April 13 (2) slideshow
Day 10, April 14: Tapia to Ribadeo, New Spanish Region, New Camino
Post by Wynette: We walked about 8 miles today. No drama, but we saw a gorgeous beach. The Camino took us over a little sand and a little boardwalk, over a very long highway bridge, and lots of quiet roads. It was sunny and we were really hot when we got to our hotel in Ribadeo. Before we left our little apartment this morning, we ate fruit and cereal and then around noon found a rickety bench in the shade in a tiny rural village and ate a picnic lunch. Four friendly pilgrims and about six friendly locals passed us while we were eating and just about every one wished us bon apetit or buen provecho.
We have left the Spanish region of Asturias and have entered the region of Galicia. We have left the Camino del Norte and are about to begin the Camino del Mar.
Natural Salt Water Swimming Pool
Post by Wynette: We saw this on our stroll around Tapia today. It’s situated so it’s protected from the waves but fresh sea water comes into it. We speculated it might be for swimming and would be less cold than the direct ocean, which is very cold here. A man and woman walked by so I decided to ask “is this a pool for swimming?” He said yes. It used to be a place where they farmed shellfish but they stopped doing that and then eventually decided to make a swimming pool out of it. He said (if I understood him correctly) this is very rare in Spain. Maybe one or two others except maybe more in the islands. I asked if very many people swim in it. He said yes but not till the summer.
Day 9, April 13: Rest day in Tapia
Post by Wynette: Yesterday we rented a little apartahotel in Tapia for two nights. Enjoyed an easy relaxing day here. Very pretty little port and beaches. All energized to hit the trail tomorrow.
April 13 slideshow
Kate and Bedbugs
Post by Wynette: We walked with Kate (I think really Katya or close to that) for a while a few days ago. She is from Poland but has lived in London the last 20 years. She is walking the Camino a week or two at a time, anytime she gets some time off of work. We met the morning after we all stayed in Luarca. We asked her where she stayed there. She laughed and said she would show us a picture. It was of her sleeping bag in a store doorway. It was in a covered alcove so she was protected from the big rain that night. She explained that she doesn’t like to stay in albergues because she’s terrified of getting bedbugs. She said she’d gotten them once and it was painful both having the bites and also having to take all the steps to make sure not to bring them home. I think she occasionally stays in hotels but mostly camps out.
We’ve been lucky not to encounter any bedbugs on any of our Caminos, considering we are in a different place almost every night. I don’t think bedbugs were a big problem on the Camino Frances or Portugués when we did those. I don’t think they are a problem on the Norte now, especially this time of year when there are few pilgrims. But we’ve heard there are now more problems on the Camino Frances. We haven’t stayed in any albergues on the Norte. Mostly pretty nice hotels and such. The day we met Kate we had planned to stay in a certain hotel that night, but when we started seeing that hotel advertising heavily to pilgrims on the trail (the first such advertising we’d seen on this trip) it kind of freaked us out, having so recently heard the bedbug story, and we ended up staying another place.
Hotel people always make us feel welcome, but I wonder if they wonder if we are bringing them bedbugs.
Day 8, April 12: Navia to Tapia
By the track: 17.8 miles. Let’s break that down: get up, walk 0.3 miles to the Feve station, take the train for 8.5 miles (16 minutes) to La Caridad, walk 9 miles (4 hours) to Tapia de Casariego. So a 9.3 mile day for us.
We decided to skip the walk to La Caridad and the stay there since it didn’t seem too interesting. Instead we got a vacation apartment in Tapia for two days and are taking a day off at the ocean tomorrow.
The apartment is very nice and Tapia is a good city for walking around in. Also we have a kitchen so we will be making our meals at home tomorrow (and tonight).
Booking.com
Being old-school we usually call for reservations but this time we used Booking.com some because it is so much faster than calling a lot of places. Reading the Camino blogs it seems that Booking.com is widely used on the Camino. We worry about the fees the hotels have to pay. Kind of like using credit cards, we usually pay cash in small places.
Forget it Jake, it’s Asturias
Several times we have been talking with a local about “maybe it will rain” and they have said “It’s Asturias”. This seems to be an explanation for any weather. We have been in Asturias for nine days and it has rained on almost every one. But never all day, usually only a few times a day, and often in light spurts of 10-20 minutes.
We have not been bothered by the rain much at all. The biggest bother is taking our rain gear on and off so often. In general, on all our Caminos we have been pretty lucky with the rain, maybe 3 or 4 days total where it rained hard all day.