Jimandi

Depart Time: 8:45. Temp: 64F RH: 100%

Walked: 4.7 mi. Camino 2024: 286 mi.

Not necessarily a complaint but a statement of fact. We have walked in more rain in the last 3 weeks (12 days) than we have experienced in our previous 5 Caminos combined, which spanned a total of 260 days!! Camino2024 is clearly unique in that respect, alone.

As we get ready to begin todays short walk, it’s raining cats and dogs! We may need to organize all these pilgrims and begin work on an ark!

Today was our worse rain day so far. It rained without stopping, sometimes very heavily. The path was often a stream which was constantly wandering from one side of the path to the other. There was more mud and muck to try to avoid often unsuccessfully. The only good part was it seemed to be mostly dirt and organic material and not manure.

Needless to say, we didn’t do much photography. The few shots we took are shown here and resulted in a wet phone and wetter clothes.

We stopped at our hostel at 11:30 during a major downpour and then moved on to a familiar bar in the village, as our room would not be clean until 1:00.

We hung out at the Bar Botana, which was the dryest place we could find and it provided food and drink and restrooms and a place to sit. The manager/waitress was pushing the homemade soup, but we declined and went for bulk!

Remembering the earlier pitch for the homemade soup and the potential need for a light dinner option (we vowed not to venture out in the rain for the rest of the day)…. Jim approached the waitress/manager about some soup-to-go. She sadly shook her head but Jim showed her his empty 1/2 liter water bottle and she disappeared into the kitchen and quickly returned with a just emptied spaghetti sauce bottle. Jim smiled, she smiled and she disappeared again, returning with the bottle filled with hot, homeade soup.

Jim explained to her, I have a room, access to a kitchen but no food, klinging to the warm bottle of our soup-to-go. He then shoved the bottle into the side pouch of his backpack and said it was his “soup pouch”, which brought a shared laugh and he paid our bill.

We walked back to the hostel in the rain and found our room waiting at 12:45. We checked in and began the process of removing wet clothes, cleansing and warming wet bodies in a clean, walk-in shower, washing and drying wet clothes and shoes and then other more routine activity for the rest of the afternoon.

We visited the well equipped hostel kitchen at 5:30 to have a light dinner of soup and crackers.

Two interesting young ladies joined us at the table with their own versions of dinner and we added entertaining conversation to our evening meal. Our dinner companions were from Florida and Singapore.

After dinner and goodbyes to our new friends we parted with a concerted wish for a dryer tomorrow.

Tomorrow>>>>>Santiago!!

Depart Time: 8:45. Temp: 63F RH: 95%

Walked: 5.6 mi. Camino 2024: 292 mi.

We said our goodbyes to Santiago this morning and stepped out into the rain. What a difference a day makes. Yesterday we walked without a drop of rain until we reached our destination. Today we walked in light or heavy rain the entire morning until it finally stopped just as we reached our destination.

Consequently, we didn’t get many photos during the walk as Jim and the iphone get wet whenever he tried to get the phone out of his pocket and snap a photo.

We walked into Arca and entered the reception area for a large pencion amply called “Pencion Residential Platas”. Because we know the drill, we asked the receptionist when was the next shuttle to Pencion CHE.

This was not the case on our first stay at Pencion CHE. The Booking.com directions were inadequate, to say the least. We ended up walking several miles around Arca and surrounding neighborhoods getting faulty directions, because no one in Arca seemed to know where Pencion CHE was either.

It seems that an enterprising Spaniard who is known by the name CHE, owns a number of properties such as restaurants, and residental, which all go by the name CHE, ex. CHE1, CHE2, …CHE5, and Pencion CHE.

On our first stay we eventually ended up asking an employee at one of the restaurants CHE (CHE2, I think) where to check in, and she thought we might get our answer at Pencion Residential Platas reception… which we did.

Today, the receptionist said she would be glad to take us in her car… to Pencion CHE which is just outside the nearby village of Amenal!

