santiago again

hi everyone
i don´t know if anyone is here, but if you are, i´ll tell you about the last few days.
i walked to finisterre on monday, tuesday and wednesday. it was a beautiful walk in spite of the fact that it was misty and foggy for the last two days. i could hear the fog horn so i knew the ocean was close, but i couldn´t see it until the last couple hours of walking. Finisterre was rainy and cold the first night. i checked into a great hostal, with corner windows in my room.it felt very cozy. the hostal was called hostal lopez and it had figures of snow white and the seven dwarfs on the patio. i knew it was for me when i saw them.
i went to sleep with the sound of rain out my window, but woke up to bright blue skies and a view of the harbor that look my breath away. christine and her friend marcella and i had coffee and then walked to the lighthouse, the final 2.7 km to marker 00.00km. impossible. i think i walked around 1700km, give or take. but to think of it in terms of central france to the ocean just seemed too good to be true. we sat and laughed and took pictures of the ocean, the rocks, each other.
i burned some of my clothes in the firepit, my favorite orange shirt melted and disappeared. it all felt so good. later we packed a picnic to go for our swim in the ocean and watch the sunset. on friday morning i walked alone on the beach. everything looked beautiful.
i took the bus back to santiago friday afternoon, to be here for the feast of st. james. crowds, music, fireworks, parades, a festival for the whole town.
now santiago is perfect. it all seems just right. i have gone to two more masses, happily gave st. james a hug, walked around smiling. i met new people who i spent the day with. maybe tomorrow i will go on a day trip back to the ocean to muxia before i get on the plane to come home.
i am so happy to be coming home. i think that´s all there is to say. goodbye from spain.
love,
mary

santiago

i'm here! i came into santiago last night at about 5. i started walking at 7am, it was a perfect, cool, sunny, breezy walking day and i just kept going. i walked 40km, the longest i have ever walked. i guess i wasn´t running out of steam but just so ready to be in santiago and off the road. the first time i walked to santiago, i didn´t want it to end. this time i was finished about 3 days ago. it seemed perfect to come in at sunset.
my walk in was perfect, no other pilgrims, just many spanish people walking in their neighborhoods, enjoying the evening. i think i walked the camino this time to complete something and i feel it´s completed. i was really happy walking in. i don´t even know what it is. and finesterre is my new beginning.
walking the camino at this time of year has one big problem. there are hundreds of high school (mabe college) students who walk for 100 km to qualify for their certificate. the energy is crazy. people talking past midnight, up again at 4:30, racing for a bed in a next town. for me it changed the whole feeling, hence my 40k walk to finish. i am hoping the way to finisterre is more calm!!!
darin walked in to santiago this morning at 7 so we could say goodbye to paul again. we were waiting in the plaza, and then there is violin music. it was boram, under the portico behind us. there were maybe 10 of us in the plaza, everyone silent, a few seagulls, pink morning light, and that beautiful music. her music was with me in the beginning of spain at a warm happy italian dinner and now the end of the walk in front of the cathedral.
paul, darin and i had our last of many coffees and paul started down the hill to finisterre. it was a little sad, but mostly happy. i am certain i will see him again. i think he was my best friend on this camino and he´s 18!
today i expect to see more familiar faces of people i have met on the way. many goodbyes, each goodbye a thank you for the gift of meeting. happy and sad together.
a little later-
i just came back from mass. once again the mass was awesome. i saw the korean man with his son, gorg from stuttgart, the french couple i tried to outrun ( back before i promised st. roch i would stop using my ipod to temper my experiences) another french couple who walked from le puy with me and christine. perfect. the nun is still leading the singing in the chirch- a voice of an angel, maybe she is an angel. and again the incense. i sat in the same place as last time. sweet. ok. maybe my walk to santiago will never be finished.( this time i heard una le puy, etas unidas, that´s me.
tommorrow morning i am meeting before mentioned french couple and we are starting the walk to finesterre, then i am coming back to stay at this simple hostel for the celebration of st. james next weekend. i´m told i will see the fireworks from my room.

