My wife and I just finished a 200 mile hike in Northern Spain, and as I know a few of you here enjoy this stuff I figured I'd share a trip report and photos as I usually do. Plus I'm stuck on a train right now on our way back to Madrid, so writing this seems like as good a way as any to pass the time and mentally process what we just finished. I'll probably put it together with some photos and post it when we get back home, and break it down by day. I took a real camera this time, not just my phone, so I got some decent photos (and some not so decent) but a trip like this doesn't really make sense with just pictures…you also need the context and people we met along the way, hence the write-up.

A little background: The Camino Santiago is a network of historic Catholic pilgrimage trails, most of which culminate at the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. The most common of these is the Camino Frances, which starts at the French border or beyond and makes its way to Santiago over some 500+ km. It's long (too long to do without some kind of sabbatical from work), crowded, and large segments of it are topographically boring. We're practicing Christians, but not Catholic, so the spiritual aspect is a little different for us, but we like to hike and enjoy the adventure of encountering new places and people.

Last year my wife, son, and I did a 60 mile section of the Camino Portugues from Vigo and then continued on from Santiago to the coast at Finisterre and Muxia. It was a great experience but this year I had a little more time and we wanted to do something a little different. We decided on the Camino Primitivo (in Spanish the "Original Way"), because it's mountainous, less popular (and less crowded), and short enough that we could get it done in about 14-15 days.

The Camino Primitivo begins in Oviedo and ends in Santiago de Compostela. It's just over 200 miles long, and there's between 25,000 and 35,000 feet of elevation gain over the entirety of the route, depending upon the routes you choose and what sources you look at. Based on how we did it, I imagine we were probably close to the high end of that. You travel through two different regions of Spain, Asturias and Galicia.

Sometime between 814 and 835, King Alphonso II of Asturias (or Fonzie, as I like to call him) decided to go on a pilgrimage from the Asturian capital in Oviedo to visit the bones of St James in Santiago de Compostela. Before he did this, there was no established pilgrimage route to Santiago, so he is considered the first pilgrim. Fonzie was kind of a badass, as he picked a pretty gnarly route. He was also engaged in fighting off the Muslim Moors who had occupied the rest of Spain. Thanks to him, they never got Asturias. So the pilgrimage was probably as much a political statement as it was a religious one...he was demonstrating that this was Christian territory and it was going to be maintained and protected.

Our trip started with a drive to Chicago to catch a TAP flight to Lisbon, nervously navigating the new EU biometric immigration requirements during a 2 hour layover (thankfully it wasn't as bad as expected, mainly because we had a lower volume of people), and then a quick flight into Madrid. We then had 2 hours to get to the Chamartin train station in Madrid (airport bus to Carcanias commuter rail station and a 15 minute train ride), and then get on an AVE high-speed train to Oviedo. Somehow it all worked out...we didn't get delayed or lost and got into Oviedo about 7pm Saturday night...roughly 25 hours after leaving our house in Indiana. Also, high-speed rail is cool. It's quite the experience going 200mph at ground level, and you get there quick.



We walked from the train station to the municipal albergue in Oviedo. I had done my research ahead of time and had the Buen Camino app to help with navigation, but I really had very little idea of what to expect.



On the walk to the albergue we discovered that there was some kind of huge festival going on. There was a parade with floats (giant Nina/pinta type boats with people riding on them) going down the main street, people everywhere, and the city was crazy. The Cathedral of Oviedo was on the way to the albergue, so we swung by. We went inside, but they had a mass going on, so we quickly ducked back out. We made our way through the crowds down some side streets and finally got into a less busy section of town and found the Albergue. It was pretty basic, but it wasn't full and had beds and showers, so we were good to go.



Before we left to go find a grocery store for some food, we met Kim and Kyle heading out to go check out the town, a lady from Ohio and her Nephew from Texas. Kim was clearly the friendly, outgoing type, and told us that they had started on the Camino del Norte at the French border and then cut down to finish their trip on the Primitivo. We spent a lot more time with them later on.

We hit up the grocery store, got some stuff for a salad for me and some baked goods for my wife, and ate a quick dinner at a picnic table outside the albergue with a few German girls. I'm not sure where they went after that night, because we never saw them again. It's possible they spent a few extra days in Oviedo, as a lot of pilgrims chose to do that in the larger towns along the way.

Day 2 Oviedo to San Juan de Villapaneda

Sleep came pretty easy after the long trip, and I probably got 5 or 6 quality hours despite the jet lag. We woke up when somebody else's alarm went off at 5:30 and knew we weren't getting back to sleep, so we got up and got going.

It was a Sunday morning, and as soon as we left the neighborhood where the albergue was and approached the old town area, it became obvious that something was off. Spaniards stay up late and sleep late....typically you don't see anybody out moving around until 8 or 9 am. But there were people everywhere, it smelled like piss, and a lot of them seemed drunk.

As we got into the old town area it got worse. Large crows of drunken revellers staggering around. Dudes with their pants around their ankles pissing in the street, broken bottles everywhere. The Cathedral is the official start point of the Primitivo, but it's right in the middle of the old town district and was going to require wading through these drunken crowds to get to it. I said "not today Satan!", and found a way around. We still encountered a bunch of drunks staggering home, but at least we had enough room to avoid them.

The streets were stone or concrete and wet with dew, piss, and beer, and my Saucony Expedition trail runners didn't grip it at all. I almost fell three or four times just getting out of town. Visibility was also pretty poor due to heavy fog and the sun didn't come up until after 8.



There was a good bit of climbing coming out of Oviedo, and we met a Dutch guy who said he had stayed at a private albergue in the city center and hadn't gotten a wink of sleep all night due to the noise outside.

