Just Another Day in Paradise

I was saddened to hear of yet another pilgrim dying on the Camino. No one posts how tough these walks can really be. Camino walking us not just a lovely stroll through the countryside…we climb mountains and deal with all sorts of surfaces in ALL types of weather. We only see the beautiful photos of the views and happy smiles. But in truth, there are many crosses on the side of the path in recognition of a death. It happens. I have heard several stories of people unable to wake their friends and finding they have died in their sleep! It is so sad.

However, after acknowledging this, I feel it is time to write another blog entry. My life in Santiago continues to surprise me every day.

At night, we still continue to watch our dinner cook as we sit at our large country kitchen in our large country house. It is quiet now Penny has gone and I miss her. yesterday, Monica and I came across these beautiful goats as we wandered down to the bus stopwe rode the bus to town with our Icelandic neighbour, Steinunn, who organised some travel cards for us so our trips to school won’t be too expensive.

Armed with these, we felt like locals and flicked the card at the bus driver and smugly found a seat. Yes, I know what I’m doing. You can stare at me wondering where I’ve come from but I am Wonderwoman now. I’ve got this!

We disembarked at the park and trotted over to the pharmacy. How beautiful is this? The ceiling is all hand carved wood. No plastic bags here… they wrapped my contact lens solution like a present! Monica needed anti itch cream for her dog, and as the lady behind the counter did not speak English, she proceeded to mime again. Honestly, I can’t stop laughing when I’m with this girl! I would perhaps have just scratched the back if my hand to show ‘itchy’ but not Monica….she stood there scratching her underarms like a monkey. (That’s where her dog has the itch) . Even the pharmacist was bent over laughing as she was trying to work out what on earth was going on.

Next stop was in search of a granny type shopping buggy as it is hard walking up hills carrying our shopping sometimes. I’ve been on the lookout for a pinafore like you see the country women wearing-so 1950’s.

I FOUND ONE. I’m going to be just so cool now !

Monica also found her shopping buggy – called it Betsy…the perfect shopping girlfriend. She will go shopping anytime for anything, carry all the shopping home and always be up for a trip into town.

We then went our separate ways as we both had different things to do. Monica was meeting a friend for lunch and I just wanted to…. well I don’t really know what I wanted to do..just see what would happen I guess. I’m always coming across lost pilgrims so it’s kinda fun to be able to help them.

I ended up wandering through the market

I was wandering past the Pilgrim Office when my phone buzzed in my pocket. Looking at the message, I saw that Efren Gonzales was in the 2 hour queue waiting to get his compostela certificate. I follow him on YouTube and we are FB friends, so I wandered in to find him. We went for a beer and ended up having lunch and chatted for ages. He has no idea how famous he is within the Camino community!

We wandered up the hill in Alameda Park and Efren did some photography from there. He is off walking again now and will return in a few days.

I went to the bus stop to meet Monica. We needed food so we walked down to the supermarket and waited for Gonzalo to pick us up. Took a detour on the way home and went way up to the top of Monte Pedroso. The view was absolutely spectacular

you can see Santiago, the cathedral

pico sacra mountain and the City of Culture

(Modern building)

A perfect end to a perfect

day