Monday, May 16, Camino Day 5: Ancora to A Guarda (Spain)

Monday, May 16, Camino Day 5: Ancora to A Guarda (Spain)

Deb here: Hey all, I really have some great pictures from today, but the wifi is really lousy, so sill post them as an addendum tomorrow or the next day. Tomorrow is a long day...over 18 miles so it may be a day or two before we update the blog. Thanks for reading. Here's today's journal (Dave):

After a crummy buffet dinner at the Hotel Meira, a very good buffet breakfast at the same place and we're off for what is advertised as a very short day (12 kilometers) ending at A Guarda, Spain. So long, Portugal and abrakadabra, as they say here. Now that we are safely on Spanish soil, we can say that the Portuguese language is full of sh. We don't know how many letters have an "sh" sound, but, listening to the news, we guess it's about half, giving local conversation an almost Russian sound. These folks have gone a long way to avoid sounding Spanish.

We say abrakadabra also, to many nice and polite folks who tried to help us on our way, or, perhaps to get rid of us. Either way, a pleasant and patient people.

An easy walk up to Caminha in Portugal ("h" being something that's added at random to make Spanish words Portuguese). Caminha is where the trouble began. This being a town on the South side of the Ho Chi Minho River, a traveler had to traverse the river to reach Spain. (Fun fact, the Minho runs entirely around Portugal, providing a convenient border with Spain. The river bed is high in magnetic ore, which explains why Spaniards in iron armor have never been able to invade: they sink right to the bottom of the Minho.) A ferry runs from Caminha to A Guarda......except for Monday, today. Then, one walks two miles to Mario's place, Mario being a typical no-nonsense Portuguese guy whose job is to assist travelers when the ferry isn't running. His boat is about ten feet long, and, once we got the hang of the oars, it's a fairly short trip.

Both Caminha and A Guarda are pretty, tiles-roofed towns at the confluence of the Minho and the Atlantic. A Guarda, however, also has the remains of a Celtic settlement on a hill over the town. You know stuff is old when the date carved on it says "BC." There are way old Christian remains too, and a gift shop selling ball caps, fridge magnets, and oven mitts. We are skeptical that the fridge magnets are an accurate depiction of the era.

And, so, our 12 km day became 18, thanks to the closed ferry, and thanks, also, to Mario, who directed us to the left after we'd beached his boat, rather than the right, effectively doubling the distance from the shore to our hotel. That Mario! He's such a kidder! Even so, our easy 8 mile day is an easy 11. As for the local lunch we'd planned on, the desk lady at the hotel - who kept interrupting Scout's decent Spanglish with "Spanish! Spanish!" - told us the prepaid hotel dinner involved her walking us to a restaurant at a time we negotiated with her. That done, and knowing soup or salad, chicken or fish were coming, we passed on lunch. (Well, except for the necessities.)

The Celtic place was impressive, though restored and probably improved. I mean, who knows if they really had satellite dishes? The homes were little circular stone huts maybe ten feet across at the widest with thatched roofs. The one with the new roof also had a cooking stone and a microwave. There was a wall around the thirty or so huts in case neighbors came with spears.

All told, a good day. Mileage walked: 11. Caminars passed: 3.

Posted with Blogsy