Cadovedo, June 21+22

The stage from El Pito to Cadavedo looks like this 

and is actually more than 20 miles because 1) you have to get from the hotel to the trail and 2) you have to get from the trail to your hotel, and 3) the mileage tends to be under reported.  So....I had decided to do this in two stages and glad I made that decision.  It was not easy walking, although some of it was interesting meaning that you had to pay attention to where you were placing your feet.  Paying attention did not prevent another boots-filled-with-water incident but this time due to a swollen stream, so there was that.

There was a decision to be made at Soto de Luiña:  Take the very up and down route nearer to the sea (see above) or the inland route.  Both are challenging, according to the guidebook.  The inland route has some huge climbs, is not signed, the path is overgrown and in some places very hard to follow, and there is no access along the way, but you will be rewarded with some great views.  This was not a tough decision to make! 

Not the offending stream, just a view from a bridge:

A raised storage shed in a state of disrepair:

Road side sale:

or free for the taking.

Life in the country:

Cat:

View:

Now, this is what I call signage:

See the old bridge in the background?:

Yesterday, the receptionist insisted that I pick up a pic-nic to take with me since I was not having breakfast.  Since I knew that the shopping options would not optimal, I said, "OK, gracias, pero jamon no como."  "Thank you but I don´r eat ham."  "Yo tampoco". "Neither do I." This morning a huge bag was on the desk, so I quickly shoved it into my suitcase because no way could I carry it.  When I unpacked, there was a cheese sandwich the size of a sub, a banana, something like those hard corn things, and a cookie.  Lunch/dinner!  (But the banana was tasteless as bananas can be sometimes.)

At the point where I had determined the break the walk, there was a bar, which is actually one of the reasons I decided to make that the stop point, since a taxi would be able to find it.  I bought an ice cream (fake ice cream) and asked the señora if she could call a taxi (using my phone because she did not know from phones).  This request she did not like very much.  She informed me that in two hours there would be a bus, which I knew, but I did not want to wait two hours and besides, I needed a supermercado!  Reluctantly she made the call; the taxista said, "No."  Then she called another, and after I looked up all the available taxis in the area, she finally got a "si, en media hora."  Fine.  I took the wait time as an opportunity to take off my wet boots and stuff them with paper towels from the bathroom.  (I keep a pair of very lightweight shoes in my pack for situations such as this.) 

When the taxista arrived, I informed him of my need for a supermercado and he insisted there was one in Cadavedo.  Really?  Well, he pulled up to this tiny little store, no sign, and in I went.  Let´s just say that the pickings were slim, but señor el taxista had no intention of taking me to the Alimerka in the next town, so I had to make do.  Some lettuce rounded out the cheese sandwich, and as for the rest, not exactly gourmet dining.

The hotel is gorgeous on a magnificent property.  Dinner has two seatings: 8;00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.  I will be at neither.  But I am pretty tired of eating out of my suitcase, especially when the enhancements are not particularly good.  

Flowers from the hotel´s garden in the lobby:

The hotel guy, incredulous that anyone would want a taxi at  6:30 a.m., (he asked me the time three times), ordered one anyway and Esther, la taxista, showed up right on time to take me to the bar of yesterday´s departure.  On the way she told me that she had heard from several peregrinos that the path was flooded in many sections, and recommended I take the road.  I was especially unhappy to hear this because some of the way was on REAL paths!  Had I known, I would have nixed this stretch altogether and done some circular walking in the area of the hotel. Oh, well. Inadvertently, I did start out on the path and after about 1/2 mile realized this was not a good idea, so I turned around and hunted for the correct highway.

Thank God it was not the A8 way up there:

There was not much to see except for some moss on a wall:

Toward the end ,there was a man and his horse doing the Camino

so I figured it was safe to do that stretch on the path and it was fine, though nothing special.

Once in Cadavedo, I hit the store that advertised take out.  It had the lovely smell of chickens cooking.  "Can a person get chicken to take out? I asked en español.  The reply was, "Sí pero más tarde, a eso de las 3:00."  So I called Esther and asked if she could take me to the Alimerka  in Luarca which is where I go tomorrow, but tomorrow being Sunday, el supermercado will be closed.  She could and she did and I had a lovely dinner and have enough for tomorrow, too!

El Pito June 20

 Nothing particularly memorable about today´s walk except to say that it was just under 18 miles, it rained most of the time not too hard (except for a while when it poured), there were lots of puddles but all could be leapt over, skirted, or somehow navigated so as not to repeat yesterday's unpleasantness of waterlogged boots. 

