You might be wondering how the Spanish can have a trail that goes across their entire country, east to west, through farms, suburbs, cities, towns and forests. How does it negotiate private property? How can a complete route be established?
We have been wondering the same thing, but we are beginning to see how it is done. Mostly, we walk on rural roads with occasional trails through the woods or paths alongside highways. It is not a wilderness walk. It is walking country roads for the most part. Capitalism has worked its magic and albergues, cafes, bag shipping services, taxis and a myriad of other support services have sprung up. There is so much support along the “way” and very reasonably priced that anyone can do this who can walk. You can live as high or as low as you want. The albergues operated by the cities, municipal albergues, are 5€ a night, super affordable. You can buy food in grocery stores very affordably. 40-50 days to do the whole thing is ideal. We have managed to stay around $50 a day, each day. This makes for a super cheap vacation.
Our albergue last night had a big community room outside our sleeping room. We were able to sneak out the door and eat and pack without disturbing anyone. We hiked out of town in the dark, but the morning was a warm 61º and very humid with thunderstorms forecast for later in the afternoon.
At about 3 miles we found a cafe open and had a soda each. Off again, we hiked through the dawning of the day. Even though we have been hiking 19 days, it is still surprising that it is still dark at 8:00am.
We had a destination in mind for lunch. The “party girls” had told us about an octopus restaurant in the town of Melide called Ezequiel, at mile 9.5 for the day. That is what we focused on as the miles flowed under our feet. We continued to meet tons of people along the way, as well as greeting those that we had met before.
We navigated our way through the fair sized city of Melide and found Ezequiel’s right on the “way”. We entered the broad opening and saw octopus boiling in a large kettle on a propane burner and a vast dining room with picnic style tables, already with 150 people seated and being rowdy. One man was cooking and preparing the octopus plates and two ladies were acting as waitresses. All three had stressed expressions on their faces as the rushed to try and service this huge crowd. The octopus plates looked great. But, after 10 minutes of sitting and watching the chaos we realized it would take an hour to be served and eat. The day was supposed to heat up to 80º by mid afternoon and we hoped to be done hiking before that happened. We abandoned ship and headed out again. About 1/2 a mile further, on the outskirts of town, we found a picnic bench in the shade of an ancient church and enjoyed bread, cheese, mixed nuts, nectarines, bananas and cookies. Good lunch and quick. A sweet old lady walking her dog stopped to talk with us as we ate.
The afternoon was uneventful, although the miles were wearing us down. We stopped at a couple cafes on the way for refreshment and to cool down, it was now approaching 80º.
We did our final descent into Ribadoso. At the bottom of the hill was a bridge across the creek. Pilgrims were laying in the creek and soaking their feet just outside the creek side albergue. We started regretting our decision to stay at a different one up the hill and away from the creek. But, it was rated well and something in the reviews made us pick it over this one. We hiked up the hill, the equivalent of hiking from Betty’s to the Morgans. As we approached the albergue on the hill we heard D’Anne yell down to us. We did not realize she was staying here as well. What a welcome surprise.
She was soaking her feet in a pool meant for exactly that purpose. I went into the building to register us for the night, then joined Sally and D’Anne soaking our feet.
We had met D’Anne a week ago in Rabanal. We bonded instantly over the PCT. She is starting in April to do the whole thing. We had a good time soaking our feet, then I slipped in to take a shower. After the shower, I found a table in the dining room and spent better than an hour writing. Sally showered, then rested. Sally and D’Anne came in. Sally had a beer and her and D’Anne talked while I wrote.
The sky started thundering and lightning flashed. A few moments later the power went off. It was off for about half an hour
Jokingly, we moved to the “Dining Room” - a table for four, six feet away instead of two tables for two and all had hamburgers and fries for dinner. We went back out and soaked our feet some more, then headed to our separate rooms to pack and prepare for tomorrow. D’Anne injured her ankle today walking. No specific injury, more of an overuse injury. There was some discoloration of the ankle. We all have our fingers crossed that it won’t be a hinderance tomorrow.
Remember Tanya and Karen from New Zealand? They will walk into Santiago tomorrow, along with Regina and Sandy!! Oh happy day!! We have been emailing Sandy and will meet them Thursday night for dinner in Santiago. It is almost complete!
With the party girls on the road to Miede
Sally happy with a real Pepsi
Octopus boiling on the stove
The restaurant famous
for great octopus
Cool doors
Chuck and a mile post marker
Erica and ?? And Sally pose
The albergue by the river
Chuck puts his sheet on his bed
Our lodgings for the night
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