Life's a Stitch

The relationship is a little complicated. Stay with me. We're staying in a house that belongs to a former coworker, whose family were from El Vendrell, a Catalonian town with a population of 36,000. Family members still live here and one cousin recently spent some time in Vancouver.

We were invited to that cousin's parent's home for lunch where we were treated like royalty with a lovely paella dinner followed by a drive out to their country home complete with vineyard and olive grove. They generously thanked us for their daughter's Vancouver experience although we were not directly involved. It was a case of gratitude by association.

The parents speak Catalan and Spanish, we English, but the conversation was lively with the translation help of their daughter and her their efforts to speak slowly enough for us to follow along.

It put me in the mood for cooking, considering in the past almost two months I've only cooked twice. Imagine that!

On the way back from today's hike we discovered a new grocery store akin to the Real Canadian Superstore without the headache provoking bright colours. Walking by the fish counter they had them! The percebes (per-thay-vase), AKA the goose barnacles, we missed in Gallicia. At 30e/kilo I bought 350gms just to have a taste. Don't they look like dinosaur toes?

In case you have the opportunity to cook them, you bring salt water to a rolling boil, throw in the creatures and as soon as the water boils again, they're done.

To eat them, you forget the biological fact I shared in last week's post from Finisterre, perforate the black leathery skin near the claw, pull it off and eat the remaining meat. It was all that it was cracked up to be. A moist delicately flavoured tender meat, not slimey, with more substance than clam meat but a similar flavour. This is the peeled percebe:

On a roll I started the veggies and chorizo for some lentil soup.

A cloudy Sunday afternoon in Spain, everything is shut up tight. What better way to spend it?

We've had the luxury of a slow re-entry back to regular life. We've arrived in El Vendrell, Spain, where we recovered from jetlag prior to the Camino, in a house generously loaned to us by a former coworker. The familiarity was comforting after almost two months.

Coming back to our two suitcases filled with stuff was like Christmas, but so much stuff when all we've had with us were a change of clothing and the essentials!

I'll admit joy at finding my knitting, electric toothbrush, a reusable ice pack (and having access to a freezer in which to cool it) and my camera. C said if I had had the camera on the trek we'd still be walking. He claimed that each picture put me back 100 yards.

I'll be taking a long hard look at each item, maybe there are things I can live without. I can't believe the weight I carry in health and beauty supplies. Here's an example: do I really need separate creams for face, hands, feet and body? For six weeks I only used only one for all parts without disaster. Have I fallen prey to cosmetic marketing? On the Camino most women wear no makeup and do without hair colour. It's a chance for everyone to be their basic selves and we all did just fine. It will be interesting to see what happens when we return to our real worlds.

I carried only an iPhone for the trip. It served as my camera, books, maps, GPS, phone, and notebook. I came back to find I also have in my suitcase my kindle, iPad, Garmin, camera and a large container of their respective chargers. I think I've learned further lessons in travelling lightly.

The largest lesson for me was one of gratitude, to have the ability to live this dream, to have successfully done it together with the support of those who walked with us physically and in spirit. I am thankful that other than foot pain we stayed healthy, no colds, serious injuries or GI issues typical of travel.

I understand those who hunger to return and repeat the same route many times over. It is a respectful place protected from harsh words and the realities of life. Maybe a safe escape for some.

Me? Would I do it again? I would certainly entertain the concept of pilgrimage again, but on a different route. Realistically I see Canada's Chemin des Sanctuaires as a possibility, 18 days between Montreal and Quebec (http://www.chemindessanctuaires.org/en/)
If I were to have the opportunity to walk the Camino de Santiago again, I'd probably choose the shorter Portuguese route, from Porto to Santiago and add on the days to Finisterre.

I'll be posting more of our journey and the more practical aspects in the days to come.

And how about some Camino outtakes?
Not his best angle:

C practicing the art of photobombing:

Lookalike?

Fully loaded, starting the Camino or dressed for a moonwalk?

Grumpy peregrino:

Yes, we ate here:

I'll be posting on the practical aspects like SIM cards and expenses, but first basic reflections with some pretty pictures of Mallorca. Large touristy cities are not for me, but thanks to a good public transit system we explored the Cueves del Drach (Dragon Caves) and pretty pockets of beaches. It never occurred to us to have included driver's licenses on the Camino so a car rental was not an option.

So different, the farther we get from the Camino routine. We are no longer amongst lots of people with whom we have so much in common, similar motivations and values despite the fact that those we met were from 31 different countries. The Camino is a nearly perfect insulated world. The locals have had practice meeting the needs of pilgrims for centuries.

In retrospect it's hard to believe we walked for so long. It just became incorporated into daily life to a point that we didn't think about it, sort of like breathing, putting one foot in front of the other.