A note about lodging on the Camino...you basically have 2 options. Public or Private. Public albergues (hostels) are only 10 euro/night or less, but they are basic and don't take reservations. If you get there and it's full, you're continuing on. And it may be a long way to the next one. Private hostels cost more, often have more amenities, and can be booked ahead. We like the Municipals because they're cheap, have everything we need, add to the adventure, and have better community.

Because we left so early we made it to Grado over 2 hours before the municipal albergue opened. There were already people waiting outside and it looked like it was going to be pretty crowded, so we opted to continue on a few more km to San Juan de Vilapaneda, that also had a public albergue. We stopped at a sidewalk bar and got lunch first, though. Cachopo...two thin chick filets with ham and cheese between them deep fried and breaded. So good. And because we'd been walking so much I was able to get away with eating it, despite my type 1 diabetes.

The climb out of Grado to San Juan de Vilapaneda was steep and brutal. And by that point it was hot. My wife was pretty gassed, and I ended up carrying her pack most of the way. But when we got there the albergue was fantastic.

The host was an older guy who was super friendly, but also super type A. He and his wife met us with cold glasses of water, clean towels (not normal in a municipal albergue...typically you're using your own microfiber one) and then he proceeded to show us every detail of the bathrooms, fully-stocked kitchen, laundry, bedrooms, etc. This seemed excessive until he then told us he was leaving to get lunch and take a nap, and to show anybody else who came what he'd shown us. Apparently we'd just been recruited as volunteer hospitaleros, lol.



After he left we showered, washed our clothes in the sink and hung them out to dry, then took a nap. About an hour or so later a German girl showed up, so we gave her the shpiel, let her get settled, and then we all hung out on a bench in the front yard overlooking the valley and the little sheep pen next door and talked. She was an air traffic controller and private pilot from the Berlin area, and spoke really good English so we communicated easily. It was just the three of us until 8pm, when the guy finally came back and officially checked us all in.

A pair of Slovak girls came in around 9 right before he left (I got to use my broken Czech that I haven't spoken in 25 years to help translate for them) and that was it for the night.

Very jealous. I would love to do that walk but I'm not sure my ankle would hold up for the whole thing. I'd hate to get all the way over there and have to bail. I'll have to settle by living vicariously.

Looking forward to more pics.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
Very jealous. I would love to do that walk but I'm not sure my ankle would hold up for the whole thing. I'd hate to get all the way over there and have to bail. I'll have to settle by living vicariously.

Looking forward to more pics.

We met a few people who had to quit over the course of our trip, and I'll be honest, the night of our second day of walking (detailed below) when I went to bed I was really worried that I wasn't going to be able to make it. My feet were raw and my ankle was killing me. But the second day is always the hardest, and giving them a break at night and taking care of them during the day got me through...that and a lot of just sucking it up and fighting through it.

There are options. One guy who was tapping out due to foot problems told me he was just going to rent a car and spend a few days driving around so he'd still get to see the area. Another lady with a bad case of plantars fasciitis dropped her pace to 4 km a day. There's also luggage transfer services that you can chose to use so you don't have to carry your pack, busses, and numerous taxis cruising the route looking to talk people into giving up and catching a ride. They're like vultures...they pick a tall hill and will hang out right near the top. I'd have died before getting in one...but I'm also a stubborn idiot, and my legs and ankles are still a little trashed from the whole experience 3 days after getting home, lol. Also, the municipal albergues often won't let you stay if you don't show up on foot with your bags...but there are plenty of private ones that will. Everybody's gotta walk their own trip in their own way, and there's no rule that says you've gotta do it the way we did it.

Day 3 San Juan de Villapaneda to Salas

The other three woke up really early and left, so we had the place to ourselves. I took advantage of the kitchen and cooked up some eggs before we left. This was definitely one of the nicer Albergues that I've stayed at. We got on the trail about 7:30.

More elevation and it was hot and humid. The trail was uneven and I rolled my ankle a couple of times. Not sure if it was this day or slipping and sliding in Oviedo the day before, but I definitely got a mild low ankle sprain that progressive got worse for the rest of the trip.



We passed some kiwi farms (please don't pick them, the sign said, they don't ripen until December!), crossed a river, and walked into the town of Cornellana about 10am. There was a sign that said it was the salmon capital of Spain, and an information board with details about the fish. I thought that was kinda cool, having just done my first salmon fishing in AK the month before. Our noses led us to a bakery, and we got a croissant and a fresh baguette....both still warm. I love finding places like this in small towns.

We got to Salas right about the time the albergue opened. It was a small flat on the ground floor of an apartment building in a residential district, with two rooms, about 16 beds, and a single shower. It was tight, hot, and crowded. There were some very loud people speaking Spanish, and another very loud Italian guy with long hair and a beard. We thought about continuing on because it was only a 19km day so far, but our feet were hurting and we were tired...day 2 is always the toughest day of a hike...so we decided to stay.




We checked in with the really nice hospitalera then went out to a grocery store and got some lunch. When we got back, Kim and Kyle from Oviedo were also there.




We walked around the town some in the evening, ate supper from the grocery store at the table in the Kitchen with Kim and Kyle, and then got to bed pretty early. I had eaten a can of anchovie olives for supper, because I wanted to try them. My dad once told me that anchovies give him heartburn. Apparently it's hereditary. I had a miserable, hot night with jet lag and horrible heartburn...I think I got about 3 hours of sleep. This was definitely not the high point of our trip!

