Joanie's Portugese Camino 2006

Joanie's Portugese Camino 2006

I want to thank everyone on the Confraternity of St. James board (CSJ) for their assistance
with planning my first camino. I originally had intended to walk on the French route, but I
began to realize that, while do-able, it would have required several connections to get to the
Lugo-Sarria area. I walked the camino on the foot-heels of a three-week+ excursion
through Iberia that included touring in Madrid, Cordoba, Granada, Malaga, Marbella,
Ronda, Gibraltar, Seville, and Portimao/Lagos/Sao Vicente in the Algarve area of Portugal.
I ended the vacation portion of this trip in Lisbon with a day trip to Fatima, which was a
wonderful precursor to doing the camino.

It was suggested by board contributors that I do the Portuguese route instead and the
timing worked out the best for me. My husband, Jim, returned to the US from Lisbon. He
did not plan on going because he has a bad right knee and found that he couldn't train with
me in the months prior to leaving for Europe. Well, it was my idea anyway! So, on the
morning of July 19th I left Lisbon on the high-speed CP train to Famalicao and changed to a
regional train to Valenca on the northern Portuguese border. I simply left the train station
and started walking through the town of Valenca, and found a tourist office which granted
me my first sello for my pilgrim credential. Then over the bridge across the Minho River
that separates Portugal from Spain and into the town of Tuy on the Spanish border. I
solicited the help of the good staff at the TI office in Tuy for a B&B to spend the night. I
stayed at a beautifully renovated place, a suite with a kitchen and living room. It was called
Casa Rural O Rozo and located northwest of Tuy, near Parque Natural Monte Aloia. Cost =
about 70 Euros. The hostess pointed out that there was a restaurant and a grocery store a
ways down the road. I enjoyed a plate of tapas for supper and had a good night's rest at the
B&B.

The next morning after I started walking, I realized that I was quite a bit off the camino
track. I got back on the correct trail at the 109 and some km mark. I was very surprised at
the lack of foot traffic on the paths, this being so close to the festival of St. James date. I
think that I had just gotten off to a late start since I had to weave my way back onto the
camino path from the B&B. The weather was hot and the shade in the wooded area was very
welcome. I am a 58 year old woman walking alone and I can truthfully say that I never
feared for my own safety, but I was spooked when I saw a dead sheep in the stream just
beyond the San Telmo monument. I'll admit to having heeded some advice about safety
beforehand, though. I carried two knives and a metal walking stick with a pointed end that
could do some damage if I were ever attacked. I spent 22-1/2 years in the Army and I
figured that a put-on cold stare would be enough to ward someone off. I try to avoid
carrying myself around as if I am a victim (yeah all five foot of me!). That said, the locals
that I encountered along the camino path were mostly elderly women who seemed to
appreciate a smile and a buenos dias.

There are several small chapels along this stage of the route and I did take advantage of
them to be alone to regroup my thoughts about why I am here. After a bite of lunch, I was
on the trek through the area south of O Porrino, which was stressful with lots of big trucks
on the road, kicking up lots of dust. But I came across my first fellow pilgrim here by the
roundabout, a French woman about my age who was headed south to Fatima. I was
somewhat tired when I finally entered the city of O Porrino, so I stopped at the new
albergue there to lighten my load. I had taken way too many toiletries and decided that
parting with a few unopened this and thats would be in my best interest. I took an almost
two hour nap in that cool albergue, thanks to the most lovely hospitalera running the place.
She tried to persuade me to stay the night, but I got my second wind and decided to push
on. The town of Mos was another 5 km and I decided to try for it. I found a nice cafe,
serving good pasta with beef chunks and vegetables entree. The woman running the cafe
entertained me by turning on the TV to a game show. That night it was geography of Spain.
I think I amazed her at how many questions I could answer (all fairly easy stuff, I speak a
good deal of Spanish, but wouldn't say that I am fluent). After supper, I decided to push
even further all the way to Redondela. I made it to the albergue by 9:30 p.m. Just enough
room! Most everyone was in bed by the time I set my rucksack down. The lights were out.
A few women were doing the laundry. It was an open bay arrangement. Bunk beds lined
up. Men and women down to underwear on this warm night, my first experience with
anything like that. My bunk was near an open arched window. Redondela is situated on an
inlet from the sea, so before long some cool breezes were coming through. I thought that I
would have sore muscles the next day. My shins were slightly bothersome and I was
worried about how I would do the next day. I took some Advil (ibuprofen) and quickly fell
asleep after my shower. That albergue was quite lovely with very good facilities, a
converted building from medieval times and next to a church. A former monastery,
perhaps?