I get a chuckle when I think of how clueless we were at the start, but then you find a rhythm that works. It was a time of working together to solve daily puzzles.

People ask what we talked about walking five or six hours together. There was mostly silence when we walked together in peaceful reflection. Many times C was ahead of me, in sight, making new friends. I found it easier, especially in the beginning, just to walk. Walking and talking didn't want to go together.

People undertake the Camino for different reasons, primarily religious, spiritual and/or physical. Your motivation might begin in one category and bleed into the others. It would be difficult to walk for 765k without some shifts in motivation and thought.

What did I get out of the Camino? The parallels to life primarily. When you are on foot you are forced to take things as they come, there are no quick fixes. Pain and obstacle are necessary parts of pilgrimage. The physical aspects did not get better with time but you learn to deal with what you've been given in order to get to your goal.

The intent of the visit to the Cruce de Ferro helped sort through a couple of things that I have the ability to change and those I don't; maybe resolutions aren't possibilities in this lifetime. That's big for a save the world counsellor/social worker type who has spent her entire career mending issues.

There are Camino disappointments. Having been so wrapped up in walking I missed a must see cathedral not realizing I was in the town where it was located. Once I discovered it there was no going back. I was disappointed that so many churches were locked tight, having looked forward to visiting the earlier Christian examples. The reasons given were too much stealing to it being off season. Imagine a church being out of season.

… to be continued tomorrow.

Our last day in Mallorca, I'll share some photos and then we're headed from whence we came, El Vendrell, an hour from Barcelona.

Sunrise over the cruise terminal:

Stormy skies from our room:

The beach at Porto Christo:

These look like fun:

The Cueves del Drach, 1200 meters in length, up to 25 meters high, its existence was documented in the Middle Ages. At the end of the walk a classical quartet plays a mini concert from a rowboat on the underground lake. Breathtaking.

On the bus home we witnessed a rare cumulonimbus cloud with pileus, a type of lenticular cloud that caps the severe storm cloud. I've always been a cloud nut:

This morning C brought me breakfast in bed, which included an ensaïmada, a pastry famous on Mallorca, but supposedly not replicated elsewhere. People have tried but they never seem to turn out well whether it's due to the type of flour, the sea air or differences in the "mother" dough. Or perhaps it's a key ingredient, difficult to find elsewhere, reduced pork lard. Of course something this good can't possibly be healthy:

It is delicious and light as a feather.

I thought I'd write some reflections starting with the items I brought that I couldn't live without:
1. Rain pants. I am miserable if I'm cold or wet, which is one of the reasons I'm not cut out for skiing. I lost my first pair, which by the way have been found and may make it back to me after the fact, and bought a second. I was a happier hiker for them. C doesn't mind wet legs so he was fine with just a jacket.
2. Tools: my Slip 'n Snip made in the USA scissors. No foldable scissors I've seen matches their quality and we used them every day. Also a sharp pocket knife and a mini multi-tool, thank you KC, who made sure we had both those items.
3. High Goretex hiking boots. Your feet will stay dry and your ankles will thank you on downhill loose shale. As a alternative I wore trail runners and ankle braces on both legs due to my ankle fractures, existing and past and felt I had more stability than my boots offered.
4. Hiking pants with zip off legs. The weather changes quickly.
5. Toe sock liners: although they caused the only blister of our Camino, it was my own fault as didn't put them on correctly on one day and the rubbing caused the blister. Ours were Injinji brand and for most of the Camino these liners served as my only socks and I am convinced saved our feet.
6. For me, a sarong was perfect for accommodation with shared bathroom, to wear to and from the shower. Also handy when doing all your laundry at once.
7. I brought along a Punktar ball, a spikey massage ball that was gifted to me a few years back by cousin Joan in Denmark. It was a pain saver and C gave me a hard time about toting it along.
8. Nail clipper and other foot care items: bandaid blister patches, corn pads, tape.
9. Antibacterial wipes: bring enough as they not available in Spain.
10. Duct tape, a small supply wrapped around our hiking poles came in handy. Some people swear by using duct tape as soon as you feel a hotspot on your feet as a way of avoiding blisters. The toe socks worked well for us, so we didn't try it out, but we used the duct tape many times.
11. Hiking poles for steep rocky surfaces.
12. A hat that keeps the sun off your ears and neck, also useful for the rain.
13. Sunscreen
14. Small and medium carabiners, a length of cord, a couple of S hooks, clothes pins and large safety pins – all used.
15. Our iPhones, with 15e Vodaphone SIM cards, also served as our camera, books and computer. The Buen Camino app was quite helpful, but so was Google maps in the larger cities to navigate off the Camino. We used booking.com frequently.
16. A large heavy plastic bag or a foldable "Kitchen Sink" for ice water dips for your feet. I didn't meet anyone who walked 750+k who didn't experience foot pain of some sort.
17. The one item for which we were most thankful were our Aarn body packs from New Zealand. There was absolutely no pressure on our shoulders and necks and the load was equally distributed in front and back allowing us to walk with good posture. The front pockets allowed easy access to snacks, trail guide, phone/camera.