Day 4 Salas to Tineo

I was awake most of the night, so it was easy to get up and get going at 5:30am. It was dark and we were climbing a steep hill in the woods, and I had to use the flashlight to see, but at least it wasn't hot. There was a small waterfall about half a km off the trail that we wanted to see, and had to use the little 250 lumen pocket light to see it (lost my macrostream a few days before the trip so we had to settle for the little Amazon special. It got the job done).




Even after the sun came up it stayed pretty cool, and after the big climb out of Salas we mostly stayed up, so there wasn't a lot of up and down. It was a 20km day again, but it felt a lot easier than the day before.



Tineo is a really cool town. It's set into the side of a hill and all of the main streets run parallel, with alleys cutting up and down between them. The albergue was nice, and the guy running it was awesome. He was still cleaning it when we got there, but he let us leave our bags and gave us directions to a restaurant. We ended up hitting a grocery store, and by the time we got back a few others were showing up. The dude finished cleaning and told us to go ahead and pick beds and he'd be back that evening to check us all in.




Most of the same people from Salas were there. Claudia from Portugal, Gabriel from Italy, Fani from Hungary, Madalyn and Tom from England, Sarah and Andres from Germany, and also Kurt from Germany, Teo and Anna from Spain, and Santiago from Uruguay. Kim and Kyle were also there, and a quiet guy who didn't really talk to anybody.

The albergue was nicely set up, with benches and hammocks outside, and for the first time most seemed content to just hang around the albergue, play games, and talk. The main topic of conversation was what to do the next day. The big “wilderness” push over the Hospitales alpine route was two days out, and it's a 25km day with no services. The albergue in Borres is in a town with nothing else, and has a reputation for being crappy. There are private albergues in the town 3km before that that are nicer, but it adds 3km to an already long hard day. And there's a limited number of beds at the albergue in Berducedo on the other side, so if you're late there's no telling if you'll get one.

Most people decided to reserve a place in Campiello. We decided to brave the poorly reviewed albergue in Borres in exchange for a shorter day.

The evening was spent collecting supplies for the next two days, watching the sunset, and playing pickup sticks and cards in the front yard of the albergue with Kim and Tom.

Day 5 Tineo to Borres

It was a cooler morning and a pretty substantial climb out of Tineo. The sun came up and lit up the valleys below us that were still covered in clouds. It was beautiful. It almost made up for having to come back down again into the same valley that we had just climbed out of. On the AT they call those PUDs…pointless ups and downs.





It was a short day of walking..only 15km, but we added another couple on a side trail to check out the ruined monastery at Obona. It's like 1200 years old and falling apart…you can walk the grounds and get into some of he structure, though, and it's really cool to think what it must have once been like. My favorite part was the massive floor joist beams still lying on the floor in one room.



A little further on we stopped for a break in a little town and got visited by a cat and a dog. The dog was a border collie and was super playful. He'd pick up a pebble, bring it to you and drop it so you'd throw it, then he'd go fetch it and bring it back. I've never played fetch with a pebble before, but it worked for him. The farmer who owned him came out and took us into his dairy operation and gave us a stamp on our credentials. He also recorded our nationalities in a big book…apparently he's got a collection of countries going.

In Campiello we stopped and got a portion of Tortilla (not what it sounds like…theres no taco shell…best description is an egg, potato, onion, and cheese omelette) and hit up the little store for some supper veggies since Borres has nothing but sandwiches in their bar, and being type 1 diabetic I can't eat those. Then we continued on to Borres.

The lady in the bar was super nice and checked us in to the Albergue. It wasn't fancy, but it was clean and there was nothing really wrong with it. Like many Asturian municipal albergues, it was in an old retired school building. It had a couple of bathrooms, screens to keep out the flies from all the cow crap in the area, and a room with bunks. The dreaded triple-bunk with no ladder (for alpinist pilgrims only!) from the online reviews was sadly no longer there.

Shortly after we got there an older lady from Alaska made her way over from the bar. She was super nice, but hand plantar fasciitis so bad that she could hardly walk, and was also type 1 diabetic like me, but really seemed to be struggling with it. Her dexcom kept signalling lows all night, and she kept having to get up to eat. She said she was planning to take it easy and only go 4km the next day in hopes of letting her foot heal. We didn't see her again after that day…I hope she made it. She was really nice.

Sarah and Andres from Germany also decided to brave the hostel, as well as Fani, an English guy named Josh, and the guy who stayed in the corner and didn't talk to anybody. I hadn't spoken to that guy yet, but I told my wife that based off his behavior he was probably Czech! (Inside joke between us…I grew up in the CZ and before I met my wife I was kinda antisocial).

There was nothing else to do, so my wife and I broke out the cards on a picnic table outside and started playing. Eventually Fani and Josh joined and we started teaching each other different games. It was a great time talking and getting to know them, and it really made the rest of the afternoon go by fast.



A couple of portuguese guys showed up late in the evening who we hadn't seen before. They didn't talk much, but they sure could snore. Between them and the lady's CGM alarm going off all night, I didn't sleep much, but I was excited enough for the Hospitales route that it didn't matter.

Day 6 Borres to Berducedo

This was the day I'd been looking forward to. Climbing up and over a mountain pass on the Hospitales route. There are three “hospital” ruins along the route…which were basically early albergues where pilgrims could shelter for the night.

We got going at 6:30, and Josh left right before us. He said goodbye, and we never saw him again. I know he was putting in longer days because he was planning to meet his mom in Lugo and hike the rest of the way with her.

We started the climb in the dark, and the sun started coming up right as we broke out of the trees. There were a lot of people…like way more people than we'd seen in the albergues. I started to get a little nervous that we might have trouble finding a spot on the other end.



