We made it!!
Finally! 500 miles later for most of the group and 300 some miles for me, we made it to Santiago. What a great morning :) Not even the chilly wind and light rain could dampen our spirits! Finegan set out early this morning so he could greet us as we entered Santiago and so that we could all walk to the cathedral as a group. The rest of us set our alarms for around 5 a.m and we were on the road walking around 5:30. It was pitch dark when we started out from our albergue in Arca but thankfully, Rob had a flashlight with him so we could make our way through the forest without getting lost. About two hours into our 20 kilometer hike Shauna, Morgan and I happened upon a little restaurant where we got some cafe con leche and pan tostada (coffee and toast). With a fresh stamp on our credenciales and full bellies, we set off toward Santiago. Despite the aches and pains we have all been suffering from, we knew that this was our last hike together and the adrenaline was kicking in.
The hour flew by and we soon found ourselves climbing the Mountain of Joy! At the top of this mountain was a beautiful statue that we posed in front of-thanks to a nice gentlemen who offered to take our picture! After stamping our credenciales once more, Shauna and I bought these sweet little paper clip pilgrims that a man was making for donations and we were on our way. We wound our way down into the city of Santiago and into the waiting arms of our fellow pilgrims! Everyone was so happy to have made it, only a few pilgrims were missing and we all had a refreshment in a small restaurant as we waited. While waiting, we all compared our impressive calf muscles and Finegan regaled us with a tale from his morning hike when he defeated a small dog attack.
The last of the pilgrims arrived and we all donned our packs and ponchos and climbed our way up into the center of the city toward the cathedral. The final hike together took about 20 minutes and we were all speechless when we arrived at the cathedral. It was magnificent. Honestly, it´s difficult to explain the feeling of having finally arrived after weeks and weeks of walking and there was a fair share of pilgrim tears among the group. Finegan explained various rituals that pilgrims are to do upon entering the cathedral and since the statues that we were supposed to perform the rituals on were blocked off, he designated himself as the statue. In a single file line we all took turns interlacing our fingers (and having some kind of revelation? haha) with Finegan to symbolize the placing of our hand on the statue. We got back in line then to perform the next ritual. This time however, we had to tap foreheads with Finegan three times to symbolize the sharing of "his" genius with us.
After the silly rituals that we all secretly enjoyed participating in despite the stares from other pilgrims, we went into the cathedral and found a spot to listen to the church service. It was super crowded and we had to pick a spot on the floor but the inside of the cathedral was amazing! The service was mostly in Spanish and it was SO meaningful-comparing the pilgrimage we just completed to the pilgrimage of our lives. Even those who didn´t understand it were touched. The best part of the service was at the end when the priest swung an enormous ..hmm.. ornate container-like thing (sorry folks, can`t think of what it is called) over all of the people in the church as it released a holy incense.
We are all relaxing at the hotel now before we have a final dinner together to share our personal experiences. So, thats it, we made it! I will definitely be posting more of my experiences and pictures on here as I think of them though, as well as more comics so stay tuned! Love to all!
OH, I am heading to the end of the world tomorrow and then to Madrid for a bullfight the day after so I will be blogging about that too!
Buen Camino! Nays
Friday, June 17, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
DRAGONTE...
O.K..
There has been a great decrease in the amount of internet and a great increase in my exhaustion at the end of the day...so, finally, here I am again. I am currently in Portomarin, a very beautiful city with a great story about Franco, flooding and a church, but that is not what I´m going to tell you about. I am going to tell you about Dragonte.
On Sunday June 12th the group was walking from Villafranca to O´Cebreiro. This camino was about 30 kilometers. There were however, 3 opciones to get you there: the boring route(aka along the highway), the practical route (pretty views and some hills) and then there was DRAGONTE--the route that was 11 kilometers longer and only for the daring people who are in excellent shape. HA.
