Walked today: 6.1 mi. Camino2023: 304 mi
Santiago was waiting for us this morning as we left our knapsacks in the office of the Turistico Salceda. We exchanged hugs and good wishes and said our emotional farewells for likely the last time.
The drizzle got a little stronger, but still not officially, rain, but Linda put in her poncho. Jim, however, decided the hassle of unrolling his poncho, getting it wet, then having to deal with it, when the rain stopped, etc. was worth the risk.
So, Jim figured if Linda was wearing her poncho, Mother Nature might decide not to get more aggressive and allow Jim to get away without wearing his. And if Jim wasn’t wearing rain protection, the same Mother Nature might, at least, continue the drizzle, justifying Linda’s preventive action.
The Camino took an alternate by-pass path just as we arrived at the edge of O Pedruozo. We continued up main street and prepared for the final portion of today’s walk.
We are staying at Pensión CHE, one of a half dozen or so eating and lodging establishments in O Pedrouzo owned by a guy who’s name, abreviated, forms the letters C.H.E. He is known as “CHE”.
In 2017, we learned the hard way that Pensión CHE is not in O Pedrouzo. It’s a couple of miles beyond, outside the village of Amenal, but only a few hundred yards off the Camino. It’s a nice property, has a big pool (always too cold for Jim to use). It also has no food, only a bar with drinks. If you want food, you order it from O Pedrouzo and have it delivered by a CHE establishment. No other services are near Pensión CHE.
Also, very few people in O Pedrouzo have heard of Pensión CHE as we found out in 2017, wandering for miles and miles around the town looking for it, by asking directions, etc. We ultimately discovered that you must go to Hotel Pensión Platas on main street O Pedrouzo and give them your name and they will arrange for a van to take you from there to CHE.
So, we got to Pensión Platas, checked with the sweet, young receptionist, who spoke reasonably good English, to verify that the same drill to get to Pensión CHE was in effect from 2022, our last stay. She confirmed nothing had changed.
She confirmed the next van would head out to CHE “around noon”. It being a few minutes after 11:00, we found a place nearby to have lunch, our main meal for the day. While eating lunch, he had the barkeep prepare us some sandwiches with take with us to CHE.
The barkeep delivered our sandwich supper to our table as we were finishing up, we walked a few steps down main street to Pensión Plata and met the van, which took us to CHE and that’s where we checked in after a 15 minute wait for our room and spent the rest of the afternoon doing our routine stuff.
At 6:00, we pulled out our self-catered dinner and chowed down before calling it a day.
Two days to Santiago.
Jimandi 