The Chair

If you look closely you can see it on the big rock in the center. It was low tide, you can see the high tide line on the lower left foreground. Here is a closeup.

We don’t know who put it there. It looks like it may be fastened on, not sure.

I figured it would be cool to go down there, climb up, sit in it, and have Wynette take photos. Then wait for high tide, about four hours, when the rock was surrounded by the ocean and take more photos.

But Wynette was not willing to suffer for my art. You’ll have to imagine how cool the photos would have been.

Pulpo (Octopi)

Morning catch

Post by Wynette: This morning we passed this man carrying a bucket and a long hook thing. He’d just popped up to the walkway from the rocks along the beach. I couldn’t resist asking what he had in his bucket. He showed us. It was octopus, what they call pulpo in Spain. Anyone who’s done the Camino to Santiago knows that the Galicians love pulpo and there are restaurants everywhere that specialize in it. Charlie and I have tried it a few times but haven’t developed a taste for it. It is very chewy/rubbery.

A bucket of pulpo fresh from the sea

After we passed the man we looked down and saw another man with a similar pole. Probably fishing for octopi as well.

Day 13, April 17: Rinlo to San Bartolo

Rinlo before sunrise

Post by Wynette: We left earlier than usual this morning. A bit before sunrise. Forecast was for a warmer than usual day and we wanted to avoid the excruciating walk in 68 degree weather.

We walked a little more than 8 miles. The Ruta was more developed today. Much of it paved trails and more houses along the way. But a thoroughly enjoyable walk.

In the last half of the walk we went along a huge sandy beach that went on for miles.

This beach went on forever in both directions

I’ve been enjoying the beautiful ice plant on the headlands. Then we saw a sign that said they are invasive plants and there is effort to eradicate them. That makes it harder to enjoy them but they really are pretty. Kind of like the salt cedar (tamarisk) trees in the US southwest, such as along the Rio Grande and in the Grand Canyon. They are such pretty trees and do so much damage to the native habitat.

Ice plant, beautiful and invasive

Day 12, April 16: Ribadeo to Rinlo

Heather(?) and gorse in the mini-moor

Post by Wynette: Today (April 16) we started along the Camino del Mar which mostly follows the Ruta Cantábrica, a system of trails that follow the Atlantic coast in northern Galicia. We walked about 7.5 miles.

The Camino here is poorly marked. We see a yellow camino arrow here and there, but the Ruta has excellent signage so we are following that, and, of course, our GPS tracks. The trail is usually right along the ocean. Today (April 16) much of it went through what we called mini-moors on headlands. We saw heather (I think) and gorse and many other wild flowers. Lots of sun so water was blue. Quite a pretty hike. Most of it was country far from any houses. We did see a number of people out walking and others gathering something from the tide pools (mussels?).

We are staying in the tiny village of Rinlo. We didn’t have a lot of choice for accommodation. Our room is clean and quiet but beds aren’t great and we never did get any hot water for showers. Maybe almost sorta lukewarm. We were feeling a little down about that but it finally dawned on us that this was a clearly a first-world problem.

The hotel does have an excellent restaurant. We had some delicious scallops and then a large steaming hot pot of rice, lobster, prawn, crab, and clams, a dish that is a specialty of the town. We had to wait 30 minutes for them to prepare the dish but it was worth it. The restaurant was large and full and nearly everyone was having the rice dish.

Rice/seafood dish: Arroz Caldozo
Our hotel in Rinlo. Hard to believe from this photo that there is a top notch seafood restaurant through the door on the left
Inside the restaurant.