The view from the top was pretty incredible though, and the ruins were neat. There was a nice breeze, and a bunch of free-range cows and horses all over the place. We had bought extra water bottles so we had 3L each, but that also made the packs a lot heavier…preferable to running out of water with no place to resupply, IMO.





I honestly didn't think the high pass portion of the day was that bad. Altitude wasn't a factor, elevation gain was less than 2000ft, and apart from a couple of short steep bits, it was pretty grafual. I'm used to hiking in Wyoming, so this was basically a walk in the park. There's an alternate low route that avoids the high pass, and it wasn't until after we re-joined with that that things got nasty. There was a steep downhill with a ton of loose gravel and shale and it was pretty brutal trying to descend that without slipping and eating it.



There was still another 15km or so to go from where the trails rejoined, and it was all steep, loose, hot, and sketchy. At one point there was a cow on the trail and I tried to get it to move. I spread my arms and made myself big and yelled for it to move off like we do all the time back home, but this one wasn't having it. It put it's head down and swung it at me…I actually grabbed a horn and stepped aside. We went around.



At a little town about 3km short of the end of the stage there was a water fountain, but it was dry. I had done my research and knew this was going to be the case and was expecting it. I had about ½ liter of water left, so I was good either way. There was a really skinny lady with a huge pack trying unsuccessfully to get water out of the fountain, and I told her I'd read that it was dry. She sounded American, and looked really bad off…her skin was clammy and almost translucent, and you could see her veins through it. I offered to give her some of my water, but she declined and said she'd get some at the bar in town. I told her I wasn't sure if there was one (there wasn't), or if it would even be open if there was. She said she was ok, so we continued on.

We got to the Albergue in Berducedo right after an older Spanish guy and his wife. We picked beds, showered, washed clothes, and settled in to watch the others trickle in. Claudia and Santiago were pretty close behind us, and Gabriel the Italian, Tom and Madelyn, Sarah and Andres, and finally Kim and Kyle and Fani showed up right as we were running out of beds. Kyle ended up on an air mattress because all the beds were full. There were more people that day that we'd never seen on any of the others…I think some people just bussed in to do the Hospitales.

While we were still waiting for everybody to show up, the lady with the big backpack and no water got there. She still looked like death, but said a cyclist had giver her some water after she found out there was no bar in the town. She asked the hospitalera in English if she could camp on the property…apparently she was carrying a tent. The hospitalera only spoke Spanish and said no, it was illegal and she'd get fined if she allowed it. Backpack lady didn't understand, so my wife and Claudia tried to translate for her. She got really flustered and started arguing with them, and they tried to explain that they were just translating what the hospitalera lady was telling her, but she didn't seem to get it. At that point there were still beds available, so I suggested she just get one of those for 10 euro, but she didn't want to do that, either, and asked for directions to the bus stop and said she'd just take the bus down the road to where she could camp. I told her to at least fill up her water at the sink in the albergue before she left, but she just kinda stormed out like she was mad at us, so we just shrugged and let her go.

While we were in Berducedo somebody told me that the quiet guy who always stuck to himself actually was Czech. He showed up a bit later and I struck up a conversation with him…super nice guy. Thankfully his English was much better than my rusty Czech, but it was fun to use it again and he seemed happy that I at least tried. His name was Vasek, and we ended up spending a lot more time with him later on.

My wife and I went out to dinner at a bar and got a fantastic plate of Cachopo that cost too much, but it was worth it. Then we played cards with Fani, Tom, and Gabriel in the yard of the Albergue until dark. It was one of the better days.

Day 7 Berducedo to Grandas de Salime

Another early morning, this one started with a climb and then a really steep downhill of over 1500 meters to a reservoir and across a dam. It was beautiful, but the footing was loose and very steep for a good part of the descent. My wife's knees were hurting her so I carried her pack most of the way down.




The dam was pretty cool. A huge concrete structure with a hydro plant. There was a little tunnel through a rock to an overlook, and we also got to walk across the dam. Then it was back up the other side on the road, that had little shoulder and lots of blind curves. Again beautiful scenery, but hard going and important to avoid getting squished by cars.







There were only 2 stores in Grandas de Salime, and the bigger one closed at 1:00, so we were pushing to get there. We made it by 12:30, and stopped there first to get lunch food. The albergue was just up the road and the older Spanish couple and Claudia and Santiago were waiting for us when we got there. I stretched out and then killed time waiting for the albergue to open by petting the dog across the street.

The albergue dorms were basically just 2 big bunk rooms with rows of beds in them. We got one on the end by the door, so at least kinda had our own little nook, and we could slip out quietly in the morning. There was also a window that could be opened so it wouldn't be so crazy hot.

We walked around town a bit, I tried the local dried sausage called a “Fuet” and found out it's coated in powdered milk, which is not diabetic friendly at all . Had to take an insulin shot after that one. I did make a pretty epic salad for dinner, though. Sadly we'd not had time to check out the albergue kitchen before shopping, and this one actually had cooking utensils. Sarah and Andres made some excellent vegan stir fry, and shared some with us.

After dinner we sat with Sarah and Andres and Kurt for a bit, and Kurt destroyed all our food notions for us. Sarah thought Lentils had 66 grams of protein per serving…apparently it's only 6.6. Also, according to Kurt (and confirmed by Google), my Brazil nuts (that I got super cheap in Tineo…I rarely buy them in the US because they're expensive) are radioactive and have excessive amounts of silenium in them. Leave it to the Germans, lol.