Needless to say, I chose Dragonte. Shauna and I decided we are in Spain and we are going to do the most original camino there is despite the many mountains, poor trail markings and absence of towns along the way. So we, thanks to clean sheets and the absence of squeaky bunkbeds, got a good nights sleep for once. We woke up around six, packed up and went outside our beautiful albergue, Vina Fremista, to find that we were locked in! Failing to break through the gate we realize that we are going to have to clambor over it somehow. Fortunately, the professor of the group, Finegan, was waiting for us as he had decided that neither he, nor we, should go it alone. Finegan proceeded to help us get over the fence with our ridiculous packs stuffed with food and water and we were on our way. We left the adorable town of Villafranca and began our adventure.
Our adventure started with 5 kilometers straight up the mountain on an asphalt road in the dark-yay. Talk about feeling the burn and wondering what the heck I was thinking for choosing this route...
But we made it up to the top in about an hour and we were greeted with a beautiful view of the surrounding area and a sense of accomplishment! Then we found a hidden marker that said GR11 and headed off of the main road to a much less-traveled path. This path went up for a tiny bit then DOWN and DOWN and DOWN... basically weaving us down the other side of the mountain through the brush. This, I must say, was pretty fun! So we popped out of the bushes part way down the mountain where we had the most gorgeous view of the landscape and surrounding mountains. It was so beautiful in fact, that a little bit further down we decided to have lunch over-looking a beautiful stone quarry with a great view of the mountains and the promise of a far-away village.
Lunch was less satifying than the view, thats for sure--chocolate sandwiches (dont ask...we thought it was peanut butter) and some gummy bears. But honestly, it didn´t even matter...we were in our own secret paradise. Did I mention that VERY few pilgrims take this crazy dragonte route? So we were completely solo. After lunch we continued on down the mountain with the vague direction of looking for a derrelict stone building where we had to make a right and we ¨"might get wet." HAHA... we found the derrelict building and made a right..straight into a stream. Wearing beautiful trekking sandals, thanks to my achilles problem, I clearly couldn´t get them or my socks wet so Shauna and I took off our shoes and socks and picked our way down the stream barefoot. Freezing...but kind of cool! Finegan was nice enough to let us dry our dirty wet feet off on his towel and after strappin the ol´ sandals back on we were on our way. This time UP. And up and up and up. Straight up the mountain... definitely feeling the burn. We were all out of breath and huffing and puffing when we came to a three way where our very detailed directions said to take the larger of the three trails-which were all EXACTLY the same size. We chose the right one. Hehe... literally, the right one... that was ACTUALLY the wrong one! So we climbed up a few hundred more feet to a dead end and turned back around. Now we had a 50/50 chance. Thank goodness we took a left and got it "right" the second time because we were wearing down. The left trail climbed its way up the mountain and onto a road that was not marked. We went up into a town of, get this, 14 people. No joke... three kids. We think that the man meant 14 houses... and a total of about 31 people but still, crazy! Speaking of "the man", as we walked up a hill into town a nice man proceeded to tell us that we were lost but he would show us the way. He walked with us for a good kilometer or so holding a sign for Villacende, the next town, so other wayward pilgrims could find their way. I would like to say I had an amazing conversation with this dude but thanks to my Mexican accent and his own Galician/Gallego tongue, he had NO clue was I was saying...(sad face) and Finegan was the conversation-holder. SIGH.
Anyways... we were so excited to travel up for four more kilometers into a town that was supposed to have coffee.We saw a lady on her porch and, with desperation in our voices, we asked if there was coffee anywhere in the town and she said no there was no such thing. Seeing our crestfallen expressions, she must have felt bad for us and immediately invited us into her home to give us some coffee. So...that is how we came to meet Toni, the lady, and her husband Kiki. They were the sweetest people in the world. She made us coffee and cut up bread and cheese and meat for us while we all visited in the kitchen. Kiki even gave us a tour of the beautiful house...which actually belongs to his father but they come on weekends from time to time. Kiki and Toni took a picture of the three smelly pilgrims they took into their home and we were on our way feeling more than a little inspired!
