because not all of our sins have been forgiven and Christ have a problem entering a body not yet purified. The holy sacrament was incredibly stuck on the roof of my mouth refusing to go down my throat on Easter day. Must have had an abundance of sins.

Now in Santiago, the holy sacrament slid so easily down my throat. No problem going down. Doing the camino must have absolved my many sins….lol. I don’t know if this is true but I will take it as so and rejoice that perhaps a purification of some form had happened on the Camino path.

We shared lunch with Sarah, Kathleen and yes, our famous Japanese Family. We chatted about life after the camino. The Morimotos will continue on their travels until February 2014 and then will resume their normal lives as Tokizo has to go to school. Sarah will visit her son in Germany for 10 days and Kathleen will return home after Fisterre. Here is another interesting event, Kathleen was an opera singer in her university days and we caught her street performance quite by chance, later in the evening (almost missed it). She sang accompanying a street performer playing an instrument and it was most enchanting. Once she was done, the people in the crowd were wonderfully surprised that she was not part of the street act and that she was a peregrina singing for them. She also advises that she has never done something like this before. You do get braver when no one knows you in a different country.

It was such a beautiful day today weather-wise. Light breezes, clear blue skies and sunny all throughout. I sat outside by myself in front of the cathedral for a while and just people-watch. Marybel was taking a nap in the hostal. The cathedral is next to the Hotel Parador Santiago which is reputed to be the oldest hotel in Spain. We will visit the Parador for breakfast tommorrow morning. While sitting in this main square, I caught sight of Darth Vader, Han Solo, Princess Leia and several storm troopers coming out onto one of the hotel’s balcony. What, you say! Yes, I was quite surprised too. There was a small performance of light sabre sword fight. The characters also posed and waved to the crowd in the square. I went into the hotel lobby and inquired if there was a Star Wars Convention happening. The answer is no. There is a party and people have rented a room and dressed up in the Star Wars outfits. That must have been the theme of the party. Marybel later offered another theory that it was probably a wedding party. Most Plausible. Myself being a Star Wars geek, found this to be just the moment for me. Here I was basking in the sun outside the Santiago Cathedral main plaza absorbing the vibes of the church’s surroundings and then a live Darth Vader and his gang enters the scene to provide the ultimate entertainment for me, the sci-fi geek. Who could ask for more? It was just so perfect.

I also have to let you know that I will visit St James tomb tommorrow as I did not want to do this today without Marybel. There I will place the colorful bracelet of desires/prayers and will ask St James to intercede on your behalf.

Peace and love
Hilda 🙂

This is my 40th entry on this blog and on this the day I arrive in Santiago. I woke up this morning remembering a vivid dream where the Virgin Mary was in my dormitory room at Albergue Edreira wearing my blue hat that I used all throughout the camino. I enjoy having this warm hat and it is also the camino colour blue (this is mere coincidence) and only needed a yellow arrow on the front to be a complete Camino Souvenir. She stood by an empty bunk bed looking at me with my blue hat on her head and did not say a single word.

I took the message to be, “Wear the hat this day and walk the camino path into Santiago. Don’t miss out on this day.” The pain on my right foot is gone as well. I also engaged the backpack taxi for my pack. I did not want a repeat of yesterday’s incident.

The Virgin Mary is right. It was a beautiful day today with no rain. There were some rain clouds on the horizon but it did not come over us so the walk was dry all throughout. I enjoyed this day’s walk tremendously. Marybel and I also ran into our famous Japanese Family and invited them (which they agreed) to join us for a meal or drinks in the next day or so. I wanted to connect with them in a relax fashion as they have been quite an inspiration for me on the camino.

We walked past the town of Lavacolla. There is an interesting story about this town. In the days of old, this town is famous for it’s brothel where pilgrims have their last sins of the flesh committed and then they wash themselves after their indiscretions so they are clean for entering Santiago. The town has been named for the act of “washing bottom” that is needed after using the brothel: Lava (wash) and colla (bottom). An interesting story!