Day 8 Grandas de Salime to A Fonsgrada

A pretty healthy 25km day, I started out pretty low on blood sugar from dealing with the Fuets the day before. We left early in the dark, and stopped just as the sun was coming up in the village of Castro to see the ruins of a pre-Roman hill fort. It was still very early and they weren't open, but I climbed a hill and got a pretty decent view of them. Pretty cool to be near something so old.




Had some more fog down in the valleys which made for pretty epic views, and we also crossed the “border” out of Asturias and into Galicia. It got hot as the day went on, and we tried stopping at a couple of bars for Tortilla, but nobody had any. There was a nasty steep climb for the last km into A Fonsgrada, and we met up with Tom and Madelyn right as we got to it, so we did it together. They'd stayed off-stage the night before, so we hadn't seen them for a couple of days.





The albergue in A Fonsgrada was epic. It was an old building that had been completely renovated, and the bathrooms were clean and super modern. The bunks were also spread out quite a bit too, and we ended up on kind of a landing by ourselves, which was convenient. There were also a lot of little seating nooks and side rooms to sit in, including a little library. As everybody was coming in, Claudia was out front with Santiago blasting “Final Countdown” on her phone and cheering them on, lol.



No utensils in the kitchen, so we ate grocery store dinner and spent the evening playing cards in the sala de estar with Kim, Fani, and Gabriel.

Day 9 A Fonsgrada to O Cadavo

Another 25km day with a few big ups and downs. We followed our older Spanish Couple out again…through some broken conversation we learned that they live in the Pyranese up by the French border and like to hike a lot. Clearly! They were probably close to 70 and leaving us in their dust every day.



At the bottom of the first big drop there was a little bar called “La TaBearna”. There was bear decor all over the place, and the.dude was super nice. He also had cheap fresh tortilla with tomato sauce, which we devoured.



More ups and downs after that, and I ran out of water about 6km from the albergue. We made it to a little town called Fontaneira, and you'd think with a name like that there'd be a fountain somewhere, but there was nothing on the map and I couldn't find one. We happened to pass a fire station, and there was a fireman chilling in a chair on the front porch. I asked him if there was a fountain in town, and he took our bottles inside the station and filled them for us. This is why everybody loves the hose draggers!

We made it to the Albergue in O Cadavo right at 1. The hostelera wasn't there, but there was a sign that said to go in and pick a bed and she'd be back at 1:30 to check us in. We went in and the place was rough. Damp, dark, and black mold on the walls. But there was nowhere else to go so we picked a bunk and then went to check the kitchen for utensils.



When we went in there, we found the big backpack water lady from the Hospitales day. She looked about as bad off as she had that day. We tried to talk to her, but she just started brushing her teeth and ignored us. This was really awkward, so we left to go to the grocery store because it was closing in 30 minutes.

We grabbed a few things for lunch (and I found a small kitchen knife for cutting vegetableds for 1 Euro…score!) and as we were leaving that lady came in the front door. She started walking into the store with her pack and the cashier yelled at her and told her to put it in the corner under the sign that said “Mochillas”. This is common practice in Spain (and most of Europe for that matter), but this lady didn't seem to understand and just stood there looking confused. My wife explained to her that the cashier wanted her to put her backpack in the corner. Instead of doing that she started going off on us about how we were making her feel judged, and that her Camino was about being one with the earth and so she wanted to sleep near the ground, and she'd been in France and Switzerland and they'd let her do it there etc. etc. When we could finally get a word in I told her we didn't care what she did or where she slept, we were just trying to help her out by translating what people were telling her because she clearly didn't understand Spanish. She kinda settled down a bit and we left as quickly as possible..she must have continued on, because we didn't see her again. But yeah…apparently we are the judgemental assholes of the Camino.



The kitchen did have utensils and pans, so I made some pretty decent meals, and we played cards most of the afternoon (outside on a bench away from the mold) since there wasn't much else to do in town. Gabriel taught us a few Italian games, including one called Ghost that is really more about the interaction at the table than it is the cards. It was a great evening, even if the albergue was full of black mold.

Day 10 O Cadavo to Lugo

This was a 30km day, and we'd originally planned to break it into 2 days because we wanted to spend more time in Lugo, and we weren't super excited about walking that far. But everybody else was going all the way and we were enjoying their company, and we also knew by this point that 30km wasn't a big deal. We cancelled our reservation and pushed through. It was a damp, foggy morning walking out of O Cadavo/Bailera, but it didn’t rain.



At one point the trail went through quarry and we saw this big guy hauling a bunch of rock.




The approach into Lugo was impressive. There's a Roman wall that goes all the way around the old city, and you enter through one of the massive gates. The Albergue is like one block from the wall. There were a couple of Canadian ladies there volunteering to help at the albergue, and they were passing out ice water and giving recommendations and directions for food and stuff.



When we got there there was nobody waiting that we could see so we went and plopped down on the ground by the door. Some lady who had been sitting on a bench a little ways away with a bunch of shopping bags (no backpack) came over and started yelling at us for cutting in line. We told her we didn't care if she went first, but we'd walked all day and we were sitting. The Canadian lady said she'd been there yesterday too and wasn't an actual pilgrim, so she probably wasn't going to get let in anyway. Ultimately at check in they made her wait until everybody else was in before they'd give her a bed.

The Albergue was not your laid-back country albergue that we had become accustomed to. The dude was by the book, here was virtually no kitchen and no utensils, and the common room got locked at 10pm and wasn't open for breakfast. Ga riel showed up carrying a big squash that Ella said he stole from a field. He said it was in the road. He said it’s name was Rosita. He wanted to cook it and was pissed that there was no kitchen.

We went to a huge grocery store for lunch, then walked the town. Even the mailboxes in Lugo are cool.



