Sept 11 Comillas to Unquera 31km!!!

What a day. It started out beautifully with the weather being so nice. We were awake early and me not feeling so great still, but it is better to carry on walking as I finkd it easier than sitting around. And the environment is inspiring and takes my mind off myself too. Ilana is in bad shape this morning and cannot walk well at all. It looks like she has an allergic reaction to the sun and the heat of her clothes and her boots. So out friend Christianne from Geneva has taken things in order and has decided to take her back to Santander on the bus to the hospital and will be the guide and the translator as she has command of 6 languages. She is something!!, but says that this IS the Camino and what she must do for Ilana. We say a very sad good bye to her as we leave the alberque that morning.
It is a hot day and we are climbing more steeply today than we have for some time so it is a bit of an effort. I am noticing that the hills do not bother me anymore. well not that I can climb Mt Everest yet, but is is surely easier than the first few days and I feel strong inspite of feeling ill and tired. I have decided that this camino is about the people and not so much the environment which with its beauty really inspires one to think of the simplicity of the moment and what can be created as we go along. Compassion and generosity are profound and normally abundant as we walk and it is quite a special community of people that we are walking with now.
By the time we arrived at our destination in Unquera, it was about 9 hours later and I was pretty washed out. Luckily, we found a wonderful little hotel and so I have a room to myself for only 16 E. It is called the Rio Deva and I highly recommend this placeas there is not alberque in Unquera. We have a great dinner and fall to sleep easliy, listening to the rain fall heaily all night long.
Thought for the day
"As you walk, with each footstep, in the silence of the hills and the music of the natural surroundings, you come closer to knowing yourself in the deep way and it must be this that brings you close to God"
Maggee

Sept 10, 2010 Santilla del Mar to Comillas (22kms)

What a day and what an evening! poor Ilana, my new German friend and I travelled mostly on the train yesterday to Santilla as I was sick with the flu and she was in bad pain from her feet. We arrived at the alberque around 11 am and spent the next 5 hours waiting for it to open. We were told that they did not expect to be full and so I thought it was OK to have a bed there as we waited for our friends to arrive. Well, the fuss that occurred as people began to arrive between 3 and 4 pm. So many had taken the train part way and then some of the late arrivals had walked all the way from Santander (44 kms). When the last 3 who were the overflow arrived, they were pretty mad about the situation, so as I looked around and thought about my own principles and values, I just decided to take action and left to go around the corner and get a bed in a pensionne for Ilana and me. When I came back, I said to the Hollander, (wouldn´t you know!) who was the most outspoken that he could have my bed as I was leaving for the pensionne. He so changed his demeanor and became almost apologetic. He wanted to buy us drinks, said he could go to the pensionne himself and then throughout the evening became our best friend!!.
It gave me a lot to think about as we spent the evening with the pilgrims, many who had taken the train to shorten the day from Santander and then some who had walked the entire way.
Rules on the camino are simple. You treat each other with kindness and fairness and try to do good and be a contribution as you go along, helping, advising and making a difference. It is such a metaphor for life.
So Ilana and I had a great night in a wonderful pensionne which cost us E15 each with a private bath and a room with a view. And it was the right thing to do for the other pilgrims, ie to make sure that the people who had really walked a long way had access to the cheaper beds.
After the horrible night in an overcrowded alberque in Santander, I did not mind at all being in a private room in a pensionne for not much more than the alberque.
So we were up early this morning, walking through wonderful conutryside again and now having expanded our little group to a total of 6. We are 2 Danes, 2 Germans and 2Canadians. It is lovely to have such good new friends and we all walk along at our own pace so it works out well. The others are all here travelling on their own and the youngest one, Ilana has a terrible problem, with her feet, boots too small, too much heat and not well prepared for the adventure. So we are helping her out, but I am not at all sure that she will be able to continue.
We are in a wonderful little town tonight which is again full of tourists and near a beautiful beach so it is quite busy. Very old buildings and of course old old streets full of coble stones (hard on the pilgrims feet) and lots to see.
We were the highlight of the group of Japanese tourists that we met this morning. They were overjoyed to meet real pilgrims and we had to pose for pictures for them on our way out of the little medieval town of Santilla del Mar.
We have travelled close to 300 kms now and today it occurred to me how wonderful it is to have a sense of belonging in my life. This has been missing in quite a few areas especially in the past 5 years and with this little group that has formed for very specific and practical reasons, I feel like I belong and have a contribution to make. In addition, there is a huge contribution to me that occurs along the way as well. Alvina hs saved the day by providng me with a packet of Fishemans Friend which has saved my coughin spells many times.
Such simple princples and premises for living we experience along this way. It is a tough walk, beautiful and rugged and but so energizing now that we are into the spirit of the thing. It had taken about 2 weeks of steady walking to come to this place of realizing that I can actually do it and that if I just keep up the pace and look after myself, I will proceed along this wonderful journey and arrive at a new destination in my life when I get to Santiago.
From Alvina I have this to share