C put a couple of the items to use when drying clothes:

A good use of the multi tool:

One item I really wished I had brought were my Transitions glasses instead of regular sunglasses. Transitions are not polarized and it would have been easier to take pictures using the screen as it is impossible to see it through polarized lenses. I ended up not wearing sunglasses at all, but had a good wide brimmed hat on the sunny days.

More thoughts from Mallorca tomorrow.

Cluelessly we took an early bus back to Santiago. Clueless as we thought we were trying to get to the airport for a 5:00 flight and we weren't aware that the bus wasn't an express. Both errors worked out well as the bus took the beautiful coastal route and arrived in plenty of time to enjoy the city in the sunshine.

We had our last lunch as pilgrims in our favourite restaurant where we said goodbye to Denise and Greg last week. Then we hit our regular bar for a Serrano ham bocadillo-to-go and a huge hunk of chocolate chip cake to take with us for dinner on the plane.

At the airport it's easy to recognize flight bound pilgrims in their uniforms – zip off pants and quick dry t-shirts. We're all experiencing the shock of re-entry back into a fast and noisy world.

There were fascinating realistic miniature replicas of Santiago long ago and the cathedral.

If we wanted to we could photoshop ourselves in and replicate our arrival sans scaffolding.

Keeping costs down, we're at an "A" for adequate hotel in the city with a cruise terminal/water view within walking distance to the city and beach. The nice woman at the desk gave us their best view room knowing we were in Camino recovery mode. Yes, the view is nice but the noise of traffic and the city will take some getting used to. I'm missing my donkey and roosters.

You might ask what's walking distance after walking 20k per day? C jokes that after walking for 750k, sometime I'm going to say I'm going out for a walk, and he won't see me for a few days. In this case we have about an hour's radius as our target for exploration. We'll also do some hop on hop off bus touring.

The cab driver, seeing our back packs and poles, told us she had done two sections of the Camino. Then, from what I could get from her Spanish, she has friends who have done many pilgrimages, that walking has become their full time occupation. I really enjoyed it but my toes are not ready for that!

Tomorrow I'll post what we carried in our packs that we couldn't live without. If you have to live with only 15lbs of stuff, what would you choose to carry?

A beautiful morning walk took us to the lighthouse at Finisterre, where some pilgrims choose to end their pilgrimage three or four days past Santiago. It's generally a place of serious reflection, but today's mood was somber. The area was crawling with National Guard, police and news crews due to yesterday's incident involving a missing police officer swept into the sea while fishing, still unrecovered.

Returning to town we stopped often to admire the view.

Enjoyed another fish dinner along the harbour in time for the sunset, sitting with a Camino couple from Boston and had a good post pilgrimage debriefing.

C stopped into a bar tonight to ask for some ice for my foot. The woman behind the bar was very understanding. Just then a man came out of the kitchen and offered C a bow saw to cure the problem permanently. Humour is difficult to translate, but this time it was entirely effective.

This is our last day on the Camino. Tomorrow, posting from Mallorca, I'll start with reflections of this amazing experience.

Leaving Santiago by bus was the first step in letting go of our Camino pilgrimage. Soon we caught our first glimpse of the sea, the entrance to the end of the world, as believed by ancient mariners. It took Columbus, in 1492, to disprove that theory, but we know today that there were many prior to his voyage.

It was an unusual day of gusty wind, probably the remnants of a tropical storm from the east coast of the USA blown right across the Atlantic. The sound of a rescue helicopter and the hospitalero of our pension told us of the sad search in progress for a police officer, missing while fishing off the rocky outcrop near the lighthouse at mile zero of the Camino, giving credence to this area's name, the Coast of Death.

Finisterre is a place where you can eat seafood while the boat that caught it bobs in front of you moored in the tiny harbour. We tried the razor "smell" clams (see photo below), more meaty with fewer slimy stringy bits than the traditional kinds of steamers.

I'm wanting to try the percebes, goose barnacles a local delicacy, supposed to tasted like crab once you learn which parts to eat. C's not so keen after trying the "rosa" of a whole scallop yesterday. Really, though, can you imagine eating barnacles? How often can you say you've done that? Maybe it's because he read that the reproductive bits of the barnacle are tremendously out of proportion to their bodies, the largest of any creature, and they are not amongst the parts you discard prior to consumption. Best to leave that knowledge at the restaurant door.