We circled the entire wall (over 2 km), checked out the cathedral and the Mosaic museum, found Sarah and Andres and walked with them for a bit, and then went back to the albergue to play some games and rest our feet. It started pouring rain while we were playing, so we had to rush everybody’s laundry inside.







Claudia was finishing her trip in Lugo, so we all went out for drinks at an Italian bar (Gabriel said it wasn't real Italian, and then got even more pissed when people ordered pineapple on pizza, lol). Even Vaclav joined us, and it was a good time. The dorm closed at 10:00, so we had to rush back after paying for food. We made it at 9:55 and the dude was waiting there with the keys ready to lock us out…he wasn't messing around.

Fani ended up being stuck with the bag lady from earlier that day on her lower bunk. She was lying in bed talking on her phone when we got back, so she wasn't asleep or anything. We all tried to be as quiet as possible and went straight to bed, but about 10 minutes later after everyone was settled and completely quiet she got up and started storming around, grabbed all her stuff and left. Not sure what her problem was. We found out later she went upstairs to the room where Kim and Kyle were.

Day 11 Lugo to San Romao

We woke up about 6:30 and had to get ready in the stairwell because the dude had locked the sala de estar the night before. We said goodbye to Claudia, and as we were leaving Kyle came out to say goodbye, too. He and Kim were staying in Lugo an extra day, so they were going to be behind us. The door closed behind him and he got locked out for a bit in his bare feet until somebody else finally came down to leave and opened it.

Those of us continuing on from Lugo were Fani, Ella, Gabriel (and Rosita, the squash!), Ana, Theo, Santiago, and Vaclav. We had some decisions to make as well. We had a reservation for the night of Oct 2nd at A Calle, and the night of the 3rd at Semenario Menor in Santiago. We’d made these a week or so earlier because I knew accomodations were going to get right after we met up with the French Way in Melide. If we went too fast, we were going to get ahead of those, but we also wanted to stay with the group. There were two municipal albergues between Lugo and Melide, one at San Romao and the other at As Seixas. Our plan was to stay in both of them, and get to Melide on the 1st, A Calle on the 2nd, and Santiago on the 3rd. Unfortunately, this was going to mean we were going to lose the group, because they were going faster than that. We decided to just keep going and figure it out as it came.



It was only 20km to San Romao, and there was a stop mid-day with some vending machines and bathrooms. We stopped there for Gabriel to make coffee and have some snacks. There were also a bunch of English walnuts lying all over the ground that I cracked with some rocks and ate…yummy free food that I didn't have to carry—win/win! There were a couple of cats hanging around that at first seemed cute, but they quickly got aggressive when the food came out and Ella ended up getting scratched. We also bumped into Tom and Madelyn at the rest area…they were continuing on to a private albergue somewhere. Sarah and Andres passed us, too. They were on a time crunch and trying to make miles. We heard from them periodically via WhatsApp, and they did make it to Santiago, but we didn't see them again.



The Albergue at San Romao was this cute little cabin under some oak trees in a tiny little town. 6 bunks on either side of a central kitchen, and you had to go outside to the beth house, but it was clean and cozy and had plenty of hot water. There were no stores but the private albergue had a bar and served food, so you could go there if you wanted. We'd anticipated this and packed some stuff along. The kitchen also had pots and utensils, which was awesome.

The dude running the albergue was super chill. He checked us in and showed us where to leave the key when we left in the morning. It was threatening rain at that point with really high winds, and the trees were dumping acorns on the roof at an alarming rate, or on your head if you were outside. It was super loud in the bathroom because the roof was some kind of fiberglass that sounded like a drum when it got hit.



We hunkered down on the floor in the albergue and played cards most of the afternoon. We had new albergue-mates, Sylvia and Otto from Poland/Germany, and they taught us some new games. Sylvia was having some foot problems, so they were planning to only go as far as As Seixas the next day in hopes that it would heal up. There was a Spanish guy from Cadiz there as well who I'd met in Lugo, and be said he was taking the bus the next day and just renting a car for the rest of his trip…his feet were shot. My sprained ankle was hurting pretty bad, but I wasn't quitting.

I made supper on the stove…basically sauteed chorizo with peppers, onions, and zucchini that I'd carried in from Lugo. It tasted amazing, and I was glad to have that extra weight out of my pack, but I wasn't sure what we were going to eat the next day as there were no services in As Seixas, either. After dinner we made our way over to the bar in the private albergue where some of the group had gone to eat. The food looked good, but too many carbs for my diet, but the bar dude was super nice and we ended up hanging out in there for the rest of the night. There was an old guitar with a broken neck that Gabriel asked to play and the guy said sure. He even went and got a pair of pliers to tune it since the knobs were broken off. Gabriel played (and finished off a bottle of wine that had come with Ella's meal) and we sang for a couple of hours, played cards, and just generally had a good time until it was time to run back through the rain to our little albergue. The barman had left earlier and told us to close up when we were done, and took payment from anybody who wanted breakfast…showed them where the food was and told them to help themselves in the morning. This was definitely the most relaxed place that we stayed the whole trip, with the nicest people.

Enjoying the trip so far. Sorry about the bag lady: sounds like she needs to repeat the pilgrimage as she won’t be getting any points for this one. Still wish I had done these trips when I was younger and more capable.

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
Enjoying the trip so far. Sorry about the bag lady: sounds like she needs to repeat the pilgrimage as she won’t be getting any points for this one. Still wish I had done these trips when I was younger and more capable.

It really wasn't a big deal and don't really negatively affect us any. I did feel kinda bad for Fani, though, because it seemed like if there was a weirdo at an albergue she always got stuck bunking with them. We met tons of awesome people, so I guess that made the few negative encounters more notable.

