Camino: Calzada to Lavacolla

 We depart the Pazo de Sedor this morning. Everyone is on the bus on time.  We depart without having ever seen any Pazo staff, other than the folks who work the dining room.  And even they are only minimally present at breakfast.  A red-headed Austrian lady guest could not find anyone to pay when she wanted to leave.  Darnedest system I’ve seen for running an inn?

When we are dropped off in Calzada again, we’re just behind the coffee bar where we found the bus yesterday.  We began walking in pretty good humor.  Because of the rain, I put on my rain pants and shifted down to a small day pack for my camera.  Good choice too, because soon it began to rain in earnest.  I would have gotten pretty wet. 

Then, walking uphill from Calle after a kilometer or so began to make me warm, and I was opening my rain jacket and trying to cool off.  Several times I took off the jacket or shifted the camera to the outside, only to have to put it back the other way when the skies clouded up and the rain began again.  

I walked with Pat for a while, but then he decided to run (for exercise!). Salceda came and went quickly, and we got to Santa Irene before too long.  This was really just a couple of bars at the top of the hill on the highway, and both were so warm and humid inside that I did not want to stay longer than a bathroom break.  My glasses were fogging up from the humidity, so I pressed on without getting a coffee or anything.

For the first time, in this section of walking today, several times it was unclear which way to go.  Until now, every turn, every intersection has been clearly marked with yellow arrows and concrete posts bearing the Camino symbol – a stylized scallop shell with rays pointing in the direction you should go.  But several times today it has been very unclear which way one should turn, and we have often been called back by other pilgrims after starting in the wrong direction.

I was alone for a good ways, but then Carl and a Finnish woman in a red jacket caught up with me.  She is a physical therapist from a town northeast of Helsinki and was walking the Camino from Pamplona by herself.  She set a pretty good pace, despite the fact that her leg was hurting her. 

Carl dropped back to take a picture or something and she and I walk briskly for a good ways.  We passed through man-made eucalyptus forests, with very tall trees and peeling bark.  Alex has told us the plant was imported to Spain from Australia to provide timber and eucalyptus extract, but they brought the wrong kind of tree so it is not nearly as helpful as was intended. 

We passed through the village of O Pino and continued walking.  I did stop to take some pictures of fuschia, the first of these flowers we have seen along the way.  Most of the walk today however was through forests and sometimes down stone paths near the rivers.  We came up to the Hotel Amenal, our lunch spot, and bid farewell to the Finn.  A few of our grou who had come by bus were already there, sitting in the sun, along with John who had walked fast. 

Amenal

I ordered a caña and sat down outside with Joe and Carl.  An airplane took off from the nearby airport, probably filled with pilgrims cleansed of their sins.  It’s a reminder that we are nearing civilization again after days out in the countryside.  Apparently Pat had already come through – running – and had continued on toward our hotel, with the intention of running back to us for lunch.  We calculated that if Pat and others want to run the Camino, it would take only 19 days to run the entire route from St. Jean Pied de Port to Santiago – if you ran 42 kilometers (a marathon distance) per day.

We had a long wait for everyone to gather at Amenal, but lunch was a large meal.  (One effect of the rain is that we have large restaurant meals instead of the lighter picnic fare that Alex and Cate were fixing alongside the Camino.  They take longer and include more food.) I ordered a first course of scrambled eggs and mushrooms (revuelto), with a second course of chorizo meat in little strips and chunks and French fried potatoes.  With a coffee flan and un cortado, that was a pretty good lunch.

We walked on and I soon fell into a pace with Katie.  We had to put on full regalia because the rain began to fall in earnest again.  My pants and shoes got very wet, and I had my coat on over the backpack to protect the camera.  We complained just a little bit and continued, knowing that it should be better tomorrow.  We passed by the airport and walked almost directly under the MLSR lights at the end of the runway.  That was at a high point on the path. Pretty soon we were walking down into more and more settled areas, nearing a town called Lavacolla. 

Before reaching the real town itself, we came to our hotel, the relatively elegant Ruta Jacobea Hotel in a park-like setting.  Carl and I checked in, among the first to do so.  We have a decent sized room with a bath with two washbowls, so we feel quite spacious.  After showering I went down to the bar and called Marcia on Skype and did some Facebook picture posting.  The wifi is pretty good, and Carl bought the first round of orujo for him and sparkling water for me.

We all met with Alex and Cate at seven o’clock for an hour long briefing on what to expect tomorrow entering Santiago, and how to find various shops and tourist attractions in the city.  Alex was quite specific, in part because he and Cate will leave us tomorrow evening and return to Bilbao – he has a wedding to attend.  On Friday we will be in the hands of a guide for a city tour and then we’re on our own.  Also tomorrow we have to pack everything into a single suitcase that Alex can deliver to the hotel while we are walking to Santiago.  I think he has to manage a tight parking situation in Santiago’s old city.  But it means I have to stuff everything into the suitcase, unless I want to carry it all day.  And it sounds like we won’t get into the hotel until after reporting to the pilgrim’s office for our certificate and our lunch in the afternoon.

Dinner was delicious again, but more elegant in terms of white table clothes and service – the waiter poured the wine rather than we doing it for ourselves.  Of course, it is a three star hotel. We're getting back to civilization.

The first course was a caldo gallego, the soup with kale and other vegetables in a beef broth, and that was followed by three excellent two-inch diameter cuts of port tenderloin wrapped in ham or bacon (depending on your definition).  And “tender” is the right word. Dessert was ice cream with fruit, so that was okay with me.  There was as usual white and red wine, and tonight I’d say the white Ribeiro from the llorero grape was the better choice.

We were finished about 9:30 p.m. and headed off to bed. The morning will be for packing and getting ready.