We reached Santiago at 4pm. I would like to say that it was an incredible experience for having reached my ultimate destination and that the city is beautiful at the outskirts but that is not so for me. The city looked very industrial with commercial buildings and residential flats. There was nothing special with my entry into Santiago on the outskirts. However, Marybel made hers special by removing her soiled and torn rain pants and I took the picture of her dumping the pants into a garbage bin. Leave it to her to come up with a unique cleansing act to mark her entry into Santiago…lol.

We were hungry upon entering the city of Santiago and found its Centro Comercial (shopping mall) and had once again Chinese buffet. Inexpensive and quite filling. Then we walked to the center of the city, to the Cathedral where the tomb of St. James is interred. Our hostal is located near the Cathedral. Unlike the outskirts of Santiago, the Cathedral and its surroundings are incredible. Tall and majestic, the holy church had a mystical feel about it. This is where I was overcome by my journey’s end. No, I did not cry but there was definitely a grip on my heart that told me I have arrived at some place special.

We found our hostal easily at around 6pm. The pilgrims office where we are to obtain our certificates of completion is on the same street as our Hostal. What a bonus!

The usual tiredness of the day made us take in an early night despite our elation for having arrived in Santiago. No time for evaluation, celebration or anything else yet. Just a shower and into beds to rest and sleep early. A walk to the pilgrim’s office will be for tommorrow, a short 2 minute walk (so different from our daily objective of walking from town to town). Then off to pilgrims mass right after.

We will also visit Fisterre or some people call it Finnisterre on Monday. I want to take in the sights and sounds of Santiago prior to heading to “the end of the world”.

Peace and love,
Hilda 🙂

Even I don’t believe it for this day. We started walking from Arzua at around 10 am. It was to be a reasonable hike to Pedrouzo. We calculated that we should arrive around 4 or 5 pm today.

I felt tired waking up this morning. There were some signs of aches and pains around my feet. These signals were noted and I considered taking a break from walking today even though I was so close to Santiago. However, I pushed these thoughts aside and started the walk with Marybel. She walked on briskly ahead.

I was fine until a few kilometres later, I don’t know how many. I can only guess it to be 2-3 kms only. Then the soles of my right foot started to feel like it was on fire. I ignored it until I could not stand it anymore. I felt I could not walk another step. I called Marybel on the cellphone and asked her to wait for me at the next town. She did. Concerned that I cannot go on, I decided that I would commission a cab to the Albergue Edreira, our albergue of choice for this night. She would walk on and continue on the camino.

My cab ride only took 20mins to reach the town of Pedrouzo. Funny, as it would have taken me 4-5 hours to walk to this town. I am grateful for the ride though it was quite expensive at $20. Tough luck on this one. I really needed it. I waited at the albergue for Marybel. It was just my turn (remember, hers was at Ventas De Naron).

Marybel arrived at around 4:30pm soaking wet and ankle-deep in mud on her shoes. She looked a terrible mess and conveyed how difficult the route was for today. Other pilgrims who arrived looked as messed up as she did. Two Canadians, Sarah and Kathleen, had to wash all the clothes they were wearing as everything they had on was just dirty and pants were covered in mud.

Well, Folks, Marybel informed me that I had just bypass one of the worst trek she has made on the Camino. The unforgiving path began after Marybel and I parted where I went to look for a cab and she continued on the camino. The camino was just messy and incredibly wet. All who walked on it today had to have suffered a lot.

I am grateful that I missed a trying endeavour. I would not have made it anyways. I am reminded that God will only give you what you can handle and he obviously knows me well. You can say that he “helped” me with my pain.

Tommorrow is when we reach Santiago. My pain has subsided with the much needed rest this afternoon. I will walk to Santiago but without my backpack so that I can manage the walk better. Both of us will use the backpack service for tommorrow. It has come in really handy for the difficult moments.

