Santander is a big city, the capital of Cantabria, there was plenty of light and all was well for, maybe an hour, then the rain started. It rained hard. Thinking I was prepared I had a pack cover, a light raincoat, and a parka. They didn’t work.
I had planned with Rick and Nancy to contact them at 10:00 a.m. with the plan for the day, as they were 15-20 miles away near Santillana Del Mar, and I was walking that direction.
I was soaked. In addition to other things, my phone, in my pant’s pocket got soaked. When I tried to use it, I couldn’t. It then showed the message that liquid was detected, and dry the phone. I knew “liquid was detected” long before the phone showed me that. I couldn’t use the phone because I had detected so much blasted liquid.
It’s safe to say I was a little uncomfortable. I had been hiking on and off with two French Canadian brothers since about the time the rain started. I had met Martin sometime around the beginning of the pilgrimage.
I tried sitting under a highway overpass and using the phone, no luck. I tried drying the phone the best I could, no luck. My trail “passport” got soaked too. When Martin and Stefan caught back up, I told them my dilemma, and we all shared a common problem, we were cold and we hadn’t had any coffee yet. I couldn’t even look up a café Google Map on the phone. We walked into the town of Mompía, saw the hospital, and across from that a gas station with a mini-mart with 4 or 5 sets of tables and chairs. They had pastries and hot coffee!
I took my phone out, took it out if it’s protective case, dried it with napkins, tried it again, and it worked! I sent them a picture of my location. It was only 9:00, but, Rick and Nancy came to the rescue!
They took me to their hotel room where I took a hot shower and put on dry clothes. I was done with the Camino for the day, with only about six miles of progress.
They showed me the really nice town of Santillana Del Mar, we are a nice lunch, and visited the visitor center and display replicas of the cave paintings of Alta Mira, some of the oldest paintings of mankind.
I bought a new raincoat, and, got a different (not ripped) parka, and an umbrella from Rick and Nancy. Rain is in the forecast for 8 of the next 9 days, so I had better get ready.
I’m staying in a nice hotel tonight, warm, watching “Friends” in Spanish and trying to figure it out. I saw the trail marks in Santillana Del Mar today, it will be fun to see them as a pilgrim tomorrow.
Rick, and Nancy, and Martin, and Stefan were good friends today!
Buen Camino
