Friday, August 3rd

Omg, what a day! Started out by really
paring down to the utter essentials in my backpack to get rid of extra weight. Banished was a pair of shorts and hiking pants, two shirts, all the makeup and some creams that I decided didn't make the cut. So now, I'm down to just one pair of long pants, one hiking skirt, three t-shirts, one brush, small bag of toiletries, one raincoat, one jacket, a hat, one rain poncho, my iPad, camera and sleeping bag liner. This is for five days. And still the backpack is full and heavy! I am worried until I lift everyone else's backpacks and feel confident that mine is no heavier than the others.

We eat a light breakfast of toast and coffee, then make our way to the starting point of the Camino, which turns out to be about a mile away, on the coast. We all take a group picture at the official starting point around 9:30
a.m., and then, it is on!

We walk through the industrial town of
Ferrol, where we notice a lot of blue collar-type work shirts tied up on the gates of closed factories as a form of protest. There is 25 percent unemployment in Spain, and the shirts are one way we see this.

We continue on for mas kilometers. The scenery for the first few hours, I have to say, is underwhelming. We pictured beautiful pastoral Spain, what we got was slummy, slightly underprivileged, industrial areas. At one point, the Camino wound twice around a huge city dump! Thankfully, after that, the Camino took a much more scenic turn and instead of smelling sulfur, we were smelling the fresh fumes of flowers and vegetable gardens.

Around noon, tengo hombre (I am hungry) and inquire about my next meal. The spanish citizens in our group say we will stop for food at 2 p.m. De verdad?! Which means, "Really?!" The Americans are not enthused by this verdict, but we muster up more fortitude, break out the trail mix and go with the Spanish flow.


Some highlights of the day:
* our first stop at an alberge, a hostel for pilgrims where we sat down and rested for the first time and addressed our sore feet.
* lunchtime, (finally around 2:30) we pass several good opportunities for lunch and discover that we are about to leave one town and we aren't sure how far the next one will be. We double back to the last cafe/bar we had seen and surprise the proprieter with seven hungry pilgrims. There are only two other customers in the bar, and they dont appear to be eating. For some reason, we have arrived at a time when this "cafe" doesn't actually have any food, but the owner doesn't want to disappoint, so he takes our orders for sandwiches and runs out to the local grocery store to buy our food then comes running back (literally) to assemble our sandwiches, which are typical of Spain: delicious baguettes with slices of meat, no veggies or condiments. We enjoy our meal very much and try not to stare at the odd older "man" sitting next to us, who Lisa discreetly points out must be a woman. We leave He-She at the cafe, but have a hard time erasing Him-Her image from our minds.

Our feet are getting really sore, and some of us are really feeling the weight of our packs, but we still have about 10 kilometers to go. I have two huge blisters on my heels. At least the scenery is very good now, as we get up into a wooded, slightly hilly area.

We finally arrive at Pontedeume, a gorgeous beach town, where we get our pilgrim's passports stamped and visit the town cathedral before enjoying drinks at an outside cafe. Lucky for us, we arrive on the day of the town folk festival and we are treated by a parade of folk dancers and musicians that go right by us. By this time, we are giddy from the day's walk and a couple of beers, so we are not surprised to see Jack dancing his way into the parade.

We are picked up by the manager of our hotel for the night in a slightly dusty van and driven to a local cantina for a delicious seafood dinner. Our hotel turns out to be a beautiful, old country manor and we are so thankful to have this lovely, clean place to shower and sleep. Tomorrow will be an easier day-less kilometers!

P.S. Lisa experienced stigmata today!