The road wound up through the rest of the tiny town and onto a path that we traveled for a kilometer or so until we ran into a man walking behind his horse along a field. This man told us that we were lost and that we were not on the right path to Herreria, our next goal, and much like the man earlier in the day, he led us to the correct path. Not surprisingly, it was a poorly marked split in the trail and we had gone left instead of right. We should have known...because right was UP. So up we went. We climbed a good 4 or 5 kilometers straight up the steep side of the mountain...AGAIN. It was soo exhausting but we kept at it until we got to the top...feeling dead and invincible all at once. Once we reached the top we started to wind our way back down again into Herreria. Herreria was a cute town where we stopped at an albergue to get a drink of water and where we met Chicago. Chicago was a really awesome dude working at the albergue that said he had done the camino to santiago two years ago but fell in love with the girl at this albergue so he walked the rest of the camino, with his dog, to Santiago and then walked all the way to Herreria where he promptly moved and has lived ever since. CUTE!! Chicago pretty much told us that he has never heard of anyone that did the Dragonte trail the whole way to O´Cebreiro which is the town we were still heading to. He was impressed... I wasn´t sure what to think at that point. So after filling up our camel baks we headed back out through the town of Herreria. We still had about 8 to 10 kilometers left to do. Tough ones.
The road was nice for a while as we left the town of Herreria but then it began to go up and never stopped. We climbed for the next 8 kilometers straight up the mountain. The road was steep and rocky in parts, slow and winding in others, but the constant characteristic was UP. It was very painful after all the other climbing we had done but we were stubborn! We climbed and climbed and huffed and puffed for a few hours until we finally arrived at the top in O´Cebreiro. YAY!! The views were gorgeous... I mean, maybe the most beautiful landscape that I have ever seen. I have never felt so accomplished in my entire life as I did at the end of that day. It was 7:15ish when we arrived. We had been walking for almost 12 hours...up and down mountains. We had done DRAGONTE. We were invincible...if only for a little while. I´ll never forget June 12th 2011 for as long as I live and despite the fact that I was too tired to smile for the picture we took at the top, we had made it!
Thats all for now, will try to post more soon. Only three more days of walking!! Can you believe it!?
Nays
There has been a great decrease in the amount of internet and a great increase in my exhaustion at the end of the day...so, finally, here I am again. I am currently in Portomarin, a very beautiful city with a great story about Franco, flooding and a church, but that is not what I´m going to tell you about. I am going to tell you about Dragonte.
On Sunday June 12th the group was walking from Villafranca to O´Cebreiro. This camino was about 30 kilometers. There were however, 3 opciones to get you there: the boring route(aka along the highway), the practical route (pretty views and some hills) and then there was DRAGONTE--the route that was 11 kilometers longer and only for the daring people who are in excellent shape. HA.
Needless to say, I chose Dragonte. Shauna and I decided we are in Spain and we are going to do the most original camino there is despite the many mountains, poor trail markings and absence of towns along the way. So we, thanks to clean sheets and the absence of squeaky bunkbeds, got a good nights sleep for once. We woke up around six, packed up and went outside our beautiful albergue, Vina Fremista, to find that we were locked in! Failing to break through the gate we realize that we are going to have to clambor over it somehow. Fortunately, the professor of the group, Finegan, was waiting for us as he had decided that neither he, nor we, should go it alone. Finegan proceeded to help us get over the fence with our ridiculous packs stuffed with food and water and we were on our way. We left the adorable town of Villafranca and began our adventure.
Our adventure started with 5 kilometers straight up the mountain on an asphalt road in the dark-yay. Talk about feeling the burn and wondering what the heck I was thinking for choosing this route...
But we made it up to the top in about an hour and we were greeted with a beautiful view of the surrounding area and a sense of accomplishment! Then we found a hidden marker that said GR11 and headed off of the main road to a much less-traveled path. This path went up for a tiny bit then DOWN and DOWN and DOWN... basically weaving us down the other side of the mountain through the brush. This, I must say, was pretty fun! So we popped out of the bushes part way down the mountain where we had the most gorgeous view of the landscape and surrounding mountains. It was so beautiful in fact, that a little bit further down we decided to have lunch over-looking a beautiful stone quarry with a great view of the mountains and the promise of a far-away village.