updates

just a few updates on people i have talked about. first of all, violin girl is here. her name is boram, and she doesn´t look like a girl anymore. she is strong and tan and has walked all of the way with her violin. she took a day to rest and then has walked far each day to get here.we were so happy to see each other.
antonio and massimo sent me text messages telling me where they were every once and a while and then they called from finesterre! they were so happy! massimo said ¨- big kisses from antonio and i wait for you in florence.
it will be exciting to see who else appears in santiago when i am there.
today was difficult for me. i am running out of steam i think. i am in palas de rei, in a hostel for more sleep. sunday santiago. bye
mary

portomarin

hi
this is my favorite part of spain- galicia. there is something so refreashing about this land after the dry, relatively flat meseta. there are mountain ranges that traps moisture from the ocean and makes everything green. the highest point of the camino after the pyrenees is o cebreiro. the walk is 3 km from villfranca and up. i wanted to walk an alternative route, a high route, because the first time i was here i skipped that option. so that was my plan. i left my albergue at 6:30 and as i walked by pauls algergue,he walked out. we talked about which route to take, and he decided to come with me. it was a very steep walk out of town, almost like walking up an alley, into the hills. the sun hadn´t risen yet and the light was awesome. we walked and walked and made it to the high ridge, and there eating an orange, sat darin. the three of us stayed together until 4pm when we finished on top of o cebrerio.it is a tiny village, with bells on cows and sheep in the fields, endless green hills rolling off into the distance and music coming from the bars, music of galecia, a mixture of irish and spanish sounds. it is magic. i would love to be there in the winter, in the snow,sitting by a fireplace. it was great accomplish that with paul and darin, we were very happy with ourselves.
in my guidebook it says there is always rain in galecia, rain or fog. both times i have been there it was clear and beautiful.
next day was down the mountain. then yesterday, i walked alone again through tiny old villages. they aren´t even villages, they are one or two homes tucked in a flat place, homes made of stone, dry construction with something stuck in for insulation. the stone looks like a brown slate for the walls and black slate on the roofs.i think of the patience it took to build such a thing. to gather the stone, to set it piece by piece to build a sturdy wall. amazing. and then there are the cows walking down the streets with dogs on their heels, if cows have heels. i love all of this, and the foxglove and wild daisies and butterflies. today, it was the same but with a slightly different stone to build with.
what a great day. except that today i said goodbye to paul. he has the urge to go fast and get to santiago one day before jessica and i. we had a goodbye party on the roof last night and yogurt together this morning. he is a awesome. i can´t imagine what he will accomplish with his life, but it is going to be good. he promised to take time to enjoy the way and jump in the ocean at the end. i am sure i will see him again.
darin can´t decide if he wants to go fast or slow. he does both. i know i want to go slow, to see as much as i can, because i don´t expect to come back here. i will be in santiago on sunday and finesterre next week and home on the 28th. but i´getting ahead of myself.
jessica is here, i don´t know where christine is, but i never know until i here her call my name. it feels so different this time, no excitement of crossing the 100 km marker or thoughts of santiago. it is more like every moment is the one i love. the stones, the flowers, the cows, the butterflies are what i dreamed of when i was home and now seeing them is perfect. santiago will be great, and i am really looking forward to seeing the ocean. and then my girls and their families. more later
mary