When I started out at 6:30, the weather was iffy, so I thought, "Maybe I will be lucky."

                                        

Because, as it is said, every cloud has a silver lining even if it gold.  Ok, so that is not as it is said, but it is what I said to make the narrative fit the photo.  And for about an hour, I was lucky.  When you feel those first drops you have to hustle into your rain gear, otherwise you can get soaked pretty fast.  And then you are cold and all, and that is most unpleasant.

A mix of town and country:

The gentlest guard dog you ever saw (or maybe the oldest):

Guarding his flock:

The stillest horses I ever saw:

The cutest little fellow I saw today:

When it rains you don´t take pictures, so these were between the drops.

I am in a very nice hotel tonight.  The room is small but luxurious with lovely appointments, feel good linens, and a soothing view of a huge rhododendron from one window and of mountains from another, only that window is high up, so not easy to see said mountains.  The problem of the day was that there was nowhere to lay in supplies, so the canned tuna, which really needed some jazzing up didn´t get any, but I have my chocolates and tea.  Tomorrow and Saturday the provision situation is also bleak, so hoping for a taxi to a nearby town so that I can hit the supermercado, because on Sunday you are plain out of out of luck.

Speaking of high up (see just above) I have been wondering why it is that hotels put bath towels on a rack way up high.  Do they like the look, or are they afraid that the children might get into them?  Maybe it is simply an efficient use of space!

Avilles June19

 What a day!  Taxi picked me up on time and off we went, I, dressed in rain gear,  to the Shell Station of yesterday.  The driver thought it a strange drop off, but I knew the path went right by there.  And it did, under a tunnel and all. I don´t even know what to say about the navigation today except that for the most part it was just AWFUL.  

The absolute worst was coming into Aviles, but more of that later.

Here is a taste of the scenery:

At one point, as I was wending my way through the outskirts of Gijon, a woman in a bright little yellow car gestured to me to go down the hill as I was heading up.  99% of the time when natives point the way, they are correct—it is easy to spot the Camino walkers.  I thought that maybe there was a roadblock up yonder, but, no, the lady in the bright little yellow car was simply wrong.

It is very disconcerting to have to cross RR tracks when they are not marked on the map:

It rained and then it didn´t and then it did and this looks like Kansas in the Wizard of Oz only it isn´t.  It is just an ominous cloud announcing that yes, you will have to put on your rain gear AGAIN soon.  Anyone remember the cute little book called Mickey and Molly, you know where Mickey puts on his blue trousers and Molly puts on her blue skirt and red shirt  and so on and so forth, and then they take them off and go to sleep under and red and white blanket (or something like that)?  Well, it was like that, only not so cute.

At one point when the drizzling started and I was taking our the gear AGAIN , I was thinking that I was overreacting but four cyclists pulled up and did the same!  Then they asked if I would take their picture and I am so mad that I didn't take one of them using my camera because they were so nice and looked so smart in their black tights and black, red, and yellow tops, even with their ponchos on.

Eventually the industrial cityscape turned country side:

which allowed me to contemplate these drops of water on the roadside growth.  I determined that the drops looked better from the other side, like jewels, you know, but that would not have shown up in a photo.

This bucolic intermezzo was downgraded because of some major puddles.  One was so deep and wide that the water went down into my boots and I had to slog in sopping wet socks and boots for several hours yet.  It  was not a puddle where you would dare to take off your boots and go barefoot because the path was full of large stones and as I learned, a cut in the foot is not a good thing to have. 

Crossing from one highway to another was a ditch.  Fortunately, there was a plank:

You see that there multi-wheeler?  there were many many many many of those today, a-roaring by:

This warren of roads on the approach to Avilés  was utterly horrendous because some of those roads are over the other roads and none of the apps make the distinction and cars and truck are whizzing by and you are trying not to get killed.  Finally, as I was kind of a wreck on the upper level, I figured that maybe I should not be there and remembered a metal ramp that descended between two or maybe three highways and thought, "Aha! It be there for a reason."  And it was!  From then on it was just plain unpleasant, but not scary.

Avilés has its charm, to be sure, but my hotel is not in the charming area. 

Two women out for a shop:

Not the Guggenheim Puppy, but pretty flower thingees were along the main square:

And the sidewalks look like this:

Hmm, I was thinking, this was the home of Saint Teresa, but no, that was Ávila, not Avilés!