I will say that compared to the Camino Portuguese route that we did last year, the Primitivo was way harder. Lots more elevation, and tougher terrain. I'm 41, in pretty good shape, and it really kicked my butt. My legs and ankle are still recovering over a week later. But Kim, who was probably in her 70s, showed up at the albergue every night talking about how amazing the hike was that day, the beautiful scenery, and how much she enjoyed the walk. And they'd started at the French border on the Camino del Norte and had already been walking for a few weeks before cutting down to Oviedo from the coast to start the Primitivo. That lady is tough! She's right, too...the scenery is spectacular, and the route really is amazing.

I’ve done some pilgrimages before in Japan. Supposed to be common and popular route but on a 10 mile segment, I only bumped into 4 people. I was by myself and was lucky I didn’t get injured.

I wish I could still do them but it probably wouldn’t be a good idea at this point.

I do enjoy the pics and reading about others people’s trips.

Day 12 San Romao to Melide

The first leg of the walk that day was to As Seixas where we had planned to stop. We were dreading splitting up with our group, and when we got there there was nothing to eat except one bar that had nothing but carbs. We contacted the albergue in A Calle where we had reservations and managed to get them to move them up a night, and decided to carry on with everyone else to Melide. Sadly this meant that we wouldn't see Max and Sylvia again, but it made no sense to stop in As Seixas and we really didn't want to lose the people we'd come the whole way with. I spent the better part of the morning walking with Vasek and talking about life in the Czech Republic.





It was a long day, about 30km, but relatively easy walking. We were all kind of dreading connecting up with the French way in Melide, because we knew it was gonna start getting crowded and the 156 bed albergue there was going to be a huge contrast to the nice little cabin we had the night before, but it had to come sooner or later. It poured rain the last hour into Melide, which didn't do anything to help the mood.



We ran into Tom and Madelyn again right as we reached the albergue in Melide. They were pressing on to another private booking, but it was nice to see them for a bit. The municipal albergue was actually pretty nice, and surprisingly pretty empty. Most of us got stuck on the ground floor but that room filled up and they stuck Ella upstairs. She was lucky, because there were some weird “French Way” pilgrims in our room.

None of these people talked with or interacted with anybody else, including each other. They kinda wondered around the albergue in self-imposed solitude. There was one guy (again, on Fani's lower bunk) who audibly grunted or growled at anybody who came close, but never spoke. Fani referred to him as “ the boar” lol. It was a pretty sharp contrast to us Primitivos who did everything together. Vasek and I did talk to one guy from Poland who was walking the French Way with his fiance. He seemed pretty nice, but they were moving pretty quick and left early before us in the morning and we never saw them again.

We were soaked when we got in, and our clothes were getting pretty smelly after weeks of hand washing anyway, so we split a load in the washing machine for 3 euros, and then spent 6 trying to dry it in the dryer. We also went out to a grocery store and got food for lunch. Unfortunately, no dishes in the albergue again. Other than that we just hung out at the albergue and played games. We probably could have done a more thorough job exploring the town, but we were wet, tired, and kinda depressed about reaching the end of having our own route and joining up with the French, so we just hunkered down and did our thing.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 92fstech,

Day 13 Melide to A Calle

We got going about 6:30 and walked in the dark for a while. The trail was wider and there were more people on it, including bikes. There was an older couple on ebikes that seemed to stop every 200m or so. You'd have to get out of the way for them to pass, then they'd stop up ahead, you'd pass them, and then repeat the process a few minutes later. This went on for like 5 km.



Eventually we stopped for breakfast. We split a piece of tortilla, and then continued on. In Arzua we stopped at a grocery store and I bought a bunch of really heavy vegetables.








We still had the reservation in A Calle (almost exactly halfway between Melide and Santiago) that we couldn't cancel, and the others wanted to go further. They were shooting for the municipal albergue in Santa Irene, 8km further on. Gabriel, Fani, and Ella stopped outside our albergue in A Calle for lunch, and then we sadly watched them continue on.

The Albergue wasn't bad…about the same as a municipal, but with a little bar/restaurant in it. There was one other albergue in town, and not much else. We showered and did laundry and then plopped down on some deck chairs in the sun. I filled a laundry bucket with cold water and soaked my ankle.

For supper we ordered some roast pork loin with fries, and I added some sliced zucchini that I'd bought with lunch since I can't eat the fries. One thing that was kinda weird is that a lot of people from the other albergues showed up trying to buy dinner and they turned them away…told them only for people staying at our place. Seemed like a missed opportunity to make some good money to me, but maybe they just didn't want to deal with it.

After supper we walked (limped) around the village a bit, and got to see some of the real-life non-camino part of the town. It was actually a nice little place.

Sleep was not so good. There were two Portuguese mountain bikers in the bunks right across from us who had shown up earlier that afternoon. One of them had left his phone in the room and walked out while everybody else was trying to nap during the afternoon siesta, and his alarm started going off. He wasn't there to silence it so it went off for a while before somebody finally turned it off...and by that point we all were up. At about 2am, the other dude’s phone started going off…and he was sleeping right there and did nothing about it until everybody was awake. And then of course everybody had to get up and pee, and here was a really bright motion light in the hallway right outside the door…so not much sleep happened for the next hour or so.

Day 14 A Calle to Monte do Gozo

I was never really able to get back to sleep after the disruption from the spandex-wearing bicycle asshole, so we got up at 5, carried all of our stuff into the bar to pack in order to avoid disturbing everybody else, and got on the trail. I wanted to catch up to the others before they left the albergue at Santa Irena, and we did. We even had enough time to eat a snack and use the bathroom in their albergue.


