some corrections additions and last thoughts

hello from santiago,
it has been so long since i wrote. i think because everyone has smartphones, there are fewer internet places. and i dont know how to blog from my phone. but i'd like to write a few things before i forget them.
maybe a quick recap of the last two weeks or so. i think i last wrote to you from sanabria. well, the actual name is pueblo de sanabria. it is a beautiful old town, founded in 569. it has a castle from that time and a 12th century chuch all built on the top of a hill. the houses are built so close together in the old town, i could hardly walk between them.
my guide book says ´from sanabria the via de la plata clambers over a couple of mountain ranges before crossing into galicia.´'  where they could have added you will find more mountains.
(i think i said that we were in galicia long before we were)
i walked in a lot of woods, and actually got lost in one for 20 minutes or so.it was a  broom and fern woods. everything was high so it was hard to see and i kept walking into bog. it was sunny and i could hear the highway, so i was not really scared, but...after some time i started saying hello? hello? i heard something moving near me. it was a cow walking up the hill, i thought thatś a good idea. i went up and found the path and was at the albergue in no time.
the town we in in was named requejo. a town filled with stone houses, and stone slab stairs leading up to the second floor. the first floor is still used for animals, goats, chickens, lambs, cows. it was surprising to walk along a street and see audi's driving on one side and a cows face in a window on the other. these towns also still use community washing areas.
do you remeber how i said how great it was to walk alone, the freedom etc? well it seems whenever i make a declaration my guardian angel takes note and provides me with another view. i mentioned ruud, who's name i mispelled the first few times. well, we did keep to the same schedule and finally stopped saying to each other we like to walk alone, and spent the last 10 days or so walking together. i loved having someone to share experiences with. the first time we walked together,  we were walking on a highway, high in the mountains and not paying attention when we heard 'beep beep beep' and a truck passed us very close. the truck went on and on. it was carrying a blade for a wind turbine up the mountain. the truck stopped at the next gas station and we talked to the driver. the blade was 50 meters long, it was being carried on an articulated base so the truck to make quick corners. it was enormous. so me surprising thing happened everyday and i loved being able to laugh about them later. i am so thankful we met each other. we had a great time.
we had days in the woods in rain, and through tiny towns where we stopped to talk with women raising pigs, and a woman hearding goats and cows while crocheting. we met another shepherd who showed off his two day old lambs, another woman gave me her sweater because i told her i liked it. another gave us a big bag of fruit that seemed to be a cross between apricot and peach. two women were picking corn and stopped for lunch. i stopped to talk with them, they gave me a chorizo that one of them had made at home. it was so smokey and spicy. i thought this is what they are supposed to taste like.
i think our hardest day was one that was 10 hours of walking up and down mountains. that was the same day we met the women raising pigs and tending to the cows and goats. the villages are called venda da teresa, venda do espiño, venda da capela. they are way up in the mountains and isolated. there are wolves and so it is important that they stay with the animals. the towns consist of 5 houses lets say, and two of them with people living in them. there are no trees, it seems the hills are covered in heather and broom. it s gorgeous in it's own way. but 10 hours of gorgeous is hard too and we got into town at 7:30 just as it was getting dark. it rained all night and turned really cold.i ate leftovers from my pack for dinner- a cookie, a chunk of bread, sausage some chocolate.  starting out in the morning was hard for me,it was the first time i thought i shouldnt be there. walking in the rain and in a dark woods is hard for me. itś hard to see. i have to be really careful. ruud said not to worry, he would stay with me.  but the first thing that happened was the cow in the window, so how could i not laugh and start walking. i know people think i am fearless, but believe me, i am not.
i will quickly tell you the best day and then wrap up.
we walked into a town called albergueria. we had two hours left to walk, and it was time for a coke. the twon again was really quiet, a woman or man walking with a cane, a few dogs running around and then we heard classical music playing- it was coming from the bar. we entered and my first thought was ' they have a cd player . maybe i can ask them to play the cd i bought in sanabria. yes, sure they would. after that the owner luis played some local music he liked, then he gave me the cd! i hope it survived the walk. then he played john denver, and little richard. i played  him the music on my ipod, and it went on all afternon. we never left. we stayed at the albergue across the street, joined at 8 pm by a couple from portugal. they four of us ate dinner together. fatima and ruud played guitar and sang, i cooked and antonio got the heater running.
we had terrible weather the last two days, rain like ive never seen. it was some kind of storm off the coast. but the day we walked onto santiago was beautiful. ruud went home the next day and i took a bus to a little town on the coast. i came back yesterday and took an amazing tour of the roof of the cathedral, something that would not happen in america. i'll show you a photo.
i met a man from australia at breakfast who i went to mass with and walked around town with today. tomorrow i go to madrid and on to warsaw. then home on the 30th.
thatś really all that is on my mind today. i love walking in spain. i can't really explain how great it is. challenging for sure but the chance to make a family with total strangers in such a short time is the magic. i know that this is what people are capable of, what they desire. the closeness we can all have with one another if we just let it happen.
i am going to try to download some photos now.
i'll see you soon. i can wait to hold my daughters and grandsons.
with love and gratitude.
mary