We were the first arrivals at 12:00. We ordered lunch which was prepared by one of the restaurant CHE’s and delivered to us at Pencion CHE about 20 minutes later. While we were eating our lunch, our packs were delivered, further confirmation we were in the right place. Our room was ready as we finished lunch and the rest of our afternoon became pretty much routine, including ordering and receiving our pizza for dinner.

And, did you guess?, the receptionist at Pencion CHE recognized Linda from last year.

Yesterday we forgot to mention an interesting Camino experience we had. With about a mile to go before arriving in Salceda, a group of 30 or so non-pilgrims (no packs, no poles, clean/new clothes, well groomed hair) unloaded from a large bus and joined us on the Camino. Linda and Jim got separated by the large group, as happens sometimes.

Linda was approached by a couple from North Carolina and Jim began chatting with a couple from Great Britain.

Both parties began asking us a variety of questions about the Camino, why we were doing it, what was it like, was this section typical of all the Camino, was the food good, etc. While Jim’s couple were walking faster he got ahead of Linda by several hundred yards, but merrily kept answering questions until he realized how much they were separated. He wished the couple a Buen Camino and excused himself to go back and rejoin Linda.

Linda, in the course of being interviewed learned early on that this was a group from a cruise ship that had docked off a Northern Spain port and this was an excursion as part of their cruise… they were only walking 2.5 miles on the Camino and interacting with pilgrims as they walked.

When Jim rejoined Linda, by now the cruise ship excursion had moved on, she clued him in on who they were and a couple of minutes later, we came to the turnoff leading to Albergue Turistico Salceda.

One more thing:

We heard that there were plans to film part of a Camino reality show at Pencion CHE today. We haven’t seen anything like that as of 7:00 p.m. Upon further investigation Jim and his translation app were able to talk to tonight’s receptionist who played a cameo role checking someone into the hotel. It’s a Spanish film, for Spanish television only and will be televised in November. Sadly we had to decline any potential offers to participate due to previous commitments.

Two more days to Santiago!!

Depart Time: 8:15. Temp: 61F RH: 95%

Walked: 7.6 mi. Camino 2024: 284 mi.

Weather forecasts this morning were conflicted, so we took a chance to not start out in rainwear. We lucked out and walked rain free until we were safely indoors at our home for today.

Albergue Turistico Salceda is truly a “home” for us. We have stayed here all 6 of our Caminos. We are welcomed like family. It’s not uncommon to see and engage with all the family.

The owner, his wife, their daughter, Lyudmila, her daughter Sanda, who is an artist and celloist, and her other daughter, Larisa, who has two young sons and helps to manage the Albergue with her mother.

Oh and by the way, the owner’s name is Santiago! And he’s also an excellent cook!

Santiago, rescued us in 2015 on our first visit by arranging for Linda to get treatment for some spider bites she had gotten several days before she had gotten here. He was genuinely concerned for her safety and went the extra mile to make sure she got timely and effective treatment. Whenever we have stayed here in subsequent visits he always needs to be assured she’s ok.

After lunch, we napped and read while our clothes were being washed and dried.

Dinner was at 7:00 in the Albergue dining area. We both had a tasty Galician Caldo (vegetable soup) which contained a variety of seasonal veggies.

Second course was ham and mashed potatoes for Linda, baked salmon and vegetables for Jim. We both had s chocolate cake for dessert.

We retired to our room full and ready for bed. We’ll check out and say our goodbyes in the morning.

Depart Time: 8:05 Temp: 53F RH: 70%

Walked: 8.2 mi. Camino 2024: 275 mi.

We were anxious to get going this morning as we had a rough night with the mosquitoes in our room. Room cleaners typically open the windows to allow the floors to dry. Since checkout time was 8:30 and checkin time was 2:30, the little blood suckers had up to 6 hours to get settled and well hidden in our room before we were allowed in. The result was Jim getting several dozen bites in late afternoon and evening and Linda, who stays warm in unheated rooms by snuggling up with blankets in bed, getting only a half dozen or so bites.

So saying goodbye to our “upscale casa rural” was a good riddance.