"It is not important to know where we are going, nor to find a place to go. The world is open to our appetite. It opens. It spreads perspective, widens the stems of a piece of herb until it reaches the forest and the window we travel, only when we let go".
from Franz Bartlett

Maggee

September 9, 2010. Santander to Santilla del Mar

How did I get this far you may wonder as the distance is 44kms. After much discussion, we decided to take a train to shorten up the journey between these two points as there is no accomodation available between the two. In addition, I have been feeling horrible for the past two days and during the night realized that I had better not overdo it today. So with our new friend Elana who has sore feet, I took a train and then walked only about 7kms very slowly which made a big difference.
The trains and the buses are wonderful here in Spain and it is easy to get around if you can understand the systen. It is also cheap and fast. The yellow arrows took us through a wonderful country road all the way from Barreda to Santillana del Mar.
This town is ancient and very full of tourists today with many buses in the parking lots. It is like a medieval town with old stone roadways and very old old buildings. The alberque is near the church and seems to be in what was formerly a stable. There are only 16 beds so it will be quieter than last night in Santander. The alberque there was so crowded it was nearly unbearable. People kep arriving and were placed on the floors around the bunks which were already squished together. Quite a fire hazard if you thought about it too much. As well, there was one bathroom for the women and one for the men, so imagine the problem. It made me raalize that I do not want to stay in the cities at all as the accomodation is just not that nice normally and this one seemed to be just a money making venture the way it was set up.
Oh well, everyone was getting up at 6 am to get out of the place today, so we had an early start.
Maggee

Sept 8, 2010 Guemes to Santander (15kms)

We took Father Ernesto´s advice this morning and left for the next village to search for the long way around to Somos by the sea to get to the ferry to Santander. It was an extra 4 kms, but well worth it. The walk was along the cliffs above the beach and the sea. Not much climbing today so not so hard, but a good long walk none the less. I am not feeling great still and think I will be better tomorrow. Today was a wonderful walk for most of the morning and then we hopped on board a ferry for a 30 minute ride across the bay to the city of Santander which is pretty large and one we are anxious to leave tomorrow.
It is always more expensive, even for a drink and the albergues are not always as nice as the ones in the country. For example, we are in a room with 38 people tonight. Clothes were washed in the kitchen sink and hung like the Spannish people do, on a clothes line out the window,(sure hope it does not blow away, as I will never see it again). I am here in a little dive of a place using the internet which is abundant in the city and not so much in the rural areas.
People seem to live on top of each other in this country and maybe that is a fact in Europe. We take for granted out space facilities that we have in our country, seeing how so many people live in small flats which are noisy and crowded and in the midst of city traffice and all that brings with it.
Tomorrow we are negotiating a strategy that will get us out of here on the train and will shorten up the day by about 20 kms as the next albergue is 44 kms away and it is just too far to walk that distance.
Again it looks like rain tonight and if we continue with our luck we will walk in beautiful sunshine once again. I am taking seriously the advice we got yesterday and will walk with more intention, when I am not trying to just cope with breathing my way up the hills that is!!. Getting more focused on my freedom and seeing what shows up in my thoughts around creativity is my intention for the next few days.
Because we are 3 women who seem to have experience with walking the camino, we are giving out advice and taking care of some of the others who do not have the simple knowledge of how to do a walk like this, so it is a great way to make new friends. Someone today called me ´magical Maggee´as I have been helping with foot problems and sharing my socks. I brought all of them (5 pairs) and some people really get into trouble with their feet right away.
Well must catch up with the group as it is time for our aperatif.
Maggee