We will stay at Casa Suso for two nights in Santiago. Tommorrow’s hike will be around 20 kms and we will pass Monte De Gozo where pilgrims will see the outskirts of Santiago prior to entering the city. This spot is supposed to be a poignant moment as pilgrims relish the nearing of the end of their journey. In olden days, pilgrims wash and clean up at Monte De Gozo so that they are fresh for entering the Cathedral. I am not quite sure what we will do tommorrow. Perhaps, we will symbolically wash our faces and hands to somewhat keep with the tradition.

I am excited to reach Santiago but at the same time sad that I did not walk today. The Camino is very alive for me and has given me some valuable lessons for life. In my heart, I know it has been communicating with me through the people I meet, the birds I hear, the flowers I see, the foods I eat and even the unbearable smell of cowdung in the villages I walk past. It is very unique in its language and one can miss the subtleties easily. If you can discern the information, you can gain much and enjoy the WAY better.

Peace and love,
Hilda 🙂
Until tommorrow.

Our albergue, the Alpapador is situated besides a panaderia (breadhouse). Marybel bought us two of the freshest croissants this morning. We prepared our lunches and left the albergue at the decent hour of 9:30 am.

Gosh, guess what? It was raining again. I wanted to complain but I am reminded of David (remember the guy who lives in a tent on the camino). He did say this to me, “Sun is God, Rain is God, both are good, just how we see it can make us happy or make us sad”. Hence, I walked in the wonderful rain today. It was refreshing and smelled clean. It was not too cold, just right, to wet my face and lightly doused my hair not covered by my warm hat. “Rain is also God”.

On this trek, we came upon Iunti, who has only one leg and gives out stamps to all who passes his makeshift stall. He gives stamps on your pilgrim’s paasport like they do in the olden days with a hot wax candle drip and a stamp impression on the soft wax. He gets donations and uses the money to travel on the camino and the world. His motto is “all your dreams are possible if you believe them”. You will see his red stamp on my passport here almost to the end.

We arrived at our albergue Ultreia Arzua and also met Victoria from El Salvador who is a psychologist. She mentioned a worthy observation, “it is difficult to tell people what the camino is like….you are only really able to truly share with other pilgrims who have done the camino themselves” I agree with her. As I write this blog, attempting to share my experiences on the camino, I really do not do it justice as I am not able to give you my most personal details about the camino. Yet I know that other pilgrims can identify with them once I tell them. This is true for the moments of pain and suffering and the moments of joy and achievemnent.

I have also noticed that the camino is a calling for some people. The camino calls to them and once on the camino, it changes them and they go back to their lives with a different perception on how they should live their lives. It has certainly brought up my questions that some of you have already heard me ask, “what are you doing when you know death is chasing you?” “How do you want to live the rest of your life when you know you only have a limited time left?” You may live to a hundred years old, and if you think that is a long time, are you at least living it well and being happy? Such questions are the common themes of most pilgrims I encounter.

I may not have an answer to life’s purpose yet but I do have a newfound perception where I know that life is definitely for ‘living’ and not for ‘having’. I go to Santiago with this view on my soul.

peace and love,
Hilda 🙂

We walked from Palas De Rei to Melide. It was a walk that went up and down throughout. It rained all day.

Though Marybel had good shoes on her feet, they were not waterproof like her hikers. By the time, we reached Melide, she was soaked completely in her shoes. We originally decided to stay in the albergue O Cruceiro, but changed to the albergue Alpapador instead as the former did not have a kitchen. We wanted to continue cooking up rice and preparing a salad just so we can include some healthier meals on our camino.

Though we had a decent lunch, I could not resist having our supper at the famous restaurant in this city called Garnacha. Why is it famous? For the way they prepare this region’s delicacy, the octupus. I had an order with a side of delicious pimientos (green peppers). The octupus is definitely an acquired taste due to the slimy texture around the meat of the octupus. Once you can get past that, it is quite tasty swimming in extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled with salty cayenne pepper powder.

