We were on the mosquito coast last night. Pam and I both got bitten several times through the night. No, not bed bugs, mosquitos. I know because I killed 4 in my ear. I finally broke down and covered up with a blanket even though it was still Madagascar hot.
Both Pam and Katherine were talking big about getting up early and hitting the road to get into Muxia before it gets hot. I decided to show them who is full of it and who isn’t. As soon as I woke up, I got out of bed, dressed, packed, and fixed up my bed. I was completely ready to go before either one got out of bed. When they finally got up, I was in the kitchen making coffee for all 3 of us. Not only am I an efficient hiker, I am up for husband of the year bringing coffee to my wife while she sleeps in.
The morning was comfortable–not cold, Katherine. There was a low fog all morning so no sun. I hate hot, sunny days when hiking. I hate hot sunny days when I’m outside. I hate hot sunny days in Spain without rain. I hate hot sunny days. (I think I might be Seattle material.)
When we finally got to a town with a cafe, Katherine decided she was too cold to sit outside. Pam decided to sit inside with her even though she was dripping sweat. There was no way I was going into a warm building even if the guy working the counter had a great sense of humor–he was handing out free hard boiled eggs as today’s special. Katherine grabbed one and tried to crack it only to find that it bounced. A German hiker came in, grabbed one, and headed outside to enjoy his boon. When we left 15 minutes later, he still hadn’t tried to crack it open.
Katherine doesn’t like to take breaks and just wants to walk as fast as she can. Pam and I are believers in frequent breaks which include taking our shoes and socks off to cool off our feet. We came to another town and Pam said she needed a break and I agreed. Even though she wanted to keep going, Katherine stopped as well. She still thought it was too cold to sit outside, so she tried to borrow a coat hanging on the wall of the bar. The guy who it belonged to thought she was trying to steal it so he came over to take it back. The bar tender understood enough English that he went to his car to loan her a coat while we relaxed a bit.
After a couple more miles we could see the ocean. The only problem was that according to the distances we had, we were still at least 4 miles away from Muxia. I tried to contain my enthusiasm because I knew it couldn’t be our destination in front of us. Sure enough, we had another 2 miles of road walking before we got to some forest walking.
The forest trail was a pretty steep downhill. When we emerged, we were standing on a beach looking across a small beach and bay towards Muxia. It was a gorgeous little Mediterranean town sitting on the Atlantic. We had two alternative routes into town of which we chose the mile and a half (2.5K) board walk over the back of the beach.
We got into town and saw the Albergue Katherine had sent her pack to (no, she’s not carrying her stuff and she tells us we aren’t allowed to judge her for being lazy, but Shaun carried everything the entire way from St Jean, didn’t complain, liked to take frequent breaks, didn’t mind hiking later in the day, and only walked fast when the smell of beer was in the air). This was a Hungarian owned Albergue. Rose had reserved the only double bed for Pam and me. We were right across the street from the beach.
First order of business after settling in was to get in the ocean. It was perfect ocean weather, overcast and no sun. It doesn’t really matter this far north since the water is always cold. I walked in up to my knees while Pam and Katherine just screamed and over dramatized how cold the water was. The swelling in my feet went completely away.
Once again, we’ve been having money issues. Not that we don’t have any, just that we can’t get to it. My ATM card expired while I was in Wales (someone forgot to tell me to check expiration dates before we left). I also forgot the pin for my credit card so we were cash low and I need to get this resolved ASAP. First, I needed food to deal with this problem. We went to a restaurant that took credit cards.
I’ve been in touch with my credit card company, but they have to actually talk to me to make sure it is me before they will reset the pin. After lunch, I needed to find a way to call them and get a new pin. Pam and Katherine decided sight seeing was more important than mundane things like survival so off they went.
I tried the tourist information center but wasn’t having a lot of luck explaining my plight. All they could understand was that I wanted to make an international call which they can’t allow. Collect call doesn’t translate well with my poor grasp of Spanish. I just know that collecto callo isn’t the right translation.
Luckily, there was a woman from Barcelona in the information center that spoke English fluently. Paloma explained my situation to them and they agreed to let me use their phone. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get hold of an international operator. Paloma agreed to let me use her phone to call the company and get everything straightened out.
After securing access to money to enable us to eat and continue our trip, I talked to Paloma and Julio for a bit and told them our plans. In my near panic state of only have 15 Euros left, I forgot to get their picture to include in the blog, but I do hope they contact us so that we can at least take them out to dinner when we get to Barcelona after we finish the GR10.
With money in hand, I was transformed back into Zen Curtis. I was now willing to do a little sight seeing in Muxia. The three of us walked out to the end of the peninsula to see the church and pilgrim sculpture. We also climbed the hill above town for some pics. In retrospect, I wish we had decided to spend an extra day in both Muxia and Finesterre rather than have another 3 days in Santiago when we are done. Muxia is just such a quaint peaceful town.
This area is called the dead coast, not because of comatose residents (which they aren’t–the people here are extremely friendly and inviting). The Romans believed that this area of the coast is where the souls of the dead travelled to before they left the earth. All I know is that it is a very peaceful area. I would love to spend the night in the church during a violent storm bombarding the coast.