The next morning I got the chance to speak sporadically with several groups of pilgrims.
Almost half of the pilgrims had risen prior to sunrise and were on their way. Not me. I
needed the extra rest time. But no shin or foot pain on this morning! I was in good shape
for this day! Some hot chocolate and a bun were just great. I departed about 8 a.m., took
some photos of the town and started out for the day. I kept up a steady pace but was
possibly the last straggler on the path. The few who left later than I caught up with me and it
seemed that we traded off surpassing each other several times along this days route. Just
short of Pontevedra, I stopped by a wonderful cafe, serving a tuna sandwich with some of
those famous Padron pimentos added to it. (Cost for that and a Heineken was under 3 Euros
I was really amazed at how inexpensive restaurant food was in this area- it's like traveling
through Kentucky or West Virginia). The owners son, no older than 12 years, served me. I
sat at a table with a couple from Mallorca whom I had seen earlier in the day. It was a nice
break trading information about how disaffected youth are treated in Spain vs in the United
States. The woman, Paula, is a teacher and makes home visits. I am a pediatric and family
nurse practitioner and am currently employed by a school district in California, so we had
something in common. The couple decided to stay in the albergue on the southern edge of
town. I walked with them to it (also looking very nice), and then headed into the central
part of the city where I had pre-reserved a room through centraldereservas.com at Hotel
Rias Baias (cost 56 Euros, no breakfast). Not many frills, but a very clean and comfortable
place with air conditioning, soundproofed windows and a small refrigerator in the room. I
was able to go to the supermarket around the corner and purchase some dinner items and
breakfast foods, as well as some liquids to take with me for the road the following day.
Pontevedra is a beautiful town with good services. Several medieval structures highlight
central city. Several Internet cafes were open in the morning, so I had time to get off an e-
mail to let Jim know how I was progressing.

I followed Brierley's guide to the Camino Portugues and thought I'd have very little luck in
the way of finding cafes on the way to Caldas. However, there was a rather new place right
on the route, a bit past the midway mark and featuring very nice roasted pork sandwiches
(cost for it and a Coke was just over 4 Euros). The pathway went through some shaded
areas. But there were also plenty of open areas at the edges of farms and sporting full-sun.
This stage's uphill and downhill grades were quite gentle. I found the albergue in Caldas, but
it had been closed for some time, according to some of the locals. I booked into Casa
Leirero, a B&B due west from Caldas along N640 almost to AP 9. I was tired so I indulged in
a short taxi ride from the town of Caldas to the B&B. This was a fine looking stone complex
with grape vines covering the inside of the patio overhang. A true hacienda! Now, I'll
explain that I am a frequent user of the Gites-de-France system of Chambres D'Hotes in
France and usually book those that offer repas (supper). This B&B near Caldas was very
similar to some of the nicest facilities that I had stayed at while in the Auvergne and
surrounding areas of central and southwest France. I arrived at about 4 p.m. so I had plenty
of time to bathe and become presentable enough for dinner at a B&B of this quality. This
being a Saturday night, July 22nd, it was a full house, including a Spanish couple from
Alicante and now living near Los Angeles, California. Imagine finding people out here,
nearly on the other side of the world, who now live so near my own home! They were here
visiting acquaintances in Galicia. Conversation flowed easily and they wanted me to regale
them of my adventures on the camino. They were also curious about why I would be doing
the camino in the first place and why I was alone. Dinner was a multi-course feast. The
main course was a seafood bouillabaisse. All very delicious! I stayed in one of their en-suite
rooms, nicely furnished and outfitted with beautiful linens. The next morning we were
served fresh baked croissants, among the breakfast items. The host drove me back to
Caldas and put me back on track so that I could attend Sunday Mass at the Iglesia and
continue on schedule. He sent me off with a large bottle of water and some snacks for along
the way. Very lovely hosts! I will come back one day and bring my husband to this place.

Sunday was a full-sun day, not that much shade, but there were livestock to commune with
along the route. Horses, goats and a sheep or two today. Much is said of barking dogs along
the camino route. They were either on a long chain or well fenced in. It began to make
sense to me as to why there would be large dogs in the first place because much of the
camino course appeared to run over or adjacent to private property. Owning a large dog
myself and partly for security reasons, it was nice to see so many fine dogs. I sort of smiled
at them and told them what good pooches they were for doing their job well.