It looks like we're the only ones here in a pension way up a hill in a room with a shower that has digital controls.

After the Camino, I think some people are hill intimidated. Although long, I didn't find this one bad at all.

We had hoped for the sea view rooms that were advertised, but ended up with a shrub, donkey, goat and chicken/rooster view room with a wee slice of water if you stand up to the side of the window and look through the far corner. It's different from home and not bad so we'll enjoy it.

That donkey and one particular chicken had a game going. He would chase the chicken until she squawked so loudly he would back off and she would run past him. And then they would do it again. And again. This was entertainment that would have been missed in an ocean view room.

Tomorrow we'll hike to the lighthouse where some pilgrims burn the clothes they've worn for many days of trekking.

Fruitless efforts to book flights on Ryan Air with a Canadian credit card lead us to a travel agency. Learning that Ryan Air charges 45e for printing boarding passes at the airport was worth the fee charged by the agent. 

I'm relieved to report that our post Camino plans have been solidified. Tomorrow we'll head to Finisterre, the Atlantic seaside town that in medieval times was believed to be end of the earth. Two nights later we'll fly to Mallorca for some r&r. 

We shopped for a couple of souvenirs, the criteria being items light in weight and unbreakable. More on that at another time. 

We didn't buy anything at the hotel/monastery gift shop, but it was interesting to see that they preserved original ceiling:

Then we stopped for what was probably our most expensive Camino meal. Not that it was terribly extravagant, but out of line with our budget. The best tapas bar we've encountered:

Holy St. Nicholas, look at that beard!

Well, you know you're no longer on the Camino when you're sitting next to an English couple at the tapas bar and you ask them if they just completed their Camino and they reply "What's that?" Or meet resistance from the bar man when you ask for a small bag of ice to take to your hotel for your sore parts, a request accepted and well accommodated on the Way.

Sorting through the stuff in our packs we were surprised at how much needless weight we were carrying: soaps from pensions, receipts, brochures, and unnecessary junk. The monastery hotel must be used to pilgrims leaving behind their excess weight at the end of the Camino.

We took a break at 10:30 p.m. to see who we might find in the pilgrim lounge and that's where we met Alexandra, from Idaho, putting us all to shame at 75 years old. Next to her is Liliana from Colombia, whose uncanny story was in yesterday's post. Their friend on the end is from Korea. They had hiked together for many days. This is the kind of eclectic trio that the Camino encourages. 

It poured heavily today and we thought of pilgrims on the trail when we saw those arriving drenched, no doubt glad to have reached their destination. Tomorrow: to the end of the earth in the sunshine.

Can't seem to get plans nailed down; still basking in the Camino afterglow/letdown. It feels particularly good to be in one place not repacking each day, but I'm missing the act of moving forward. My foot, however, is appreciating the rest.

We enjoyed lunch in the monastery's huge dining room while listening to a free live concert of the Lugo philharmonic orchestra in the cloisters. The acoustics in the monastery are marvellous.

The afternoon included two post Camino rituals, practiced for centuries. We hugged the statue of the apostle St. James in gratitude for arriving in Santiago and filed past the location of his remains.

Reading our Camino experiences you must wonder if we're the only ones with stories of unlikely synchronicity. Tonight we met Liliana from Colombia. She told us of her most difficult day on the trail, feeling as if she couldn't go another step. Just then she saw a Camino mileage marker and on it her brother's name, Adolfo, followed by the Spanish word for "walk."

Her brother had died in an accident at the age of 21. These Camino stories are bewildering.

A day of fun and rest. We transferred to our accommodation for two nights at the Hospederia San Martin Pinario, a renovated monastery located across the street from the cathedral.

It seemed fitting for the end of a pilgrimage. Elegantly simple rooms and facilities. Fluffy towels, machine dried, instead of stiff ones dried on a clothesline, in a great location for 52e nightly. We learned, thank goodness after the fact, that they have monk's cells on the top floor, much more basic with tiny clerestory windows, for pilgrims for 25e.

The dining room reminded me of a scene from Harry Potter.

We headed to the pilgrim's office to receive our compostelas, certifying our mileage and the end of our great adventure. I couldn't get through it without more happy tears. The final arrow:

I'll post a picture of the certificates when we get home as they are safely sealed for travel.

Met our friends Denise (West Vancouver) and her brother Greg (Australia) for a farewell lunch as they are flying out tomorrow. I gifted her a fridge magnet appropriately showing bandaged feet on the Camino.

Now we're planning the next phase of our trip, some time for foot recovery and sightseeing.

A huge thank you to all who followed us on our pilgrimage. You thoughts, prayers and good wishes, without doubt, helped us along the Way. I will continue to post afterthoughts and more as we continue our journey.

Tomorrow we'll visit the cathedral for traditional pilgrim rituals.