Well, the day started out rainy, rainy, rainy. And it ended rainy, rainy, rainy. Gratefully, the rain was moderate and relatively tolerable. The large crowds that started the Camino in Sarria continue in a constant stream along the way. I paused to take the picture below to show how many people are along the path in front of us.
With similar numbers behind us...
Sometimes it is just chaotic.
Perhaps one of the saddest observations is that many of them are so fixated on getting to the next city that they rarely pause to look around or to talk. Sometimes the people are just rude like the young woman who came up alongside Jannette and instead of politely saying, "Buen Camino" (the pilgrim greeting) or "Permiso" (excuse me), said, "Cuidado" which in Spanish is basically, "Get out of my way I am coming through!" Fortunately, we have met some wonderful people along the way or engaged in brief, but insightful conversations. Some of these encounters have lasted over several stages of the Camino.
Here are some things that we experienced today...
Bidding farewell to Portomarín...
Also wanted you to see how high the reservoir is. To give you an idea, the tree line you see is about 40 feet above the ruins of the medieval city that I showed you in the last post.
This time we took another Camino route that is less steep and leads to a small church, Iglesia de San Roque. It is more of a hermitage than a church but we met a very nice fellow and we chatted with him before moving on.
We walked through a lot of lush forested areas that soon opened up in to large meadows.
And it continues to rain.... When it started to rain, I remembered a comment from a nice Italian lady as we were leaving Ponferrada. It was raining lightly at the time and we were traveling alongside her as we trudged up a hill. She turned to me and said, "La natura si bagna" ("Nature is taking a bath"). I thought that was such a beautiful way to view the circumstance and put a positive twist on an otherwise miserable situation.
One of those sad moments was when we came to this point along the way where there is the largest "hórreo" in Toxibó. It is large and situated on a rise next to the Camino. I only saw a handful of people to admire it or to take a picture. The rest skirted by without giving it a second thought. It is about 35 feet long and stands about 20 feet high. Not easy to miss.
Sometimes you see funny things along the way. Here someone takes a jab at the people who start the Camino in Sarria (a short 62 miles from Santiago) when compared to those who invest more time and distance to gaining their "Compostela" document. It reads, "Jesus did not start in Sarria."
One of the very cool sites along the way, but that requires you to take a few steps off of the road, is this Bronze Age "castro" archeological excavation. Evidence indicates that the site was occupied up until the first century.
There is a narrow entrance that opens up on to a set of ruins.
Below is the Cruciero de Lameiros. You find a lot of crucieros along the Camino, but his one has gained some degree of fame and recognition. Constructed in 1670. The photo to the left shows the top of the cross with a representation of the Pietá associated with the Descent from the Cross...
On the other side is the Crucifixion...
On the base of the cross are represented the Arma Christi. The pincers used to remove the nails from His hands, the nails, and the ladder used to take His body down from the cross.
The crown of thorns...
Just below the figure of the Crucified Christ are a skull and bones. According to tradition, these are the bones of Adam, "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Corinthians 15:22). The skull and bones motif are frequent in paintings and sculpture. Christ is the new Adam who redeems humanity from the effects of the Fall (See 1 Corinthians 15: 21-22, 45-49, 53-54)
And, it continues to rain...
More tomorrow...
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