Camino 2013 - Day 37: Airexe To Boente

On day thirty-seven things started to get real for me.  We were only three days away from Santiago de Compostela - not our final destination but still an important milestone.  On my last Camino I had mixed feelings right about now.  I missed home and the Wife but I would miss walking the Camino an equal amount.  In 2013 things felt different.  I was missing home and the Wife a lot more.  I was enjoying the Camino but not as much as last time and not as much as I missed home.

Giant ant sculpture along the Camino.

We left Airexe and walked to Palas de Rei where we'd stopped last time.  We got a stamp in the local church - the caretaker of the church was an odd character who stamped each credential with two stamps.

A Camino marker with the shell and the sword-like Santiago cross.

We found a bar and stopped in for some warm croissants and orange juice.  As I was waiting to pay, the Trophy Wife and her Sugar Daddy were at the bar.  The Sugar Daddy said something to the effect of "What a miserable way to walk ... and for nothing."  I looked at him and said "If you are walking for nothing then you are walking for the wrong reason."  He got a strange look on his face, sort of agreed with me, and hurried himself out of the bar.  What a bore.  Fortunately I never saw those two again.

We talked to C_n (one of the Colorado brothers) at the bar as we ate.  They'd spent the night in Palas de Rei and were just getting up ... at 9:00AM.  Oh well, they were young and fast.

The Camino near the 61.5 km marker.

The rest of the walk was uneventful and, despite it being a long 29 kilometer (18 miles) I felt pretty good.  I guess it was mostly downhill which always helps.  Downhill can be a bit hazardous though.  This sign warned of one stretch where a pilgrim hurt his ankle and wrist within three minutes of each other (sorry about the poor quality of the picture).

In Boente we stopped at the first albergue we found which was across the street from the church.  The albergue was attached to a bar/restaurant with a cheerful owner.  As we were eating some lunch a group of three pilgrims came in.  One of them had checked into the another albergue.  The hospitalero in the other albergue had taken her passport with her fee.  When she found out her friends were in the our albergue she asked for her passport back and he wouldn't give it back.  Our hospitalero ended up calling the other and threatened to call the police.  The pilgrim went back and picked up her passport ... after having to threaten to call the police again.  She was lucky ... the next day we met people who'd stayed at the other albergue and had ended up with bedbug bites.

After we finished lunch and did our chores, I laid down for a nap.  When I woke up it was raining outside.  The rain was coming down pretty steady and it would keep me from walking around the town.  Having said that, I was tired enough that I really wasn't interested in walking around much.

We ate dinner in the bar.  The hospitalero teased me when I didn't finish everything on my plate but smiled when I said I was saving room for a piece of Torta de Santiago.

I fell asleep to the sound of rain against the albergue window.

Pictures can be found in my 2013 Camino de Santiago Google Photos album.

Total Distance on Day 37: 29 km ( 18.02 Miles) Total Distance Walked: 853 km (530.03 Miles)

Approximate Track of the day's hike*.

[Click on map for a larger version]

*Note: The camera GPS did not work very well this day.  A large section between Airexe and Melide did not track properly.