Lunch was less satifying than the view, thats for sure--chocolate sandwiches (dont ask...we thought it was peanut butter) and some gummy bears. But honestly, it didn´t even matter...we were in our own secret paradise. Did I mention that VERY few pilgrims take this crazy dragonte route? So we were completely solo. After lunch we continued on down the mountain with the vague direction of looking for a derrelict stone building where we had to make a right and we ¨"might get wet." HAHA... we found the derrelict building and made a right..straight into a stream. Wearing beautiful trekking sandals, thanks to my achilles problem, I clearly couldn´t get them or my socks wet so Shauna and I took off our shoes and socks and picked our way down the stream barefoot. Freezing...but kind of cool! Finegan was nice enough to let us dry our dirty wet feet off on his towel and after strappin the ol´ sandals back on we were on our way. This time UP. And up and up and up. Straight up the mountain... definitely feeling the burn. We were all out of breath and huffing and puffing when we came to a three way where our very detailed directions said to take the larger of the three trails-which were all EXACTLY the same size. We chose the right one. Hehe... literally, the right one... that was ACTUALLY the wrong one! So we climbed up a few hundred more feet to a dead end and turned back around. Now we had a 50/50 chance. Thank goodness we took a left and got it "right" the second time because we were wearing down. The left trail climbed its way up the mountain and onto a road that was not marked. We went up into a town of, get this, 14 people. No joke... three kids. We think that the man meant 14 houses... and a total of about 31 people but still, crazy! Speaking of "the man", as we walked up a hill into town a nice man proceeded to tell us that we were lost but he would show us the way. He walked with us for a good kilometer or so holding a sign for Villacende, the next town, so other wayward pilgrims could find their way. I would like to say I had an amazing conversation with this dude but thanks to my Mexican accent and his own Galician/Gallego tongue, he had NO clue was I was saying...(sad face) and Finegan was the conversation-holder. SIGH.
Anyways... we were so excited to travel up for four more kilometers into a town that was supposed to have coffee.We saw a lady on her porch and, with desperation in our voices, we asked if there was coffee anywhere in the town and she said no there was no such thing. Seeing our crestfallen expressions, she must have felt bad for us and immediately invited us into her home to give us some coffee. So...that is how we came to meet Toni, the lady, and her husband Kiki. They were the sweetest people in the world. She made us coffee and cut up bread and cheese and meat for us while we all visited in the kitchen. Kiki even gave us a tour of the beautiful house...which actually belongs to his father but they come on weekends from time to time. Kiki and Toni took a picture of the three smelly pilgrims they took into their home and we were on our way feeling more than a little inspired!
The road wound up through the rest of the tiny town and onto a path that we traveled for a kilometer or so until we ran into a man walking behind his horse along a field. This man told us that we were lost and that we were not on the right path to Herreria, our next goal, and much like the man earlier in the day, he led us to the correct path. Not surprisingly, it was a poorly marked split in the trail and we had gone left instead of right. We should have known...because right was UP. So up we went. We climbed a good 4 or 5 kilometers straight up the steep side of the mountain...AGAIN. It was soo exhausting but we kept at it until we got to the top...feeling dead and invincible all at once. Once we reached the top we started to wind our way back down again into Herreria. Herreria was a cute town where we stopped at an albergue to get a drink of water and where we met Chicago. Chicago was a really awesome dude working at the albergue that said he had done the camino to santiago two years ago but fell in love with the girl at this albergue so he walked the rest of the camino, with his dog, to Santiago and then walked all the way to Herreria where he promptly moved and has lived ever since. CUTE!! Chicago pretty much told us that he has never heard of anyone that did the Dragonte trail the whole way to O´Cebreiro which is the town we were still heading to. He was impressed... I wasn´t sure what to think at that point. So after filling up our camel baks we headed back out through the town of Herreria. We still had about 8 to 10 kilometers left to do. Tough ones.
The road was nice for a while as we left the town of Herreria but then it began to go up and never stopped. We climbed for the next 8 kilometers straight up the mountain. The road was steep and rocky in parts, slow and winding in others, but the constant characteristic was UP. It was very painful after all the other climbing we had done but we were stubborn! We climbed and climbed and huffed and puffed for a few hours until we finally arrived at the top in O´Cebreiro. YAY!! The views were gorgeous... I mean, maybe the most beautiful landscape that I have ever seen. I have never felt so accomplished in my entire life as I did at the end of that day. It was 7:15ish when we arrived. We had been walking for almost 12 hours...up and down mountains. We had done DRAGONTE. We were invincible...if only for a little while. I´ll never forget June 12th 2011 for as long as I live and despite the fact that I was too tired to smile for the picture we took at the top, we had made it!