hello
today i was so excited to call arthur and wish him happy birthday. alison kindly told me his birthday was yesterday. but that it was ok because he was having a birthday weekend.i felt terrible. thank god he is young.  i thought today was friday. i am so removed from life that the days merge, but that´s not the reason i got arthur,s day wrong.i just did.
we are definitely walking in galicia now. it is really more than hilly, i´d say these are mountains.switchbacks had not been invesnted when these paths were made. they are pretty steep. and today the sky was grey, feeling like it could rain at any moment, but didn´t. i stopped to draw a picture of a wall, and suddenly i heard music like a flute. i thought oh stop that. flutes playing in the woods? as i walked out of the woods and into town it was clear that a priest was saying mass over a loud speaker outside. it is the feast day of their patron saint. that seemed more normal to me somehow.
still i walk alone. ruut ( the correct spelling of the man from holland) and i cross each other on the way all day long, we both like to leave in the morning when it is light. he stops and thinks often, i just walk and take photos. i am sure i am thinking, but nothing organized. he passes me, i pass him, we say see you later and go on.then the 5 or 6 that are familar with each other have dinner at night.
nina, not nita, is the mother hen of our group. she makes sure we are all happy and fed. she is the most lovely woman. she is 67 like me and has a 34 year old daughter like me and a 6 year old grandson like me. her husband is great too.
yesterday and today the villages we went through are for the most part deserted. there is an elderly woman in black in almost each one, or a man with a hoe in his garden. each one has a chuch that isn´t open. the bells are silent. most of the adobe-brick homes are falling down. looking at these homes, you can see the bones, the hand cut wooden beams, and the carefully placed stones, all dry construction on the foundation and it seems like the homes were carefully, proudly built. now all that is left are the roses, big red roses among the fallen stones and timbers. i would like to know what these villages were like 50 years ago.we walked along grassy paths between falling stone walls all day. then down a huge hill and back up and then we are here, in pueblo de sanabraise or something like that. it´s big. it has stop signs. and a bakery and many bars. i bought a cd of galician music. it is so haunting, like this entire day.
one small complaint, i have two guide books and one app on my phone for this route. they are all pretty much useless. thank god for yellow arrows and helpful villagers or i wouldn´t be home for thanksgiving.
tomorrow we walk about 10 miles with one huge hill, then the next is a 20 mile day, up and down. i am about 170 miles from santiago,i love this part so much. i hope it continues to enchant me.
happy happy birthday sweet arthur. i love you. oscar and jude, have fun at the birthday party. i love you too. goodnight.

mom, mary, nonna

hello
i am in a beautiful albergue, sun shining through the window and some jazz playing on the radio. There is a flower garden outside of the window, pink azaleas and pink roses. across the street are adobe homes. i am in a town called santa croya del tera. i am at the edge of galicia. the weather these last few days has been perfect for walking. blue skies and cool temperatures, perhaps 65 to 70.
i have  a new group of pilgrim friends. a french couple, eveline and jean-marie, a spanish couple from leon, nita and mr.nita, a man from holland, root is the phonetic spelling of his name. there are secondary characters too, a spanish man and a young woman ( root says his 'nurse'.) and another single spanish man.
my walk from zamora to monmarta was kind of sad and hard, for no real good reason except that i didn´t have michaels laugh and the italians txt messages. but it seemed more than that.  somedays are just like that. the next day was the opposite, i could have floated over the land. all i saw were blue  skies, and various shades of brown fields. once and a while there would be a small vineyard. i have been thinking about what it means to walk not alone, but on my own. to me there seems to be a big difference. on my own i have such freedom.
the man from holland and the french couple and i have had dinner together the last two nights. the man from holland translates for the french and i. eveline has a very expressive collection of facial expressions and sounds that little translation is needed. yesterday i walked from granja to tabara. the morning again was cool, the full moon was visable opposite the rising sun. i started walking on rolling hills and fields.after two hours i got to walk on a scary rocky cliff over a river. the views were gorgeous. actually i ran into the spanish man and his nurse in a compromised position. they saw me, i said 'hola' they said 'hola' and i walked on.

in the first town, 6 hours after i started, a woman was walking with a big pail of green grapes. i stopped to talk to her and she gave me a big bunch to eat. they were delicious. she was very sure to tell me the grapes were 'sin chemicle'.the entire area she said grrows grapes sin chemicles.  a bit later on the edge of town a sheperd called out 'hola'. i stopped and he came over. i told him my grandsons would like his sheep. he asked me how old they were. then he asked me how old i was. then i asked him how old he was, he said 57, the same as you he said, young. he asked if i was alone, or married. in the meantime the sheep were milling around and the dogs were rolling their eyes, saying could we get back to work here. root told me later that the sheperd talked to him too. what if he is an extrovert, what a hard job for him.

 my walk was supposed to be 27 km. about 15 minutes before i was to finish, i lost my way. no more yellow arrows to follow. i ended up on a highway. i couldn´t decide which way to turn, right or left. that is when i made my worst mistake. i looked at a google map on my phone. tabara was to the left on my phone. i turned left and walked for 30 minutes before it dawned on me that i was walking east, not west. i was walking back to the town i had just left. ( the last two years i have walked south to north. all of the sudden i am walking west. i think that was why i was disoriented. the crazy sun wasn´t where i thought it was. damn. so i turned around and walked on the highway till i arrived in tabara at 5:30. i started in the morning at 8. i was so tired, dirty and thirsty that i checked into a hostel, not the albergue. that was the right decision.

i have learned an important lesson these last two days. be careful about asking a man where the camino is. he will tell you to walk on the highway, directly, either to the next town or to santiago. it makes no difference. and they are so confident because of course they are right.

today i ate wild grapes, beautiful wild grapes outside of  a deserted bodega  that eveline and jean marie discovered.  the grapes were amazing,deep purple, sweet and juicy. what a gift. i may like them better than the figs of the camino frances. oh by the way, in granja you can either walk north to the camino frances or west to the camino sanabrais. see in the photo-  one way or the other, now is the time.

i have to run to the famacia now. i have gnat ( i'm sure thats what they are) bites all over my face and hands. ouch and ick.

adios and love,
mom, nonna, mary