80 kilometers to Santiago
We spent a pleasant night in Vilalba and headed off to our next destination, Baamonde. We are now in Galacia and traveling inland from the coast toward Santiago. This is the 5th autonomous community in Spain that we have traveled through on this trip (similar to states in US). Each one has the right to self governance. On this trek we have traveled thru the Basque Country, Cantabria, Asturias and now Galacia. Each has their own identity and dialect and the Basque Country even uses different letters.
the walk into Baamonde was pleasant but fairly uneventful. Baaamond itself was a small town that seemed to exist for the Camino. It had a very small grocery store and farmacia, 3 cafe/bars, a municipal albergue and the Pensión 101k which was where we stayed. Iywasat the Wewere now 101k from Santiago. Apparently it had the best food in town. While there, we met up with Sylvia and Eugenio, who happened to be staying at the municipal albergue and we had dinner with them.
The next morning we resumed our trek. We headed out past the beautiful and ancient church in Baamond which started being built in the 9th century, Once again the Camino took us up and down hills but the hills were now less steep. Shortly before arriving at our destination we stopped for coffee and met Dick from the UK who was out for a walk. He and his wife were volunteer hospitaleros at the donativo hostel run by the Confraternity of Saint James, a UK organization that promotes pilgrimages to Santiago in the UK. It sounds like a really nice hostel and I wish we had been able to stay there instead of the hostel we stayed at. Next time…. I think I would enjoy a two week stent volunteering as a caretaker for an albergue. Maybe when we are unable to walk long distances any more. It seems like a great any to meet and talk with people from all over the world, similar to walking the Camino.
Our albergue for the night was in a very rural small town. It had a small room which also served as the grocery store for the town. It also was the only cafe in town and they offered a pilgrim meal at night. While we were on the Camino the pope died which often came up in conversation. The funeral and services were on TV in almost every cafe we stopped at. Of course Spain is a county with many devout Catholics. While we were eating dinner at the albergue in A Lagoa with 3 Irishmen, two Italians and a handful of locals, the conclave elected the new pope. We all sat glued to the TV to see who had been chosen. When they announced that it was an American, all eyes turned to us as if we had some explaining to do. It was a bit uncomfortable given the dislike for our current administration from everyone we met. But in the end.almost everyone agreed that maybe an American pope would somehow help with the current situation.