Sept 2, 2010 Santona to Guemes (25kms)

What a relief to start the day with clearing skies. It poured with rain last night - all night - and we were thankful we had declined to stay in a tent at the youth hostel in Santona, as some of our fellow travellers did, we learned later. It was again a tough climb up and out of the city. For 4 kms we walked along a cement sidewalk and then the arrows pointed off to the right, so we followed them, which turned out to be my 3rd frigthening experience on this trek. With the rain, the clay and mud path was slippery and treacherous and daunting as we climbed higher above the beach and then the cliffs over the sea. Both Kirsten and I were not happy with this trail, but once we had started up, there was no going down. It would have been worse to do so, so we continued, hoping it would get better. Eventually we reached the crest, but I tell you it is something to make you way up a slippery slope with 10kgs on your back, trying to balance and find foot holds on clay and stones. We were pretty happy to be on the beach on the other side of the hill. thank goodness for my hiking poles. I could not climb like this without them.
As happens with all of these arrowed tracks, it leads you somewhere you cannot get to with the roads. So there we were, with about 4 kms of an expanse of beach ahead of us that was astounding. The weather was clearing and it was magical to walk this way on an isolated stretch of beach to the first coffee stop.Did I mention how great that first cup of cafe con leche is!!
The day was long as we seemed to take all of the long routes, through about 8 small villages, remarkable with their new housing developments on one side of the road and sheep grazing in pastures around falling down ancient buildings on the other side of the road. The weather, by afternoon, was glorious once again and we had a wonderful walk through the hills to an albergue that we had heard nothing but good reports about.
We arrived there around 3 pm, It is actually a very old homestead that turns out to be the home that was built originally 100 years ago by the grandfather of Pedro Ernesto, who is the local parish priest and an avid supporter of the camino. The whole place is set up to care for the pilgrims, from the moment you step into the door, you are cared for in a way like no other. We were offered fruit from a platter, fresh water and some small talk, before being shown to the showers and the dorms. The lower lever of the homestead was originally the place for the cattle and has been renovated into a charming sitting area complete with large stone fireplace. The dorms out the back are spacious and built like chalets so there is a lot of room and plenty of space for washing, showering and hanging up clothes.
The best part was the evening session with the Father who led a discussion about the trail we had passed and the one that lay ahead of us with some advice for being a pilgrim on the El Norte. This route is not a race for a bed like the Camino Frances has become. His advice was that this route is for the courageous who are there to develop their creativity, to give up the GPS style of living that we have at home and to use our intelligence to gain something through the living university that is available with the conversations between our fellow travellers along the way. It was inspiring to hear him speak.
This was followed by a communal meal that was prepared for us by a young couple who work for him. He has space for about 70 people, has taken care of 4000 this year alone and has about 50 people who volunteer in the place to make it all work. On top of that, there is a group that has formed an NGO and they provide support in Guatemala somehow, so a lot of good work is being done in this place and you get the feel of the energy of it quickly.
We were tired by the time we got to bed. The weather had shifted again at dinner time and we were treated to gale force winds and driving rain, such as I had heard about. This went on all night and then cleared in the morning so that we were greeted by a new sun rise once again. We are truly blessed with this weather along this stormy coast.
I am getting sick now and a few people have been affected by the gastro that is common along the camino. I know that my body is tired and the reaction that I have now is a sore throat and feeling of flu which will pass. The days are long and the walk is very tough so it takes a lot of energy just to keep it all going. I sometimes think that I will never make it to next week at this rate, but when I am up and walking, I am loving the feeling of freedom and the beauty of the environment. I can harldy believe that here I am walking across the north of Spain with friends that I have only known because I took the effort to create this experience this way.
We are walking with two German women now. there was such a great crowd in the albereu in Guemes, all of the people that we had met along the way, so it was quite like a large family of friends getting together with lots of laughs and fun.
Maggee