Thats all for now, will try to post more soon. Only three more days of walking!! Can you believe it!?
Nays
Thursday, June 9, 2011
FRIO!
As I mentioned early, today I left the beautiful city of Astorga and 5 hours and 21 kilometers later I arrived in Rabanal del Camino. This town is a cute little place situated on a hill with stone streets. The walk to get here was nice although it is freezing outside! I could see my breath this morning for at least the first hour. Nothing too notable about the trail except its upward climb for the last two miles. Well thats not true, the really neat thing about the trail was that it was lined with a wire fence covered in any type of cross that you can imagine. Crosses made out of clothing, leaves, rocks, and mostly sticks. It was very cool and alludes to the religious importance of this camino for many of the pilgrims doing it. The camino today also had a few interesting stops along the way including a cowboy bar/restaurant about two thirds of the way...interesting. Well, I will type more soon and try to be consistent..it is freezing right now and I have to drain my blister again! haha, yuck I know. Laaater for now, Nays
CHOCOLATE
This morning I, sadly, left Astorga..the city of chocolate. It was a beautful town with a population of about 12,000 people. I knew it was going to be good because before I even got to the town there was this awesome fruit and snack stand in the middle of nowhere with the most enlightened fella running it. After donating some euros, drinking some juice and getting an awesome stamp in my pilgrimage book, I continued on into Astorga. In Astorga, there were some awesome ancient Roman ruins to check out, lots of good eating, and neat pilgrim shops. To put the ruins into perspective, they were from the 3rd century...A.D! Loco huh? There was also an amazing cathedral... one of many in Spain but I never cease to be in awe of their beauty and sheer size. I hope to post pictures of this ASAP.
I pretty much ate my way through Astorga, one little dessert shop and chocolateria at a time and was only disappointed in the fact that the Museum of Chocolate was closed...sad. The reason it was closed, however, was pretty cool and it is because it was the Fiesta de los Abuelos...or a big festival for all of the grandparents of the city. You could identify those honored in two ways... one: they were old and two: they were wearing a colored scarf/handkerchief thing around their neck. Very cute! Apparently there was a huge tent with dancing and hot chocolate but we were all to tired to walk to the neighboring town to join in and simply watched from afar.
Other than the amazing chocolate... Astorga had a pretty cool Albergue with WARM showers-yay! It was bordered with a beautiful park with archways of roses. The people were super-friendly and my walking buddy,Shauna, and I made a handful of friends--we are especially getting close to a girl from Barcelona named Carolina who is doing the camino SOLA!
I didn´t buy anything notable in Astorgas, minus tons of chocolate and a couple little gifts, but I did take a funny picture with a camino pack that was bigger than I am!
Well, more on what I actually did today in a few!
Nays
I pretty much ate my way through Astorga, one little dessert shop and chocolateria at a time and was only disappointed in the fact that the Museum of Chocolate was closed...sad. The reason it was closed, however, was pretty cool and it is because it was the Fiesta de los Abuelos...or a big festival for all of the grandparents of the city. You could identify those honored in two ways... one: they were old and two: they were wearing a colored scarf/handkerchief thing around their neck. Very cute! Apparently there was a huge tent with dancing and hot chocolate but we were all to tired to walk to the neighboring town to join in and simply watched from afar.
Other than the amazing chocolate... Astorga had a pretty cool Albergue with WARM showers-yay! It was bordered with a beautiful park with archways of roses. The people were super-friendly and my walking buddy,Shauna, and I made a handful of friends--we are especially getting close to a girl from Barcelona named Carolina who is doing the camino SOLA!
I didn´t buy anything notable in Astorgas, minus tons of chocolate and a couple little gifts, but I did take a funny picture with a camino pack that was bigger than I am!
Well, more on what I actually did today in a few!
Nays
Friday, June 3, 2011
Grumbling in Spanglish...