I walked through to Padron and onward to Pazos where I had reserved a room before I left
for Europe, again through centraldereservas.com. The Hotel Scala's staff was wonderful.
The gal at the desk oriented me to my room herself and pointed out their pool and bid me to
take advantage of having a dip there. The grounds were very well manicured. Trellises with
kiwi fruit set off a nice outdoor area. Cost = 52 Euros including a nice buffet breakfast. The
hotel has two fine restaurants attached. I chose the less expensive of the two, mainly
because they were serving dinner an hour earlier than the other. I was their first customer.
My first trial of Gallego soup - I loved it! Ordered an entree of roasted chicken and some
vinho tinto (I honestly did not know that glasses of wine are not sold. So I was presented
with a full bottle. No, I didn't drink it all! This was my first time in Europe alone. I had at
least the company of my husband on other journeys there and sometimes in addition to one
or both of our adult children and their friends)

Monday, July 24th- my last day of hiking! Basically a bit overcast, even some sprinkles as I
approached Santiago. The books all say that you will feel some exhilaration at the sight of
the spires. Yes, I felt the classic symptoms, to my own surprise! There were very short
lines at the Office of Peregrinos, the place where one applies for the certificate of
completion. It took only 20 minutes at most to complete the process of waiting in line and
having one of the staffers review my credential and all the sellos (rubber stamp markings on
it that I had collected along the way). Maybe it was because it was almost 2:30 p.m. by the
time I arrived. The guidebooks all mention getting into Santiago by noon, just in time to
slide into a pew for the 12-noon Mass. That wasn't to be, but I did manage to check out a
couple of gift shops after I got my certificate. I ran into Jeff and his girlfriend, a young
couple from England. God love them! I explained that I had gotten my second wind. Jeff
told me that he wished he felt that way! I also ran into Paula and her husband, the couple
from Mallorca. Several hugs went with the feeling of exhilaration. I think everyone was
concerned for me, since I was clearly the old lady on the trail, and alone at that. But I
managed just fine.

I checked into my hotel, Husa Universal Compostela-- very adequate lodging that I booked
for 2 nights. I did this about six months or so in advance at the price of 68 Euros, including
breakfast. With the St. James Festival, the rooms are quickly filled and prices rise as the
date approaches. Location was good, not great, but at least it was only a short walk to both
the train station and the bus station, allowing for an easy exit from town. It was not much
problem getting in and around town from the hotel either, now that I was free of my
rucksack and walking stick. Fireworks and other festivities that evening were great- began
shortly before 11 p.m. and finished at around 12:30 a.m. to strains of œmas, mas, fiesta
being shouted by the crowds. I sat near some young local women, one with a boyfriend who
was studying in Houston and also an older couple from Belgium. So I was switching from
French with the Belgian couple to Castellano with the young women (they were encouraging
me to learn Gallego- they thought I would be great at it). I felt like I had become a citizen of
the world!

The 10:30 a.m. Mass on the 25th was a packed standing-room-only event. It felt as if the
whole town were in attendance. I was standing close to where about 6 men were working the
ropes to swing the botafumeiro. A sight to behold! Many local and even national dignitaries
were present with seating reserved for them. Fitting, since St. James (Santiago) has been the
patron saint of Spain since about the eighth century. I stayed for the following Mass also
and took the time afterwards to tour the cathedral and the tomb of St. James (through a
stone passageway under the cathedral). I had with me a stone (more like a river rock, one of
two that I took with me) from home wrapped with a paper listing my intentions. I placed it
inside the grid covering the resting-place for the silver chest containing the remains of St.
James. I spent the rest of the day taking in this wonderful historical city and getting out
some e-mails to back home.

While having breakfast at the Husa Hotel in Santiago, I ran into four teachers from Texas
who had arrived in Santiago for the festivities. They were also headed for Oporto, Portugal
on July 26th and were booked on the same ALSA bus. I was glad that I purchased the ticket
3 weeks earlier when I was touring in Spain with my husband. There were crowds trying to
get on and I'm sure that there were not enough seats for everyone. I sat on the bus next to a
journalist, now living in Brazil. She had been covering the festival and was returning to
Portugal to stay with some friends. The ride down to Oporto (also called Porto) was almost
surreal, in that I had walked over the same area and struggled up and down hills for several
days and here we were, traversing the same area in only a few hours.

Oporto is a lovely city in its own right and I am glad that I had the chance to see some of it. I
managed to do a whirlwind tour of the city on foot, now that I was freed of my backpack.
Most interesting were the Cloisters at Se and the Igreja Sao Francisco. I met up with the
teachers in a cafe area of the riverfront. A simply beautiful warm, but breezy night! On the
morning of Jul 27th, I left for the Oporto Airport to take the 11:05 Ryanair flight to Paris.
Transportation from mid-town Oporto to the airport is so easy and inexpensive using the
new Metro system.

