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:)

We woke up to a cold morning. After breakfast, I started my walk by myself. No doubt, I usually do walk alone on the camino path as Marybel walks ahead of me most of the time. This time is different as I head out alone.

Like a mom sending a child off to school, Marybel made sure that I had everything with me including a good breakfast…lol. Then she walked back to the Albergue to await the taxi and I set off on the camino path.

It is a cold day. The gloves came out. My intention to say the rosary was quickly set aside. I have to confess that good intentions are just that. Sometimes, the intentions become reality and other times, circumstances changes them. There is also the hard part of keeping balance on slippery rocks or holding onto the rosary to complete your prayers. Keeping balance wins out.

It is only 15 kms today to Ventas De Naron. It felt like 25 – 30kms. Climbing some steep inclines while being cold is quite an experience. “How much more hill is there?” Or “oh no, more sludge and mud” These were my mantras for the day. I am glad Marybel is not doing this trek. My heels are beginning to hurt with the rough terrain. I now know how she feels. OUCH,OUCH and more OUCH.

I stopped for coffee in the town of Gonzar. Taking out the guidebook, I see that I have slightly more than 5kms to go. When the terrain is flat, I can do 4-5kms in an hour. Not today as the terrain is rough and all concentration is needed to avoid slipping. Slow and steady I go!

I reached the town of Ventas at around 2:30pm just in time for lunch. Marybel was waiting for me. She also said that she had seen our famous Japanese Family, the Morimotos walk past the albergue. I did not get to see them at all.

Marybel was glad that she did not have to eat lunch alone. She said that she was not looking forward to a big serving of spaghetti all to herself. Glad we were able to share our pilgrims menu of pan fried meat, fries, spaghetti, flan, wine and bread.

Compostela De Santiago is getting closer this day. Being human, I am starting to wish we reach sooner so that I get my certificate and leave. There is a rhythym on the Camino that is starting to cycle over and over again. The mind is getting bored perhaps. Though we meet new faces every day, see new sights and taste new foods, I am starting to experience fatigue of the mind where I am not getting excited by the new experiences. Or perhaps, I am concerned that my Best Friend is getting hurt like an invalid and I am helpless to help her. Well, something is amiss. I cannot put my finger on it. Maybe it is just the weather conditions….damp, cold and blaahhhh all throughout.

Anyways, I am hoping that this mindset will change for tommorrow.

Peace and love,
Hilda 🙂

We started our day with a great breakfast. Marybel and I stumbled upon a restaurant called Cristal serving a breakfast buffet of tortillas (potato egg omelet), jamon, chorizos, croissants, breads and of course wonderful coffee. They even made us eggs (not included in the buffet but an exception was made) without charging us extra. We love these buffets as they are great value. We get to sneek bonus sandwich lunches into our packs. Only $5 for each.

Fortified by a delicious meal, we set off on our trek. Going out of Sarria is easy. However, this trek composed of some slippery hikes of mud and slosh. If you wear runners, you won’t want to use them again if they traverse through the sludge. That is how bad some areas are. The only good grace is that the weather held up well for us today. Nice day with sunny moments throughout. Great day for a hike ofapproximately 22 kms.

I entered the city of Portomarin and like its name, the city resembles a harbour with waterscapes around it. I was quite tired and was quite disheartened when after crossing a bridge, I found that I had to climb some steep stairs to get to the city center. I stood at the bottom of the stairs for 5 mins before I found the strength and place my foot on the first step. Then it was just one step at a time until I was at the top. Once at the top, I was greeted by a wonderful paranomic landscape of water surrounding the city. What a view!

I walked the main square and found our albergue. Marybel had arrived earlier and had visited the supermercado nearby. She greeted me with potato chips and a cold beer as my reward for arriving at a reasonable time. After the welcoming mini repas, we showered and did our laundry.

For this evening, we visited the Farmacia to purchase some gel heels for Marybel’s shoes. We then had dinner at a restaurant nearby of lentils, salmon and fries for $9.

Later in the evening, after checking emails, we looked for a wine bottle or rolling pin to facilitate a healing method as advised by Taira to help Marybel’s tendonitis. She said to use a rolling pin or the wine bottle and roll the muscles from ankles to calves to ease the tensed areas. Unable to locate either, I make a fist and simulated a rolling device and attempted the makeshift healing. It helped somewhat but did not take the pain away completely.

For tommorrow, we decided that Marybel take the backpack taxi service to transport her and her backpack so that she can give her feet a further rest.

I will perform the walk of approximately 15kms to Ventas De Naron by myself for this day and Marybel will wait for me in the Ventas albergue.

We will break this length of our trek into three stages due to the difficult climbs ahead. Remember, this one is classified as Three Shells. We will stay overnight in Ventas and then the next day go to the next big town of Palas De Rei and then onto to Melide. Marybel may walk or not depending on her heels.

On this night, Marybel was creeped out by a guy sleeping in a bunk next to us. He kept asking her if “everything is ok?” and telling her “I am here”. Maybe the guy is hitting on her. She was not happy about this incident and reported it to the caretaker of the albergue, Beline.

