14 June to Boente

WET is the word for the day.

Very early on I started paying close attention, because I knew I was not going to be taking many photos; there would not be a visual record to remind me of what had happened when I came to write the blogpost.
It rained. All day. Drizzle. Heavy drizzle. Big raindrops being blown from the trees, landing with a loud plop on your jacket hood. Drizzle. More drizzle. Incessant drizzle.

Your scope of vision is significantly reduced, framed by that jacket hood with its peak poking out. I remembered on the Via de la Plata when we had ten days straight of rain that I found myself guessing how long it would take until a raindrop on the peak would drop off. I refrained from that game today.

I looked down a lot. As soon as the path left the village it was well-packed dark brown earth underfoot, slightly softened by the overnight rain. After a few hundred meters little stones started appearing and they turned to bigger stones which eventually became big enough and were raised enough to collect water between them and those smooth rounded stones in turn became long slippery rocks. Then there would be a little hamlet and there would be some intentional paving, sometimes with long rectangular slabs running down the middle of the street and crazy paving to either side, other times just the crazy paving or some poorly poured concrete or little cobblestones. This pattern repeated over and over in various configurations, and then some mud got thrown into the mix as well and decent sized puddles. So I definitely did not take photos then.

To take a photo you have to undo your jacket zip (or reach through the open pit zip), open the bumbag, extricate the phone, turn it on – and because your fingers are wet your finger print does not work and you have to key in your passcode and then finally you are ready to snap a picture which is not going to be very good because the light is as low as the clouds and your phone is getting wet and quite frankly that got old really quickly and I made a conscious decision to just walk. I had to go through that rigmarole to get the picture at the top of this post, because each time we have walked this way we have taken a photo there and I couldn’t not this time. And I couldn’t not take this:

I had taken one photo early on when I could still be bothered, just so I would remember:

As I walked my nose was variously assaulted by cow aroma and tickled with eucalyptus scent.

A bird darted in front of me…another hopped across the path, a worm dangling from its beak.
Dogs barked. Donkeys brayed. Frogs squeaked. Motorised vehicles screeched along a nearby road. In a hamlet was a stone cross on top of a pillar on a three-stepped base. There were hórreos at every turn

More often than I had expected I was alone. Often I wasn’t. But by waiting just a moment or two for people to pass, I could be on my own again, and no one stopped or slowed to talk

By one small chapel a long line of pilgrims were queued up. Seeing the chapel was open, I was about to take a look, but I moved on. Two young nuns wearing white habits (bet they got dirty!) and red raincoats, who were standing nearby, informed me I could go and get a stamp from the chapel. I said, “Thank you. I can see there are young men smoking and I don’t want to wait with them.” They nodded in understanding. And I realised I had found an answer to a question Rob asked me a couple of weeks ago – is your Spanish getting better or do you just understand more? I’m pretty sure I would not have so easily come out with that statement before I came. Or when I turned up at the albergue today: Am I too early? I can sit down over there and wait.

I still find I’m surprised when I have a conversation with someone and they understand me, but I’m finally starting to get comfortable talking, and I often make small talk with someone on the street or in the supermarket for the sake of speaking. However, more often than not, I think of what I could have said AFTER we have finished!
Speaking of the supermarket, here’s my loot from today’s visit:

I really wanted kefir with strawberries and pomegranate seeds, which is as thick as Greek yoghurt….and I went to three supermarkets in search of it, but it was sold out in all of them! Rice pudding is a poor substitute.

I also went to this bakery. Rob bought some yummy-scrummy biscuits when we were here in 2012, and when we returned after the Primitivo in 2014 we were planning on buying some more, but the bakery was shut. Today I had more luck – so now I have to carry them for three days!

Wearing a raincoat with a hood (and not having much to look at) got my brain to thinking today. Americans have a hood on their cars, we kiwis (and I think English too) have bonnets. Both are items of clothing. Fancy that. American cars have trunks, kiwi cars have boots. Boots are clothing, but trunks (the variety you store things in, not the tree sort) make more sense. Trunks can also be togs and elephants have them too – trunks, not togs. All these T-words got me back to Tessa. You see right at the beginning of today’s walk I had passed this building:

My eldest daughter works at an establishment also called Essential and so it made me think of her. Actually it worked as a prompt to pray for each of the children and their spouses/special friends as I walked. I kept getting distracted and it took quite some time to get through them all!

For the second time, a couple came up behind me praying the rosary aloud, and as they passed and I noticed their beads. It occurred to me that they really are beneficial at keeping you on track…and using memorised prayers can be a help too. They are not necessarily the empty repetition they are sometimes made out to be.

So now you know what happens when it rains.

Actually, what you don’t know is I didn’t wash my underwear today, because the last two days it hasn’t dried and I would rather wear used than wet underwear!

Now you really know what happens when it rains.