Arzua to A Rua

Total distance today = 11.2 miles

Total ascent = 525 meters

Cumulative distance = 477.5 miles

First a couple of leftovers from yesterday. 

Seen on the way to the hotel, in the middle of the city.  The dog seems to enjoy the ride. 

As we've gone through major cities like Pamplona, Logrono, Burgos, Leon, and today in Arzua, we've noticed what we call "suck 'um up" waste and recycling containers.  There is no home trash removal. Residents place their trash in communal receptacles. In these larger cites, there is a giant sucking machine underground that takes all the trash away to a central location by pneumatic action. Pretty sophisticated considering the bad Spanish economy. The streets are always clean. 

There was one group of peregrinos that we failed to mention the other day when we were stereotyping all the pilgrims. This is the "light-weight" peregrino - the pilgrims who walk along with a small day pack because a van is transporting all their luggage. There are vans that run up and down the Camino route moving luggage every day. We see it as a form of cheating, although old-school pilgrims would say our hotels are cheating compared to the communal albergues, and some pilgrims would scoff at anyone who isn't camping.  We do see people breaking camp and carrying large overstuffed packs every day. Our packs are pretty light because we are only carrying our clothes, water, and personal items - no tent, pads, cooking gear or sleeping bags. We actually bought smaller packs for this trip (32 litres each) leaving our "real" 70-litre backpacks at home. 

This morning, as we passed the stack of bags in the lobby, we wondered why we didn't opt for that service. :)

Today's walk was much the same as yesterday's, a mix of country roads and sendas (gravel paths) shaded by eucalyptus trees. 

Mostly through small farms and rural villages. 

There was a memorial to poor Guillermo, a 69 year old man who died just a day shy of making it to Santiago. 

While we never had the Camino to ourselves today, people were a little more spread out and quieter.

In case you haven't noticed in previous pictures, we are seeing more families with younger kids on the trek.  They've mostly just joined the Camino for the last few days into Santiago. We have walked and talked with a few families in our broken Spanish. All of the families are from Spain, mostly the south. We noticed one teenage girl with an a Ocean City, MD shirt, and have seen her family at breakfast at a few of our hotels, so have shared notes with her and her siblings and parents despite weak language skills on both sides. 

David was almost bumped from the path by a elementary school girl (the short one on the left) determined to keep up with the other girls in her group. 

At one point we were walking down a narrow, quiet country road and came upon a deserted construction site for a major highway. A nice wide bridge for the peregrinos. Within 15 feet of the other end, we were back on a country road that was a lane and a half wide. There are abandoned construction projects all over Spain, commercial, residential, and infrastructure like this. 

We crossed over and under the very busy N-547 several times in the afternoon and walked beside it for about a mile. 

As we got close to tonight's destination, we came around a corner, and heard a commercial for an albergue in the next town. The sound was emanating from this diorama. It's a pretty elaborate set up- motion sensors, a map with the albergue's location, and if you look inside, a slide show of the amenities it has. 

Just before we got to Rua, we came upon this memorial for a 52 year old woman who died in Santiago the day she completed her second Camino. 

Pictures and plagues for various peregrinos - take a look at the T-shirt. Does he look familiar?  I'd love to know his story - we've seen his picture for hundreds of miles, taped to crosses, on rock piles along the trail. 

Soon we entered Rua, and almost as soon, we were leaving Rua. But just before we left town, we found our hotel. It is very nice, with a pool, but I decided to nap in the room while Dave catches up on emails and scheduling. 

Tomorrow is THE day. If all goes well, we will complete our Camino, walking the last 12 miles into Santiago de Compestela. Then we will decide whether to continue on hiking the next 60 miles to the ocean and Finisterre.