When I checked in to the hotel, the receptionist did not even ask for my name!  You hand over your passport, and you become your room number!  As I approached my room, I saw the cleaning people and asked if I might have a couple of extra rolls of papel higiénico (toilet paper) to stuff my boots that were llena de agua (full of water).  They did oblige.  Then I pulled out of the suitcase my spare pair of insoles congratulating myself that I had indeed taken one for the right foot and one for the left foot!

Gijon June 18

 I had a plan for this rest day:  A walk around the periphery of all the beaches or something along those lines, but it was raining.  I don´t know if there were any cliffs involved, but since the start was several miles from the Parador, and like I said, it was raining, I decided to nix that plan and instead knock off some miles from tomorrow's walk.  The guide books describes the stage from Gijon to Aviles as the ugliest of all. The miles I did were simply industrial-urban, the biggest challenge being navigating those horrific roundabouts.  But I am catching on!

Here is where I start tomorrow!

How would that be as an ad for this Camino!

On the way back, I went to the aquarium because that is about all there was to do except for walking around the ins and outs of the urbanized shoreline.  There is a botanic garden but it was way way distant, and there are many churches should one have a penchant.  

At the aquarium I learned many interesting facts about sharks, I will pass on but a few:

Some female sharks lay eggs, but most give birth to live young. The male inserts sperm into the female with an organ called a clasper.  (Now you know.) The female typically gives birth after 11–12 months of pregnancy, but some, such as the frilled sharks, are pregnant for more than three years. (They are quite rare so how does anyone know?) In some sharks, a placenta develops during pregnancy.  

Sharks´teeth are constantly replaced.  A single shark my shed 30,000 teeth during its lifetime.  And they don´t even need this:

Another feature of sharks is that their brains have an extra large area devoted to scent, helping them smell a drop of blood diluted more than a million times.

And now for some pretty pictures:

I think this was my favorite.  The coloration reminded me of Ellie´s prom dress!

This is her rival, who, you must admit, is quite pretty, too:

Here is the date of one of them.  He does not look too enthusiastic:

Starfish:

The challenge here is finding the fish:

The rain let up, and after spending some time on logistics for the coming days, I decided to walk through the park of Isabel la Catolica (a heroine to some, to others, not so much). 

All the girls were in there:

Except for the ones in the trees:

And then on to the beach. The day did not invite much action:

But one guy did not mind:

His book must have been a real yawner!

Gijon, June 17

 I am so glad that yesterday I bit off a chunk of today´s walk!  I will tell you why.  Taxi drop off at the start point was  6:30 where began a serious climb of 1500 feet.  That was only the first climb of the day but it was the steepest and longest. There is really not a lot to say about today´s stage that is new:  scenery was pleasant, 

Hey, little fellow!  

One day you will grow up to be like....

I am going to guess that these barrels are used for aging cider, a popular beverage in these parts.

As usual, the surfaces for the most part were not so pleasant.  At least I did not have to contend with this:

In other words, it was rather boring.  But I was prepared!  I spent a couple of hours listening to Jessica Fein´s book, Breath Taking. I  cried only a few times.  It is very moving.

When I reached the hotel in Gijon it was only noonish so I did not think I would be admitted, but not only was my room ready, the suitcase had been delivered.  The hotel is a parador, which is to say it is REALLY NICE!  And there is a good supermarket across the street.  Sometimes you get lucky!  It was so nice to take a shower, wash my hair and do the laundry.

Speaking of the suitcase, I checked with the tour company, and indeed I am allowed 20 kilos, as if I know exactly how much it weighs, but for sure it does not weigh more that 44.09lbs!  Even though I had been instructed by the driver yesterday to put some of my goods in a backpack, the tour company also told me they would not charge me for two pieces today!  Wow!  Did I get a break!

Anyway, I had a great lunch of high grade lox with cream cheese, tomato and onion on black bread and a soda, which meal gave me the energy to check out the environs.

First, the beech, 

where I will spend more time tomorrow.

Checked out a few side streets where I found a gorilla brandishing a machine gun:

Ambling through the lovely park right near the hotel, I came upon a large collection of fowl:

This is the tuchas of a chicken:

And here is a peacock being modest:

A bench styled so that people can sit on either side:

Then back to my luxe (relatively speaking) surroundings, which I do enjoy very much!