Day 32 – Portomarín
Portomarín is a bend in the Belesar reservoir. The bridge across it is about a quarter mile long stretch of the Camino. To the women who crossed the bridge just before me it might as well have been 50 miles. She was leaning against a post and breathing heavily. A friend of hers came up and explained to me that this women has a fear of heights. Brave women to face her fears head on. The Camino is full of stories just like that.
I passed several structures like the above, some made of brick or stone, others made of wood. They all shared the same architectual proportions. I went into a little gift shop that sold various Camino related trinkets and asked the owner “English?” He launched into a stream of Spanish (or Basque possibly). I shook my head as shorthand for “I’m not getting you.” So he walked over and showed me a little molded model of the building. I nodded and then he walked over and pointed to a bundle of dry corn still on the cobb. Ahah! The buildings are for storage and/or drying of fresh corn, apparently out of reach of animals that might feast on it. What amazed me about this is how he had intuited my question before I could ask it. I felt a little bad leaving without buying anything but I thanked him profusely.
Sitting on the corner of the landing in this stairway leading down to the reservoir is a brave pilgrim (not the women mentioned earlier) taking a break.
Today’s walk from Aguiada was in cloudy, damp, somewhat breezy weather.
There is a rule regarding the Compostela certificate awarded on arrival to Santiago. The rule states that pilgrims must walk at least 100km to be awarded the certificate. Saria, a town I passed thru this morning is slightly more than 100km from Santiago so a lot of people start their Camino there and arrive in Santiago in about 5 days.
So not only was it a damp slog through muddy trails most of the way, the trail was much more crowded than usual. The serene contemplative part of the Camino is over.
I did meet an alumni group from a small college in Indiana, a doctor traveling with his family from Lancaster Pennsylvania, and a women from Port Townsend WA who has been traveling since mid-April.
The world is getting smaller everyday.
Buen Camino,
-jgp