We walked up the hill from Furelos into Melide and stopped at A Garnacha, our favorite place on the Camino for pulpo (octopus).

We reached a good stopping point at Boente after some 8 miles of walking. We took a taxi the remaining 5 miles to our place for the night in Arzúa (pop. 6,328).

We had a slight glitch in our logistics today. We booked what we thought was Pencion Elena, but we apparently booked Apartment Elena instead. So when we arrived at Pencion Elena, our packs were waiting for us, but our room was not.

After some shifting of packs and us, we had everything settled in Apartment Elena and our pack logistics all set to continue on from the correct location tomorrow morning to our scheduled destination tomorrow.

Relieved that we were finally back on track by about 3:00, we stopped at a familiar restaurant in Arzúa near our apartment for lunch/dinner, then retired for the rest of the day to do chores and rest… and blog.

Depart Time: 8:00. Temp: 42F RH: 100%

Walked: 6.1 mi. Camino 2024: 267 mi.

For the first time in forever, it’s not supposed to rain today! All forecasts, claim there is a zero chance of rain during our walk. So, we put on our regular jackets for the 42F cool morning air, but Jim still put his rain poncho is an easy-to-get-to position in his day pack, just in case. One thing we know for certain, Camino 2024 provides, RAIN, whether you need it or not.

The first hamlet we walked through, San Xúlian (pop. 46), was very pleasant. We stopped at a popular bar/albergue, O Abrigadriro, for a rest stop and OJ. There was a long line at an outside table that had a sello (stamp) available for pilgrims to mark their credential.

The scenery and serenity of the next several miles is portrayed in the following photos:

The Casa de los Samoza complex includes a pretty park and a popular outdoor restaurant as well as upscale rooms for rent.

The following are photos of the park behind the restaurant and casa rural:

Our room was nice but a bit small for 88€.

We had lunch and an early dinner at the restaurant. When we weren’t eating this afternoon, we were doing chores, blogging, reading and getting organized for tomorrow’s walk. We’ll be watching Braden’s consolation tennis match tonight, if our wifi signal holds.

We’ve had a lot of rain the past few days, but nothing to compare to the flooding and devastation occurring back home in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. We’ve been in contact with family and friends in Florida, South Carolina and North Carolina. So far our family and friends have been very fortunate but for many others, it has been devastating.

Depart Time: 8:10 Temp: 50F RH: 90%

Walked: 8.8 mi. Camino 2024: 262 mi.

The walk from Ventas de Narón to Ligonde was totally on a gravel path along a secondary road for about 2 miles.

Ligonde (pop.64) is a hamlet with a variety of homes and farm buildings. One lady always has pumpkins or other vegetables decorating her second floor railing. She’s usually looking out in her kitchen window and waves to pilgrims as they walk by, as she did to Jim this morning.

We were walking up the hill from Ligonde toward Exirexe ( pop. 23) when it began to rain heavily. As we were scrambling to get our ponchos on, a man waved from his open garage for us to come inside…which we did. We chatted as best we could with our limited Spanish and his limited English. We learned that he was in his late 70’s, he had retired from Correos, the national post office service, he had walked the Camino 7 times and they were getting an unusually amount of rain this year. It was a neat encounter and as the shower stopped, we snapped a photo and moved on.

We stopped at an albergue in Lestedo to call a taxi to take us the remaining 3 miles to Palas de Rei, our destination for the day,

We checked in at 1:45 and immediately walked into town center for get our main meal for the day.

Our room is in a “pencion” called O Cabalo Verde. It has two twin beds and an ensuite bathroom. We were able to used the washer and dryer to get everything clean. Nothing fancy, but has all we need for a comfortable afternoon and evening.

In addition to our chores, Jim took advantage of the good wifi signal we had in our room and watched grandson, Braden compete in his 2024 ITA Mens Championship round of 16 match this morning in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (we watched his live 9:00 a.m. CST match here in Spain at 4:00 p.m.).

The forecast is for 0% chance of rain tomorrow.