Day 6 in Espana
Well today´s 27 kilometer hike was mostly uphill and along a busy highway so I don´t have a lot to report on beautiful sights. Not too mention I spent most of the time hobbling..staring at the ground... grumbling in Spanglish. My thought process went a little like this:
Wow.. beautiful farmland. OW my freakin ankle..is that my achilles?.. stupid zapatos (shoes)...I´ve treated you like gold and this is what I get in return.. well you can FORGET that great rating I was going to give you on Athleta.com... oh look a stork-like bird on top of a very old Roman iglesia (church)... bah! Who cares .. there are storks in America... actually farmland too.. wait why am I doing this again?... paaaaaiiiiinn in the ankle.... maybe if I drag it... 400 kilometros and 3 weeks of walking to go..say what!? i´m sorry shoes.. its not your fault... Wow... beautiful farmland...
Yeah... not a whole lot to do when walking from 5:30 am to about 3 every day... except THINK..
STILL--having a great time! Today was challenging for sure though. Everyone said their fourth and fifth days... as well as the next five or so after that.. were super painful.. Soo I am going to forge on to Leon.. hopefully tomorrow if not Sunday. Will post more pics soon!
Thought of the day: People from Spain know that I speak Mexican Spanish as soon as I open my mouth... and they don´t like it! Siiigh...
Good deed of the day: I had a cafe con leche with a persistent 80 year old little Spanish man and talked about his son and grandchildren in California. Very cute!
More soon.. Besos! Nays
Well today´s 27 kilometer hike was mostly uphill and along a busy highway so I don´t have a lot to report on beautiful sights. Not too mention I spent most of the time hobbling..staring at the ground... grumbling in Spanglish. My thought process went a little like this:
Wow.. beautiful farmland. OW my freakin ankle..is that my achilles?.. stupid zapatos (shoes)...I´ve treated you like gold and this is what I get in return.. well you can FORGET that great rating I was going to give you on Athleta.com... oh look a stork-like bird on top of a very old Roman iglesia (church)... bah! Who cares .. there are storks in America... actually farmland too.. wait why am I doing this again?... paaaaaiiiiinn in the ankle.... maybe if I drag it... 400 kilometros and 3 weeks of walking to go..say what!? i´m sorry shoes.. its not your fault... Wow... beautiful farmland...
Yeah... not a whole lot to do when walking from 5:30 am to about 3 every day... except THINK..
STILL--having a great time! Today was challenging for sure though. Everyone said their fourth and fifth days... as well as the next five or so after that.. were super painful.. Soo I am going to forge on to Leon.. hopefully tomorrow if not Sunday. Will post more pics soon!
Thought of the day: People from Spain know that I speak Mexican Spanish as soon as I open my mouth... and they don´t like it! Siiigh...
Good deed of the day: I had a cafe con leche with a persistent 80 year old little Spanish man and talked about his son and grandchildren in California. Very cute!
More soon.. Besos! Nays
Thursday, June 2, 2011
mmmm Helado
Day 5 in España
I am having the time of my life right now... the views are absolutely beautiful!! I will try and post a link to some photos. I started hiking from Burgos on Monday... to a little pueblo called Los Hornillos and then to another pueblo called Itero de la Vega Tuesday. Yesterday we stayed in the a larger town called Carrion de los Condes and today we are in Terradillos de los Templarios. If you want to have an idea of what this looks like.. click on the link below to see the map!
This was a total of 113 kilometers (about 67 miles, I think)... and let me tell you, I am soooore. I had two minor blisters , one of which I´ve already blogged about but they are practically gone. I am currently hobbling around like a 90 year old ... actually I am pretty sure that 90 year olds pass me on the trail all of the time. Sad. Go them though, this is a super religious experience for many Pilgrims or peregrinos (as we walkers are called) and I have never seen such dedication. I mean, I am ashamed of my 25 year old sore legs every time a golden ager trucks past me giving me a friendly “BUEN CAMINO” shout-out!
Well, I have so many things I want to tell everyone but I am soo tired right now I can´t decide what to write about. I will try and get some photos, which will speak for themselves as to the beauty of this part of Spain-La Meseta, and I will write some of the cool things I have been doing PRONTO!
Highlight of my day.. there was an ICE CREAM truck along the camino today!! Mmmm helado
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