There is not much else to report on this day for the trek. Not too difficult but still tiring.

We were the only ones at the albergue so the caretaker gave us a key to the albergue, that way we are not locked out after our pulpuria (octupus tavern/restaurant) adventure. She did not want to stay up late waiting for us.

We have been quite lucky in that we have been provided private rooms settings due to not too many pilgrims coming into the albergues we have been choosing to stay at. Two possible reasons for this: some pilgrims have cut their pilgrimage short due to weather (these pilgrims are from closeby countries and can return another time to do the camino in stages) and most pilgrims are choosing the municipal albergues because of cost. Again, lucky us as we pay the normal costs for two beds and get the whole dormitory room to ourselves without paying more. Private rooms are costlier, double or triple the price. We have been enjoying almost the same type of accomodation without requesting for it. The camino have been treating us well.

Our next day trek will see us to Arzua. We will have only Pedrouzo left prior to the Compostela.

Peace and love,
Hilda 🙂

Marybel switched her shoes to her runners and inserted the new soles for her heels. She decided to walk with me today. We still used the backpack taxi for her pack and we stuffed her pack with some of my things so my backpack is lighter but not too much lighter. We have been doing that for the last 3 days. It has helped me greatly to have a lighter pack for my trek.

Remember how I said that I may be getting bored at this time on the camino. Well, be careful what you asked for. Indirectly, I had requested for a bit of excitement and I got it. On this day, I walked past a house that had a sign, “Atencion, perro!” I saw a dog chained up and walked calmly past the house. Out of the garage of the house, out came running another dog, a mean blond retriever who came at me with baring fangs. Immediately, I brought up my walking stick and was ready to defend myself. The dog stopped in front of me because of my stick in defence position. Wow, it kept on snarling and growling and looked like it was ready to pounced on me any moment. The thoughts that ran through my head were not pretty. I swung my stick back and forth in a pendulum fashion and quickly walked on backwards, not wanting to turn my back on this dog. Once I noticed it did not follow me, I almost ran on the road to get away from this house quickly.

I met Marybel ahead who stopped to see how I did with the dog as she too encountered the same dog. She said that she growled back at the dog and also quickly walked on. She had no stick but she managed to escape this nasty dog by showing no fear.

Later, she did pick up a makeshift walking stick at a cemetery we passed so that she can defend herself should another such incident arise. With her hooded rain gear and the stick, she looked like Gandalf the wizard from Lord of the Rings. This theme was appropriate this day and I took on the role of the Hobbit due to my Hobbit walking stance and according to Marybel, my big Hobbit shoes. We even shared some dry biscuits on our break on the path. It truly felt like we were on a quest on the camino.

This day’s incident brought back my sense of adventure and broke the cyclical humdrum felt recently. We reached Palas De Rei in the afternoon and stayed at Meson De Benito. It is again $10 for each bed. As we are on the last 100kms of the camino, we find that things here are getting more expensive. Food and lodging will get more expensive as we get closer to Compostela De Santiago. We found out that for tommorrow, we will have to pay $12 per bed at the albergue in Melide. The average now will be $10 – $12, not under $10 like we had been enjoying.

Marybel has also started her own Camino tradition. She found a notebook that had pages with the scallop shell watermark on its center. She writes her prayers on each page, the same ones over and over again. Then she visits every church she comes across and leaves one page at each church. She started this in Sarria and will continue until our final destination. She also prays with her rosary along the way.

I have to confess that I have not been doing well with my rosary. The saying, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”. Knowing that I am doing this camino for my spiritual objective, I shall be lenient with myself and change the saying to suit, “the road to heavan is paved with good intentions and I shall continue to walk on it in my own way”. Cheesy! But it will do for me.

Peace and love,
Hilda:)