A bit of info about the Camino before I talk about today..
Those of us who travel the Camino as pilgrims are required to carry a document called a credential (pron. cre-den-see-al) or pilgrim's passport. It is a little booklet with our name in it. We are required to get at least one stamp a day in that passport. The stamps are available at the albergues, hostals and hotels, at restaurants and bars, and at many churches, museums, and other places, as well as at local Red Cross and Police stations. Once we arrive at Santiago, if we choose to check in at the Pilgrims' Office (which we will), we have to show our credential, and if it checks out, we will receive a compostela, which is a certificate of completion of the Camino. In order to receive the compostela, pilgrims must walk a minimum of 100 km. For that last stretch, at least two stamps a day are required - from different communities - I guess to prove that we really did walk from place to place..
Sarria is 113km from Santiago, so is considered the starting point for this minimum distance of 100km. Statistics show that throughout 2013, about 25% of pilgrims began their pilgrimage in Sarria.
Today, we walked from Sarria to Portomarin, which our books said was around 22.5 or 23 km, but which we figured was actually a bit farther (according to the concrete pillars every 500m marking the distance remaining to Santiago). There were a lot of pilgrims on the road today, including many just beginning their pilgrimage. There was a bit of a strange dynamic of new, eager pilgrims, and others of us who had been walking for a while, and were pretty tired.
Day 3 in Galicia.. Day 3 of rain.. It was spitting rain in the morning, then started raining fairly hard around 1:30pm. But mid-afternoon, the heavens opened, and it POURED. For about 45 minutes, the rain came down in sheets. We were in a treed area, but there was really no shelter, so we kept going. I don't know that I've been so wet in my life. My pack cover kept my pack mostly dry, and my rain jacket kept the top part of me mostly dry, but the rest of me was soaked through. I could actually feel the water pouring down the inside of my pant legs and into my socks and shoes. My shoes were full of water and sloshed and squished with every step. When we walked uphill, the water poured down towards us, and when we walked downhill, the water poured down from behind us. The path was mostly dirt, so it was turned to mud. At times, the water covered the whole path, so our only choice was to walk through it. At times, it was several inches deep.. Our shoes then became full of mud.. The rain eventually cleared..
We got into Portomarin in the late afternoon, and had already decided that we would opt for private accommodations if we could. We found a room, and it ended up being quite large, which meant we could spread out all of our wet things to dry out. The folks running the pension (pron. pen-see-own; like a guesthouse) also did our laundry in their washer and dryer, which was so great.
Another exciting day.. Plus side - very little pain today.. Or maybe I was too distracted by the downpour to notice it.. This rain is definitely a new kind of challenging from the blazing heat, especially at this stage in our pilgrimage.. But again, the scenery was really beautiful, and the people we met (who were all in the same wet boat that we were) really brightened my day..
Hope it is warm and dry where you are,
susan
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