villafranca del bierzo

hello
it is saturday in spain, in villafranca to be exact. it might be in the region of galecia, if not it is very close. i know that every day i say it was a beautiful day, but it is the truth. i have not had to walk in rain since the first day in spain. everyday has been sunny, with bright, light blue skies and sometimes clouds. i have a new family. we are 4 usually and sometimes five. there is paul from poland ( 18) jessica from PA (28) darin from Canada (40 something) and me. i have been thinking of what brings us together and it is english of course, and the fact that we all like to walk alone, and they are all very funny and we are all interested in spirituality. Darin is a buddist, paul is a gracious catholic and jessica is an earnist christian, maybe catholic. jessica said to me early on, "i keep asking god what he is waiting for. i want him to talk to me. i only have ( ) days left! what is he waiting for." she looks like a gymnist, short strong and when she walks she plants her feet! bam bam bam. her blond ponytail swings back and forth. and where is god! the fifth person is christine who is austrian but has lived in america for 15 years. she is here celebrating her 50th birthday. she now practices native american rites. we have dinner most nights, and talk and laugh.
i last left you in leon. saying i love leon. i was a tourist that day, staying in a hotel, going to museums, watching tv! leon has the most beautiful cathedral i have ever seen. it is one of the most beautiful things i have seen, right next to coral reefs, the grand canyon and the met opera. it has so many stained glass windows, it is like being inside a kalidiscope. there is also another old monestary, san isodora that has frescos, 800 years old and fresh as new.
i walked out of leon, to the small albergue, tio pepe. i stood and watched the storks again in the morning sun, and christine and i met. she too loves the storks. we walked out on town together and there was a flasher in his doorway. i,because i can´t really focus that well and am naive, thought he was just getting his paper (as if there is home delivery of paper in a town of 63 people) but christine saw it all. poor flashers. i see nothing. how frustrating for them.
i walked to astorga, foncebadon and then on to panferrada. there were rolling hills, more grapes, mountains. all of this leads up to beautiful, green galicia and the very celtic o cebriero. yesterday afternoon there was a wedding procession through the town plaza, beautiful people in formal dress followed by the most interesting bag pipe music. it wasn´t like the typical sound, it had a definite galician sound. i love that music. this morning while paul and i were walking out of the town, the bride and groom were walking down the street with their friends on the way to their hotel. it was about 7 am. they looked as beautiful as last night. what is the secret..why don´t the spanish need sleep?
i am less than 200 km from santiago and then will be walking to the ocean, another 99km. all of us have made a pledge on my hiking pole to jump into the ocean, even if we aren´t together. Darin will have to do it in nova scotia, he isn´t going to finesterre.
mary
ps massimo and antonio sent me a text saying they are close to santigo. great news.

villar de mazarife

hello!
it is about 5pm, in the next room, in a bar, there is a spanish soap opera on the tv.low soft voice interupted ever two minutes for rapid fire ads. it´s great. i am staying in the same albergue-bar that i stayed in last time. as i was approaching this village, there were 10 pilgrims ahead of me. i thought, wow, it´s a top bunk for me tonight. but they all went someplace else. 4 of them signed in and then left. i think i am here alone. hmm. it seems fine enough.
i left off somewhere at the beginning of the meseta, didn´t i? here is what it was like, short version. first day- beautiful soft white clouds scattered in a perfectly blue endless sky. butterflies, wildflowers. walked the last half with massimo, who was exhausted. we played what does that cloud look like to you? day 2- hot, cloudless, endless. that´s the day that ended massimo and antonio´s walk in the meseta and made me into a charging, ipod listening walking machine. day 3- cloudy, almost rained in the morning, spent most of the day walking off the road, next to a river. poplar trees, sunshine, a man on a combine gave me candy ( really),lots of little flies and two beautiful churches. day 4- long straight ( maybe roman) road. 16 km without a town, or chair, or tree, or water. i walked the first part alone and then the last with an 18 year old from poland. he is part of my new family.ended that day going further than others in my little group, spent an hour or two alone in rolling hills of barley and wheat. awesome. day 5 took another alternate route to stay off the road. it is described as looking like africa. i don´t know. but again it was 22 km without comforts. what it had was more butterflies ( they are so happy looking, always) and grains and flowers and birds. there were also irrigation ditches with frogs in them. i was trying to think- what did they remind me of? the sound was so familiar, and then it came to me. when you were little did you take pieces of broken balloon and make little balloons out of them and rub them against your teeth to make a certain skeaking rubber sound? my sisters and i did. and those frogs sounded just like that.i was with my sisters again every time i heard those frogs. i love them. that´s pretty much the meseta. i love it. if you think of north or south dakota, or wyoming, i think you can imagine what it is like.
storks have been a big part of my life lately too. i have seen them do two things that i didn´t notice last time. the first is that i think they are fanning there babies or maybe eggs, but they stand on the edge of these enormous nests and fann their enorous wings. i was in burgos the first time i saw that. it was in the hot afternoon and just watching them do that cooled me off. the other cool thing they do is make a loud clacking sound with their beaks. i have no idea what that is for, but they do it all night. if i wake up and hear that sound i have to smile in bed, knowing where that sound is coming from. what are they doing.
ok one more thing and then i´m done. this is about burgos, which was many days ago now, but i forgot to tell you last time. i arrived in burgos on a holiday. the feast day of san juan and pedro. to celebrate there are groups of people dressed in folk costumes bringing flowers to a statue of the blessed virgin set up in front of the cathedral. i think there was a judging too. the streets were packed, really packed. the tourist office told me the festival would end for the afternoon at 2 and then i could go into the cathedral. at 2:15 or so i started to the cathedral, swimming against the tide of all the people leaving the street. once i was in the middle, it didn´t matter which way i was heading, it seemed i was going against the tide. i tried to follow a tiny old nun through because people gave her room, but her wake was too small and she too fast so i got swallowed up again. then i found a mother pushing a stroller, once again people gave her room and i followed right behind and finally got through to the church. i learned an inportant lesson. maybe three.
later that night, when we all had turned off the lights and started to fall asleep, the band started. i´d say about 10 or 10:30pm. the last time i was here, i would have been so irritated, this time i just love how not like home this is. i only wish the music had been a little easier to hear. THEN at 12pm the fireworks started. slowly, people got out of bed and went to the windows to watch. there we were, in the dark, strangers in our underwear, all watching fireworks. not talking, because we were in our underwear.
next time i will tell you of my stay in leon. a pit stop, reinvigorating. i love that city.
mary