I had six nights booked in Paris and stayed at a small hotel, near the Pantheon. I consider
my stay in Paris as a proper cooling down from my camino experience. I have been in Paris
many times before, but this is the first time that I experienced the city alone. The park
behind Notre Dame became a favorite haunt there. I took many walks through the city and
also managed to do some research at the National Archives. My great-grandparents owned
a cafe in Paris, at a time when cafe culture was coming of age. I was trying to research its
location and came up with some good leads for future research that I could do at home on
the internet.

I guess I should explain why I did this hike in the first place. It was really all about family,
my own family, my extended family, my human family. I learned about the camino in a 5th
grade reader. In Catholic parochial school, religion was well integrated into reading, social
studies and other assignments. One story in the reader was about two children, one destined
to stay in the then Spanish colony of St. Augustine Florida and the other to return to Spain.
Remember St. James and Spain, the one bid the other farewell. A sidebar explained the
story of the Santiago pilgrimage. I remember being quite impressed with the story. On and
off over the years, I came across articles about it and thought, someday I'll do this myself!
But it wasn't until I was touring the Basque region in Navarra a few years ago that I ran into
someone who actually walked the camino. A young woman about 25 years old, who was
providing an informative tour of the cathedral in Hondarribia, told me of her experiences
doing the camino herself. Hearing her speak of it gave me hope of accomplishing this
journey. So here I was doing it for myself.

My fears, frustrations, sweat and toil doing this were offered for a brother who disappeared
40 years ago on one crisp October Saturday in Philadelphia. He was an 8th grade student
who had just finished delivering papers on his newspaper route, stopped by home briefly
and then went out again on his bike a 3:30 p.m. to meet his best friend. He never arrived.
He and his belongings were never found. A proper police investigation was not done
because two days later, some classmates told the police that they saw my brother and ran
after him but couldn't catch him. It was a story that would ring out a grain of truth because
the whole school knew that my brothers were the fastest runners in the school. So the case
was tightly shut and he was simply listed as a runaway. Twenty-some years later, one of the
two classmates admitted that they had made up the whole story to cover for the fact that
they were late getting back to class because they were smoking and needed a story to
account for the time. Running away was something that my brother would not have done,
he would not have run out on the family or his best friend. He was my good buddy as well. I
was about 5 years older than he and had a minor surgery a few weeks before he
disappeared. He would get ice packs for me, take my mail up to me and that sort of stuff.
He made a real attempt at joking with me and was genuinely attentive just to make me feel
better. I returned to college a few weeks prior to his disappearance. He accompanied my
father and I when I was dropped off at the university, a distance of 200 miles from our
home. Like I said, he would have never run out on us like that. I knew from the start that
this was foul play. The laws regarding responsibilities of the police for a missing child were
very weak at the time, something that has since been corrected, although the handling of
such cases in the United States has yet to be standardized. Several attempts were made to
get the police to look at this case again, but the police would not budge. So thirty some
years later, I was finally able to get the police to reopen this case and their efforts led to him
to finally be listed with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in
Alexandria, Virginia. Although I have little hope that this case will be solved, at least I know
that stones are being unturned with ruling out that he survived whatever happened to him.
There is even the possibility of DNA matches on remains that crop up and that sort of thing.
Good investigators are working on this and their personal causes were added to my list of
intentions that were placed at the tomb of St. James. My list from friends, neighbors, and
co-workers was a rather long typed list. I added hand -written wishes to extend blessings to
people that I met along the way, genuine people who cared. Service workers, fellow
pilgrims and locals alike.

Before I left home, I posted my reasons for doing this camino on the site for American
Pilgrims, GoCAMINO. They responded with wishes for God's blessings on me. I returned
their efforts to pray for my success with my camino by including them and the good folks on
the CSJ board on my intentions list. I feel a lot more at peace for having done this, praise be
to God! Much of the news on TV and articles in newspapers focuses on sociopathic
individuals. The camino does just the opposite. The focus becomes seeing the good in
others and opening up enough to accept the kindness of others.

Will I do another camino? In a heartbeat! In 2008, I'll try a segment of the French route. I
want to go in 2010 also (Holy Year), God willing, and I think I will do either the Primitive or
English route. I survived this short camino well, thanks to being fitted for good hiking boots
by the staff at REI and good socks. I used Smart Wool socks, alternated with Wright socks
and used a KEDS sock liner some days. No blisters, no foot pain!

God Bless Everyone! And buen camino to all the walkers out there and to those who will be
walking!

Joanie Hess