I was not concerned and not as aware as I had quickly fallen asleep in my warm zipped up sleeping bag. Overall, I find the Camino quite safe. I shall be more aware so that we may avoid this sort of incident for the rest of the Camino.

That is it for this day.

Peace and love,
Hilda 🙂

BBBBRRRRRR. It is quite cold in Sarria due to a chill front blanketing the city. I am glad we listened to Jose to stay another night instead of heading out and walking in the cold.

Not much to report on this day except I prepared all of our main meals instead of eating out. Salad and rice.

I believe I have lost some weight but tough to tell as no weighing scale to be found anywhere. My telltale signs are my pants as they are slightly baggier than when we first began the camino. We still eat badly (I mean no holds barred on choice of food, junk etc) except for this last two days where we were doing better with fresh salads and plain rice.

Tommorrow our destination is Portomarin. This is around 22kms but now I add another 2-3kms to the distance as it is a big city and will require us to search for our albergue, the Porto Santiago.

We are now doing better with the albergues as we search the internet for guest comments before we choose them. We also ask for suggestions from our hospitelerias. So far, the albergues we are staying in are quite top notch for the price we pay. Private albergues are definitely better than the municipal albergues. They provide better comfort details, cleaner accomodations and free wifi. Only slightly pricier but not much higher really, where you pay $7 – $10 instead of $3 – $5.

Peace and love,
Hilda

We walked from Triacastela to Sarria today. Marybel’s heels are holding up with extra padding. The distance in the book is 21 kms but we have found that our guidebook has been incorrect for us as it only measures distances from city limits to city limits. It does not take into account going into the city looking for our respective albergues. So this means that we actually walked more than what the guidebook states.

The route today is fairly easy. I am bulding up stamina as I now find walking 10-15kms is a cinch and going to 25 kms is only slightly exhausting and doable. 30kms is still a challenge but we find that we do not need to push ourselves to this limit.

Though Marybel is suffering from Archilles Tendonitis, she still manages to walk ahead of me. She stopped at a cafe ahead on the route and we find that I am only 20 mins behind unlike when we first began where I was more than an hour or two behind her.

On this route, Pepe whom I met in Viana caught up to us. He is still suffering from blisters but he walks 40kms a day. He wants to reach Compostela De Santiago by Sunday. What a determined man! He advises us to reach the Compostela’s office by 10am and then attend mass at noon where we can hear our names mentioned in the service for having completed the camino. After that, we can buy another guidebook to lead us to Fisterre, the end of the world.

We reached Sarria by 2:40pm making really good time. We were quite hungry and stopped for a pilgrim’s lunch $8.60 with a great tasting beer called 1906.

We learned that there is a storm front coming next day or so. The temperature will be around minus 5. It is starting to feel cold but we are equipped with warm clothes and toques so all is well.

We reached our albergue A Pedra and our hospetelaria, Jose, examined Marybel’s heels and advised her to take another break to help heal better. “Patience” and slow down was his advice to us. He also examined my toes as I have been hitting them against the rocks. My two big toe nails have turned black from the hurt. This is common on the camino. He joked that I may have to bury my toe nails in Spain. Strangely, I am not hurting from my toe nails and I know that I am all right. I am taking his advice of another break and will stay in his albergue for one more day. The cost per bed is only $9. He is most hospitable and provided us with some relaxing gel for sore muscles as well. His albergue ia clean and comfortable so staying here for another day is easy to do.

We examined our notes and guidebook again. It will be another week before we reach Compostela De Santiago whereas it takes an average pilgrim 5 days and superfast pilgrims 3 days. We need to take an extra couple of days for a difficult route ahead where the stage is 40kms but it is a Three Shell hike. Breaking this up into 3 days is a logical thing to do.

Sarria is in Galicia. Here, the people speak a different spanish lingo called Galego. For once, Marybel is disadvantaged on the language front. She cannot understand what they are saying when they speak Galego. She says it is a whole different language all together, not spanish at all. She still manages as the people will switch to formal spanish once they know she cannot speak Galego.

Galecia is famous for their pulpurias. They are bars that serve octupus prepared in a special way. I have not tried them yet but there is no doubt that we will find an occassion to do so prior to reaching our final destination.

My camino is taking it slow. I feel that I have not been treking much but my feet and shoes show tales of walking a lot. We have skipped some parts of the camino due to weather and health. Oh, well. It turns out that we have to make the camino our own way to ensure we get to enjoy it to the fullest.

We have met many pilgrims. All have stories to share. Some we meet again and others will never cross our paths anymore. I am most grateful for one constancy, my best friend Marybel. I would not have gained so much with my camino if she was not here to share it with me. It is incredible that she is still here with me on the camino while undergoing pain and suffering. She is more resilient than me as I would have quit the Camino if I suffered her pains. Remember, I have been pain free since my healing in Villar Del Mazarife. Yes, I suffer from the slight aches and tiredness (oh,yes and black toes) but Marybel’s pain levels are much greater than mine. I see her swollen ankles and how she winches when she walks and it surprises me that she does not call it quits. I must have done something good in my past life to have a friend such as her.

In gratitude for all the good in my life,

(It looks worse than it really is…lol)
Hilda 🙂