I don’t know what to say about today’s walk.  It all seemed like a blur and I don’t know why. On previous Caminos, I recall the last days before reaching the Santiago Camino the best.  That is when I am sucking in every piece of scenery, every conversation with a friend or a new friend, every experience.  This time, I spent most of the walk concentrating more on how we now only have two days of walking left, rather than enjoying the day at hand. 

I do know one thing that also took up a lot of my thoughts… the pulpería in Melide. At the 14km mark of today’s walk, we knew we would be stopping to have a lunch in one of Melide’s famous octopus restaurants. We had told everyone we met about the pulperías and I was a little worried that I oversold the experience. It turned out fine though.  Everyone had a good time and greatly enjoyed the food. More on that later.

The day started early but maybe too early for me. We had agreed that because of a longer mileage day,as well as a certain longer stop for lunch, it would be best to get out the door by 7:00am, have a very quick breakfast of toast and coffee/juice and be walking by 7:20am to get in several kilometers before sunrise.  I didn’t have a long enough sleep though so I had trouble getting out of bed.  That put us 20 minutes late out the door already.  Then, I decided to walk up the main street, just around the corner of our pensión, to look for a bar / cafe. None that we expected to be open were opened so we ended up walking a few hundred meters around the block and back to the hotel entrance. We guessed nothing was opened so we went back towards the main road but turned right this time, instead of left and there was an open cafe, one store down from the corner.  The moral of this story is look both ways before stepping out the door.

The paths today, once again, bounced back and forth between quiet country lanes and dirt paths through the forests.  I think.  I know the sky started spitting at us about 7km into into the walk which I refused to acknowledge. Another kilometer took us to Campanilla where Melanie needed a toilet break and I needed my head examined. I queued up for food and drinks and the line moved slowly. Two women managed the bar with one putting all the cold drinks and pastries on the tray and the other one making the coffees and presenting and settling the bill.   The problem with that system was that making coffee takes a fairly long time.  I didn’t want any and neither did I. None-the-less, there I had to wait and the woman in front of me even ordered eight different coffees for her and her friends. 

While in that bar, Poh stopped to join us.  Susi was just planning a toilet break but she changed her mind and joined us for some juice.  Several other groups we know came in too.  That was the first, but not the last time that the spitting sky changed to something stronger.  Let’s call it “rain”.  We took our time leaving but Melide’s pulpo was the topic of discussion by everyone in there. Once we procrastinated long enough, we again put on our backpack covers and raincoats.  We had about 6km to Melide and those octopi weren’t going to boil and season themselves. 

At the pulpería, we grabbed any pilgrims we knew (or didn’t know) to make up a picnic table full with eight people. We had Poh and Susi with us as well as Marcus from Melbourne who showed up alone and asked to join us.  Later, two ladies and one of their sons came in to grab the last spots. Between us, there were six plates of pulpo (boiled octopus, cut intoū bite sized chunks and covered in paprika and olive oil), a plate of padrón peppers, a chorizo, a plate of jamón, some other dish I couldn’t see, several beers, five Cokes, four sugars con gas and three deserts.  Keep in mind that most people on the Camino share a sandwich and have a small drink.  We laughed, ate, laughed more, and ate more, and often waited to get the attention of the overworked waiters. Everyone was happy so I was happy. 

Then, we still had about 12km to go and this is what was really blur in my mind. We never saw Susi again today until Ribadiso where she was resting before going to Arzúa. Poh walked with us for several kilometers but the hurried to get a bed in our albergue.  The moms and son also powered on to Arzúa. Who knows what happened to Marcus.  Those last kilometers went slow and fast at the same time.  I recall speaking to a Korean couple for a while because the husband was impressed that I spoke one work in Korean. His English was better than my Korean but not by much.  Our six sentence conversation lasted 15 minutes. 

And that is what I remember.

Peace y’all. Goodnight George, Leo and Stella. We love you all.