Traveling with Joe

Tuesday morning in a cheap hotel. We can’t even start eating breakfast until 8am because that’s when the Guide will bring in the food.  If we want to eat earlier, we have to eat a “Spanish Breakfast” which consists of Coffee and Toast & Jam. You think I’m kidding?  Nope.  How these people don’t drop dead from bad diet is a mystery suitable for the Discovery Channel.  I have a clue though.

There’s a product called “Bene-Fiber” that is a fiber supplement available in the US that you take in water daily to augment your fiber intake.  It helps prevent constipation and aids in keeping things regular which, when you are hiking all day, you really don’t want many surprises.  Marji had packed some so I borrowed a few to see if it would help me re-set my clock.

Just as I was running out of the handful of packets she had given me, we noticed that they sell it here in the Pharmacies so I picked up some Spanish “Bene-Fiber”  I am not exaggerating here and if I had one of the USA packets I would photograph them side-by-side.  The Spanish Bene-Fiber packages are at least TWICE AS BIG.  Their diet is so bad that they need twice as much fiber to help them get regular.  That speaks volumes about what we’ve seen here with regards to the restaurant food.  Bread, Meat, more Bread, more Meat and then a Steak.  I’d be surprised if these people “Go” more than once a week.

Anyway, on a more pleasant subject; this is Tuesday morning at 7:00am.  Impossible to sleep because you can hear a mouse fart 3 rooms down in this hotel.  You can also hear every shower running because the noise from the water pipes is deafening.  When you stay here it would help if everyone went to bed at the exact same time and got up at the exact same time because you hear every noise if you don’t.  But more importantly, this is the countdown to our arrival in Santiago.  We have 3 full days including today and then a short, 11km hike on Friday to reach the Square in front of the Cathedral.  Hopefully we will arrive with enough time to check into our hotel, get cleaned up and make it to the Pilgrim’s Mass at noon.  That’s the final hurrah for those of us who aren’t taking a van to Finestera the following day to pretend that it has any real significance with regards to the end of the world.  I can buy into the actual Camino de Santiago but unless you actually walk to Finiestera then you are just a tourist being trucked over to buy souvenirs.  I prefer spending the day strolling around Santiago and winding down from the walk.

We have been blessed with unbelievable weather.  Not only has it been clear, it has been spectacular.  Skies so blue they look like movie sets, temperatures in the 70’s which could be hot except for the wonderful cool breezes blowing in off of the mountains.  The forecast keeps changing but this may be our last day without any rain and now it’s even saying there’s a 50% chance of rain on Friday so it will be a good idea to soak up what we get today because this could be the end of it.  Still, considering how many days we’ve been on the road and how many of them have been good to excellent, this has been another Camino where the climate behaved exemplary.

After yesterday I am at 877,139 steps.  It’s a horse race to see if I make it to 1,000,000 by Friday.  I’m going to estimate that I fall short about 50,000 steps so I either have to walk around in circles for a couple of days while I’m at the finish line or just call it like it is; the FitBit must have been broken. LOL.  Oh well, I will settle for 950,000 steps.

Ironically, I had my first accident on the Camino.  I took a good fall, sprained my wrist, abraded my forearm and tore my tricep all rendering my left arm unusable for a few days and possibly for the rest of the trip.  But was it a rock or a tree root that took me down?  How about a steep trail with gravel, mud?  A pothole?  No, it was a picnic table.  I stopped to smell the roses and fell into the bush.  Actually, I stopped to get lunch then, after I ordered my food I realized I wanted to get my Pilgrim’s Passport stamped at the Restaurant so I ran back out to my backpack.  The beautiful glass topped table I had dropped my gear on was on a slightly elevated platform and I missed that detail as I headed back.  My boot hit the deck and down I went.

It’s funny how fast your brain works in situations like that.  I was just going to tuck and roll but then I noted that if i did that the left side of my head was going to hit a very sharp glass edge.  That would have been an automatic concussion if not a broken neck so I extended my left arm out, my wrist hit the table top edge then my arm slid across the top of the table scraping the bottom for about  4″.  The impact with my arm only partially extended must have torn the tricep slightly which was moderately painful at the time but sucked much harder yesterday, the following day.  I’m happy to report that today, two days out, I am healing nicely and there does not appear to be any permanent damage to anything except my pride.  Almost 1,000 miles of hiking in every conceivable climate and terrain, going on 2,000,000 steps and what takes me down?  A Picnic Table.  And yes, it still hurts.

(Below) This was our course yesterday into a town called Portomarin.  Cute little village sitting above a large water reservoir.  Marji and I had dinner last night in a restaurant with spectacular views of the water and surrounding forests.  We were joined by two people that we have seen on the trail literally since Day 1.  I’ve even mentioned them in this Blog.

Norah is a young woman, I’m thinking 24, from Rhode Island. Her companion is Charlotte, an older woman from Vancouver Island. They met in St John which is a one day hike before Roncesvalles where we started.  We met them at the end of our day 1 because Norah had developed Bells Palsy and Judy, the owner of our Tour Company, helped her get the medical treatment she needed.  She just toughed it out, got on Prednisone, and didn’t miss a beat on the hike.  Since then they have both had serious colds but they are still tracking with us.

Marji and I had just sat down when I saw Charlotte poke her head in so we asked them to join us.  It was a nice evening which has been a rare commodity on this trip.

I had a giant pizza which was a meat parade on a plate, Marji had fish, the Girls had what’s called the Pilgrim’s Meal which is generally a 3 course Prix Fixe Menu which came with a very generous portion of wine for each one of them, and we sat there for almost 2 hours enjoying the view and the food.

I haven’t had time to upload any new photos and I thought I’d wait a day or so before I photo-bomed you again.  We also have sketchy internet here so doing anything would have been a nail-biting experience hoping the wireless didn’t crash mid-update.  Tonight we are in a hotel that we did not use in October so whether or not I will have internet remains to be seen.

It’s also a long day in what promises to be some heat with lots of climbing, so tonight might be a bust as well; I might be exhausted.  I hope not as I took some nice photos yesterday continuing to show the vast beauty of this province and shredding the claims by the idiot that is trying to make money by bad-mouthing the Camino as a ruse to sell is undoubtedly crappy books.  I’d like to post as many of those as I can near the end of the Blog so I can send him the links when I get home.  I want to ask him specifically which portions of the Camino he is referring to and maybe have him point them out on a map. God I hope he knows what a map is.

Well, it’s 7:35am now and I know there is at least coffee waiting for me downstairs.  That might help move things along so I’m going to “move things along”.

Buen Camino

April 14, 2015

Joe Jeter