Camino Frances 2024 Day 19 - Jun 23, 2024

Today was a bittersweet day. We did 20 km of walking from Arzua to O Pedrouzo. A lot of it was on undulating wooded trails. There were tons of people on the way and they came and went in waves; sometimes you were in a throng and the next you felt alone. I treasured those alone moments and not the one where for the first time there was an unmistakable “out of my way” attitude in some walkers. I heard a lot of American accents but there are tons of Spanish too and the caminon is very international. One couple was from Colorado Springs. He moved there 6 years ago after retiring as a police officer in Virginia. A mother and her 15ish year old son from Oklahoma had connected from the Norte route. There were a few other interesting meet-ups - the 3 long time friends from Southern Spain on their 3rd camino - one is completely blind. We met the quartet from Florida including the 81 year old and his wife on a repeat camino with some friends. Victor spoke to a woman who was spreading her husband's ashes. I took lots of pictures of everything, especially the country homes and life. Soon, all of these will be memories and I want to remember as much of it as possible. I also tried to record the sounds of the camino - birds singing, leaves rustling, streams gurgling, cow bells jangling, feet stepping, poles thumping, breath panting. We saw a few roadside hawkers, mostly hippies and some of the cafes are beginning to feel like beach bars, with a camino flavour. Talking about flavours we passed a restaurant coming into town where a guy sat outside devouring what seemed like a entire cow, and decided to check it out for dinner. Not sure that was a good idea. Tomorrow we walk into Santiago and I am expectant, but not yet elated. Just as I was getting used to this way.