Rain is out of the forecast for the rest of the walk into Santiago. I would take rain over hot sunny days any time. We started a bit after 7 with the intention of walking 2 miles before stopping for some breakfast.
The walk started out promising with overcast skies and a slight fog, but the fog quickly burned off and the humidity checked in around 300%. I started pouring out the sweat like mad. We stopped in a little albergue for some breakfast. It was a pretty cool old stone building and they had French toast. Pam and I got two slices each. Any change to the pilgrim menu is greatly appreciated after nearly 5 weeks of the same food every day.
Fanny walked in as we were finishing up. She is extremely generous to us. She insisted on buying us breakfast but we had already eaten. Instead, she went in a got us 4 fresh orange juices to have for the road.
The trail was really pleasant today. If the humidity could be lowered and the hundreds of day walking pilgrims were gone, you could call it near perfect. We continued our slow easy pace and ended up leap frogging with Kat most of the day. We took plenty of cafe breaks to cool down.
I know everyone hikes their own hike and you don’t know everyone’s circumstances when they are on the trail, but I was introduced to a phenomenon today that irked me–bus hikers. I think this is a great way for older people to get a taste of the trail, but when able bodied people are doing this, they just irritate me with the way they run down the tail, butt in lines at cafes, and are generally rude. What happens is a bus pulls up at the start of a nice section of trail and unloads about 40 “pilgrims” who are carrying their wallets and a partial bottle of water. The bus drives to the other end of the woods (or some designated spot) about 2 or 3 miles down the trail. The driver waits on the trail to divert his passengers back to the bus where they are then driven to their accommodations off trail. On the bright side, they don’t crowd up the Albergues since they would never consider sleeping in such conditions (which, coincidentally, I’m very impressed with how well Pam has adjusted to the Albergues–the crowds have to be wearing on her).
When we got to Melide, the trail becomes difficult to follow through town. Fortunately, there are other pilgrims that help with that problem. There are people who are riding horses along this section. All you have to do is follow the horse crap in the city streets. I’m sure all the restaurant owners appreciate having to clean up after the horses walking by their front doors and dropping loads. It’s also very appealing to those eating to have a sudden impact right next to the table.
We found a nice little bar/cafe that stretched the width of a block so we could sit out back away from the horses to have some lunch. I tried to order a hamburger (actually veal) but I wanted it well done. I tried “sin roja” but they interpreted it as “con roja” so I got the rarest burger I’ve ever had. Pam said there was no way she could eat it. I buried it in mayo and mustard (condiments!) and didn’t look at it at all while I wolfed it down.
The remainder of the day was a pleasant walk. With all the fresh pilgrims running along the trail, they tend to be bedded down by 1 or 2 at the latest. The crowds really disappear about 1:30 so we had fewer people to contend with. The afternoon was a lot of trail walking in trees. In spite of the humidity, the hiking wasn’t bad. We crossed several little creeks (called rivers here).
Pam, Richard, and I decided to take one more break, but Shaun wanted to keep going because his knee has been bothering him lately. Whenever he stops, it takes him about 15 minutes of walking to get it working right again. He was going to head on to Ribadiso and find a spot then let us know where we were staying. Richard and I went into a cafe to get ice cream and cold drinks for us. Richard couldn’t resist checking out the bus schedules–once a bus man…
When we caught up with him in Ribadiso, he met us on the road with his pack. He had tried every place in town and the only spots left were in the Municipal. We headed over to get in line. There were only 2 lower bunks left which we let Shaun and Richard have. We got upper bunks in a different building than them which is fine since they both snore. Shaun’s is steady so we’ve grown accustomed to it. Richard–that’s a different story. He’s doing much better since he came back. I think he’s using breathing strips. We’ve adjusted to him as well, but given the choice between adapting or avoiding, we choose avoiding. Not to say Pam doesn’t snore up a mean storm. I’ve never heard myself snore so I’m assuming not bad.
After the settling in routine, we met up at the cafe next door to the Albergue. We had a couple of beers to help cool us down, but there is a nice little creek running through the Municipal which would be perfect for soaking feet. Pam, Richard, and I went to soak our aching feet while Shaun gallantly held on to our table and continued to drink beer (the sacrifices one must make for fellow pilgrims).
It didn’t take long for our feet to turn blue. We headed back to the cafe to meet up with Shaun for supper. He had done an admirable job of keeping the table for us. The cafe had food other than just pilgrim menus so we opted for pizzas. Since this was only Richards second day back on the trail, the pilgrim menu still has appeal to him.
We went our separate ways after dinner. Pam and I got ready for bed only to see that I was sleeping in the same bunk with the girl we had seen covered in bed bug bites earlier. I had a hard time falling asleep imagining every hair blowing in the breeze as a bed bug on me. Pam was snoring long before I fell asleep–after all, it was past 9.