People I have met along the way

In a walk like this, you meet many different people, each walking for a different purpose or reason. Remarkably, there is always a language challenge which gets worked out through sign language or smatterings of a common language. Even the people serving in the restuarants, can display the difference between chicken, beef and pork with quite vivid arm and hand signals, so communication happens despite the language barrier.
Ian is a young man who walked the Camino Frances 5 times and is on the second El Norte, He is doing a PhD in philosophy in Paris and started his walk from his home, so passed the first 1000 kms the day we met him. He walks to find his spiritual core and to enrich his thinking about his dissertation which is focused on the gravity of rape.
Pierre is an older man who started walking in May in Denmark. He walked more than 50 kms the day we met him.
Femke is a ray of sunshine from Holland and we walked with her for about 3 days. She did the CF in April and her husband is walking the CF at the moment. They had left a van full of food in St Jean and when they meet up again this week, they plan to spend a month situated along the Camino Frances providing food for the pilgrims for a donation.Then they will each continue their own camino.
Sali and her son This are from Denmark and are walking their first Camino together just to spend time with each other. It is hard for them as there are no hills in Denmark to train on so they are suffering with sore legs at the moment and we may lose them if they slow down.
Sonja left her job in July and her husband and adult children have supported her do to this walk, her first Camino, in order to settle on where she wants to direct her life now.
Ian, is a Brit, teaching english in Holland, walking the camino, because "older bald guys" don´t get rides as hitchhikers so easily these days
Andre is the saddest. He carried two sellos, one for his girlfriend who killed herself a few months ago and one for him. He walks with pictures of them that he places in churches and alberques so that she has a presence in this walk with him
Sarah and Kean are a very young couple from Ireland who have the lightest packs and seem to walk with an energy that we all envy.
Stefi is from Germany and lived in Spain for awhile so her Spannish is great. She is young and petite and we have already lost her as she is miles ahead of us by now.
Christianne started in Switzerland and has walked for 2 months. She will walk all the way back home again from Santiago.

In all of this mix of people, we also meet wonderful local residents who are kind and generous and provide us with direction or assistance at many many occasions and always with a smile and slow slow speaking of their language and lots of hand signals for us to comprehend.

"If you would do a good deed, then do it today. Do it gratis nor linger around for your pay. Let the deed be a gem that you cast overboard, not a hook that is baited to fish for reward" (courtesy of Neil)

Maggee

Liendo to Santona (13kms) Sept 6 2010

I wish I had brought the connector to load pictures onto this blog as I have some wonderful shots of the scenery along the way. It was one thing that came out f my pack in order to save on weight.
Today was delicious. I did not even get up until 0730 as we promised ourselves a short day today and a slow morning. We stopped at the local bar fr breakfast which was tortilla and cafe con leche so we were much better prepared for the morning climb. Again a wonderful walk, following the yellow arrows. We find consistently that the yellow arrows take us on sometimes longer and more hilly, but definitely a stunning look at the small villages and the rural scenes around here. You can only see the country like this by walking. While it was another few tough climbs, it was fine and we were in the next town in no time.
Laredo is another tourist town with a very long beach which attracts the locals and those from far away to come and sit on the beach and bake all day. So there they are from early morning, carrying beach chairs and umbrellas and reading materials to the beach. It is hot again, although there are predictions of rain for tomorrow. We will see as we have been so lucky with the weather so far.
In Laredo, we had to walk about 4 kms along the beach wall to get to the boat across to Santona. We laughed out loud when we arrived at this place. After a very long walk, the boat which is a pretty fair size motor boat (probably seats 30 or so), comes right up onto the beach with pop music blaring, so we danced our way up the gang plank and sat down for the 5 minute ride across the harbour.
We had quite a time finding a bed here, thinking that we could get into the youth hostel, which turned out to be full. So we found a pensionne, again with the help of a gentleman who happened to come along and phoned the proprietor to come over and find us a bed. It is like a flat in a large building withg about 7 rooms and with the bathrooms acrss the hall. Two rooms with two beds for E38 each so while expensive, there is no other choice and it balances the cheaper nights we have had in the last week or so. The town is full of people, celebrating something. Hopefully it will not be too noisy tonight as sometimes happens.
Good to have a short walk today and time to rest and enjoy the environment.
Maggee