Chuck's News: June 16, 2023 - Day 47 - another day of rest in Santiago - 0 miles - +0’

Another relaxing morning. Rosie had texted us last night about getting together this morning, and I had responded with a sounds great, but then I couldn’t text her again to set up a time and place to meet. Our SIM cards didn’t come with texting (really weird). If everyone has an iPhone you can text because it is data, but non apple phones use SMS and for that it doesn’t work. Anyway, just before I fell asleep I remembered to us WhatsApp and invited her to have breakfast with us in our apartment-I would cook potatoes and scramble eggs. Combined with toast, a good meal. I didn’t get her response until this morning. She said it sounded great.

Our AirB&B had lots of kitchen stuff, but no oil. No grease of any kind. I headed out onto the streets at 8 to find some oil. All the cafes and restaurants were closed. I walked back up the path the pilgrims take, looking for something open. The same bar that we met Diego in last night was the only thing open. They serve food so I had hope for a couple pats of butter. The keep sold me two pats of batter and a single serving size of olive oil for €2. I jogged back to our place to start cooking. It was 8:10 and Rosie was coming at 8:30. Rosie was on time and Sally waited outside on the street to guide her in. We had a nice breakfast. At 10:15am we were packed up and left the apartment. We had only reserved it for two days when we booked it back in November. We wish we had done 4 days. Now we had to move five doors up the street to a hotel; way over our budget but necessary if we wanted to be in town a couple more nights. There is a music festival on the outskirts of Santiago that is attracting some 40,000 people for the weekend so not only is housing tough to find, but also expensive. We are paying $137.00 a night. Ouch. But it is on the third floor with a little stone balcony and a view of the street, but no cooking facilities. Not even a small fridge.

We left our bags in the lobby as we were hours before check in and headed to the square with our bag of signs and banners for friends coming in today.

When we arrived we spotted the Georgia Boys. We greeted them and then pinned their sashes on them. They were thrilled. Absolutely loved them. We saw them later in the evening and they still had them on.

Now we started the wait. I had received a text from Nicki and one from Melissa telling us how far out they were. I suspected we would see them about noon, but it was only about 10:30am. We walked into town, searching for the artist shop we had bought Andy’s climber sculpture at four years earlier. I was hoping to buy another for his birthday this year to match. We looked and asked a few shop owners. They said it no longer existed. Without the artists name, we were at a dead end.

We went to the square about 11:15am and hung out with John, Fran and the the Georgia Boys waiting for Tom and Nicki and Melissa and her crew to arrive. They wandered in about noon as suspected. I held our sign welcoming the Mayor and Mayoress above my head. Sally handed a rose to Nicki and we crowned Tom. But where was Melissa and her crew. I looked around the square. Somehow they had slipped in without our notice. We greeted them and gave each a rose. About an hour of photos and greetings and story telling ensued. Then the whole crew headed for a bar for beer. Sally and I exited the square and returned to our new room for a nap. Afterward we shopped for a gift for Soma.

We could have gone to dinner with Tom and Nicki and his family but we wanted to let them have their space. We went to a noodle place for a quiet dinner, then returned home to relax, read and write. A Ted Lasso episode late at night and we were asleep about 11:30pm.

Note: The sun doesn’t set until 10:15. It isn’t dark until until 11:30pm. We have slowly morphed to Spanish time. We eat dinner about 8 or 9 now when we are not walking. So fun!

The Georgia Bous love their sashes