It was a shorter day but it felt long. There were a ton of people, and sometimes getting down the trail was actually difficult it was so congested. I'm not sure where they all came from…we'd never seen 90% of them before, and many were not carrying packs and were walking in large groups with matching shirts. I figure a lot just show up to walk the last day or something.

We met up with Tom and Madelyn and walked with them for a while. As we passed the airport the Guarda Civil was out there stamping people's credentials, so of course I had to stop and get a cop stamp in mine. The guys were nice, but their gun handling concerned me a bit. Both had Beretta 92s in their holsters with the safety off, which IMO is no big deal, but one of them was cocked. I didn't say anything…not my country not my business…but dang.

We made it to Monte do Gozo a little after noon. It's a huge complex about 4km outside of Santiago that Vacalv told me was built to house people when the pope visited Santiago in 1988. Apparently John Paul II walked the last stage of the route from Monte do Gozo to the cathedral with 400,000 youth pilgrims that year. Like most albergues it's not fancy, but it was clean and functional, and the check-in lady was nice. I think she thought we were a group traveling together, which we kinda were…but I don't think she realized that none of us knew each other when we started.



The place was empty for the first couple of hours because I think a lot of people walked into the cathedral and then came back to check in at the albergue. After showers and laundry, we walked to a store (surprisingly there weren't many around, and even the one we found wasn't exactly close) and got some food. We also got some ice cream for later, and I threw a zero sugar yoghurt in the freezer.

We hung around the albergue for most of the afternoon, then headed up on the hill behind the complex to the pilgrim monument to watch the sunset over the city with ice cream. We were the only ones up there and the sunset was spectacular. We hung out past sunset and played games until it was time to go back to the albergue.





When we got back down there it was a zoo. People everywhere, lots of noise, and a football game on a phone in the break room. We found empty seats in the kitchen to eat snacks and play cards, but then the security guard came in and kicked us out because he said the kitchen was for cooking and people wanted to cook. I wasn't sure how that was possible, because there was not kitchenware, but we obeyed and left. As we were leaving, a big group that had showed up in vans started carrying in boxes of cooking supplies including a giant iron kettle that must have weighed 40lbs. There's no way anybody hiked with that stuff, and afaik big organized groups weren't allowed in municipal albergues because they're supposed to be for pilgrims, but here they were and they were running the place. I just called it a night and went to bed.

Day 15 Monte do Gozo to Santiago

We got up at a reasonable time and walked into the city together, after getting bumped out of the kitchen again by the same group from the night before. We were still well ahead of most of the crowds because we were starting from so close.

We walked into the square, dropped our bags.right in the middle, and plopped down on the ground. We lay there for a bit, and must have looked like legit pilgrims because tourists started coming over and taking our picture, lol. There was some kind of sit-in protest against tourism going on in the square with a bunch of people sleeping in tents. We thought about joining them.









There were 9 of us left. To Spaniards, a Czech, a Uruguayan, a Hungarian, an Italian, and three Americans. Of the 9, The Italian, Uruguayan, and one of the Americans were going on to Finisterre. The rest of us had to head home, but all of us were spending the day in Santiago.



Ironically, after hiking hundreds of miles with a pack they won't let you take one inside the cathedral, and want to charge you 5 Euro to store it somewhere while you go inside. So we took turns…half of us babysat the bags while the others went in, and then we switched. Then we went and checked into our respective albergues or other pre-arranged accomodations, and agreed to meet up later for drinks. Fani was having trouble finding flights home because everything was booked, and Vaclav ended up having a his get cancelled due to weather in Barcelona, but eventually everyone got stuff figured out. It was incredibly hard saying goodbye at the end of the night, and if I had had the time left I'd have absolutely gone on to Finisterre and Muxia, sprained ankle and all.



Before we went back to the hostel we stopped by the Cathedral again to see a particular pillar that casts a shadow that’s supposed to look like a pilgrim. Or a dick, according to one of the German guys, lol.

Day 16 Santiago to Madrid

We spent the night in the Semenario Menor hostel. It was nice enough, but lacked the character and fellowship of the municipals. It was a Sunday and most things were closed, so it was pretty quiet.






Our train left late morning for Madrid, and we got in around 3pm. We caught the metro across town and checked into our pre-booked hostel, that was a little sketchy (basically just an apartment that had been split up into rooms, but pretty run-down and not very “offical” looking…honestly it probably violated a lot of housing codes) but clean, and ended up working out fine (our initial fears of kidnapping and organ harvesting never materialized).


We spent the evening walking around the area and getting the lay of the land. We were right by the Atocha train station, Reina Sofia and Prado museums, and Retiro park. My wife had spent 5 months in Madrid back in college, but this was my first time, so she got to show me around. We stopped in the Naval museum and got dinner at a kebab place…the secret to eating cheap and healthy-ish in Europe.






Day 17 Madrid

Fani had ended up having to take an overnight bus from Santiago because all the trains were full. She met us at about 8am,.left her pack at our hostel, and we walked the city all day together. We covered a lot of ground on foot. Saw plaza major, the palace, an Egyptian temple, Cibelles square, Retiro park, found food, and even visited a piercing place for Fani. We dropped her off at the airport bus about 4:30 and then went to the Reina Sofia and saw the Guernica, Dali’s woman at the window, and a bunch of other art. Some was pretty good. Some was not. I did appreciate the depth of the exhibit that highlighted the Spanish Civil War and the role that art played on both sides, through protest and propaganda. But by the end of the day my feet hurt as bad as any day on the Camino!