massimo, antonio and the meseta

hello
my friend bernard told me one time about a philosopher, fulbert steffensky, who says that we often aren´t really living because we temper our lives with comfort. and that when we are cold or hungry or thirsty, we know we are alive. we agree that that is one of the fabulous things of the camino. you really feel alive and exposed. i always thought of being untempered as being tired, or hungry or wet or cold, but bermard said being lonesome was also a part of being untempered. i didn´t want to notice that. but he is right. i guess i am really alive today because i´m sad and saying goodbye again.
for some reason, antonio and massimo make me happy. i smile when i see them. that has been the case from the first minutes i met them. just now i heard antonio´s voice in this room and i smile. they are good friends to each other, they laugh all the time, they depend on each other, and, happpily, they invited me into their lives. it is just great. well, today they decided it´s too hard to walk. they are going to take a bus to leon ( four days for me) and maybe further because the meseta is too hard. they both have health issues and the meseta scares them. reaching santiago is really important to them and they don´t want to risk that by walking on the meseta. it is so hot, and the road long. today there were no clouds and the temperature probably was into the 80´s when we reached the town we are in. but that means that i may not see them again. massimo says we will see each other in florence, but that is just a way of saying goodbye gently. we will have dinner tonight and tomorrow i will leave early, crying no doubt, and that will be that.
it is the best and the worst of the camino, getting really close to people and then leaving them when it is time.
i feel great physically. nothing hurts. i am relaxed and calm. i love the land even when it is hot. i have water and sunscreen and a hat and i am good to go. i have to admit that i looked ahead at the miles we had to walk this afternoon- you can see them- and i put on my ipod and gospel music. it was good. then a couple who are a little younger than i am started to gain on me and my old competitive spirit clicked in and off i went. thats no way to go to santiago, but it was fun.
but if i don´t have someone to be with at night, if i don´t find new friends, it will be hard. untempered i guess. i am a crazy person, i live alone, i like being alone for the most part, but i don´t look forward to being alone now.
i think it will take me 3 or 4 days to pass through the meseta. it really is gorgeous. last night a young man asked me how to get through it. i said don´t get through it, enjoy it. think of how lucky you are to be here now in this place. now i have to listen to myself.
there is only one couple who are still with me from the original group. they are really nice but don´t speak english. the father and son had to back off because the son´s ankle is hurting. gorg from germany is ahead.
there were proably other things i intended to say, but these things are on my mind.
bye from very very sunny spain.
mom, nonna, mary
a note to kathy coskran. the old man who kisses was out today. he talked to me when i was in castrojeriz. blah blah and then he leaned in to kiss me. i offered my cheek, he indicated my lips, i gave him my cheek, he tried for the lips. i pulled away. i didn´t think he was so cute this time. but he could have had my cheek. could this be the same guy?