The Camino Primativo is a much less traveled path but what it lacks in perigrinos it makes up for with scenery. With fewer pilgrims and options for lodging, our family is developing quickly. We have stayed in 3 wonderful places, 2 of them donativos (donation only). The donativos include family style dinner and breakfast. Our traveling band includes:
Thomas from Switzerland, who is a watchmaker and grew up on a dairy farm. If his grandfather was a chocolatier, the stereotype would be complete. He has stayed all 3 nights with us despite being much faster than us. Much faster when he is walking but a significant amount of his day is consumed drinking coffee so we often finish ahead of him.
Laura who is from Florida but now lives in Malaga. She is there for a few years with her Italian boyfriend. They met in Orlando when he was in flight school. Now he has taken a job in Malaga and she was fed up with the practice of law, so she’s taking a sabbatical in Spain and exploring. She is hilarious and I’ve told her that if she never wants to practice law again she has a definite career path in stand up comedy. Last night she serenaded our donativo after dinner playing Fleetwood Mac on the yukulele.
Naty is a yoga instructor from Siberia. She is the first yogi that I have ever met from Siberia. In fact, she is the first person I have met from Siberia. She is very fast and covered our first 2 stages in 1 d. Fortunately for us she developed a large raw spot on her heel and has had to slow down to our pace. Yesterday midday she threw out her hiking boots of 10 yrs and purchased Keens sandals. Once her heel heals we’ll say our goodbyes. After the Fleetwood Mac concert Naty led the group in a floor stretching session.
Joining in for the first time last night was Alphonso. He is a local who is riding the Primativo on a mountain bike. He covered our first 3 days in 1. He is also hilarious and had us rolling with his wit. He’s also passed on a lot of local insider intel. Our plan is to sabotage his bicycle so he’s forced to join us by foot. We were discussing cidre which is a huge part of the culture here in Asturias. As the conversation built and arms were extended overhead mimicking the way that it is poured, our host Diego produced a bottle of local cidre. We all stepped out into the street and Alphonso and Diego put on a display pouring cidre from a height. This was made even more difficult due to the wind but only a few drops were lost and we all enjoyed a taste.
We also met a pilgrim last night who has been walking for a year having started in Jerusalem. He is closing in on Santiago but my sense is that he doesn’t want this to be finished.
Despite a full day of rain on day 2, the weather has been perfect. The forecast is looking good which is important as we are heading into an optional high route that is impassable in bad weather. There are limited services but we have places to stay and the scenery is spectacular. I’m really looking forward to this part.
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