In this area I’ve seen a lot of these structures and was curious about them. Florentino said many were 400 or 500 years old. No obvious access to most of them. There are, however, some newer nice ones. They’re storage units that mice can’t get into. Now many park their cars underneath.
They must use ladders to access. I did see one with a set of stairs about two or three feet away from the building. Maybe they put a plank from the stairs to the building when they’re storing stuff?
I had seen this green VW van many times, he’s filming a perigino. It’s kind of funny. They set up scenarios:)
The guy is a professional film guy, doing this project for the guy, with hopes of putting it on YouTube and other platforms. So, the perigrino hiking has hired a guy to drive along and film him. It’s been going on at least a week, but probably more.
I’m glad nobody films me when I do my dumb moves:)
Just out of Villaviciosa there is a major split in the trail. At that point one must choose to do either the Primitivo Route, or the Northern (coastal) route. It sounds like about half do Primitivo, and half continue on Norte.
I decided to do Camino Norte. For the first day I haven’t seen any people I know, with the exception of the green VW guy, and I really don’t know him.
As I was heading down a steep stretch of trail, this elderly woman (about my age) Angelica, was animated telling me I was lost. This was entirely in Spanish. I was confident I was not lost. The second woman came up, and was just as adamant I was on the wrong trail. I agreed to walk back up the trail to show them the last trail marker I had seen, at a road/trail intersection. It was only a couple of hundred yards. I walked back up with the smaller, weaker hiker while the other went ahead.
The other woman (Isabella) was going to a nearby house to get the final answer. As the weaker hiker, Angelica, and I arrived I showed her the trail marker, then in addition another less obvious yellow arrow, she realized she was incorrect. The other woman was leaving the house a little disappointed that she was incorrect. The thinner woman, and I smiled and laughed, then finally so did the other woman.
They were absolutely not going to allow me to go down the wrong trail. I think they would have tackled me to keep me from going down the steep stretch:)
We then hiked together for the next couple of hours and had a late lunch together. They are from Barcelona, and have a heavy metaphorical stone they’re carrying. They’re doing this hike in sections. They’ve done parts the last two years, and very much hope they can finish this year. I hope it works out.
Angelica and I bonded because she’s been trying to learn English on Duolingo, and I’ve been working on my Spanish with Duolingo. My Spanish was more effective this time. But again, charades is a common language:)
Staying in an inexpensive, but nice, hotel in Gijón for the first time it has two stations in English. They’re both business channels so I’m not watching them I’m back to Big Bang Theory in Spanish.
The last time in a hotel I forgot to turn off my phone in the middle of the night, and I got a call in the middle of the night from the US from a scam, or spam, number at 2:00 a.m . It bothered me, but I was the only one it woke up. I’m very careful to silence the phone in albergues now, lots of folks would be unhappy with me!
It rained again all morning. I chose to do this pilgrimage starting in April so it wouldn’t be so crowded. The disadvantage of early Spring is it rains here. It’s expected. What wasn’t expected are crowds I’ve met two people who left the Camino Francés because they couldn’t get housing as all albergues were full, repeatedly.
This is busier than ever for this time of year according to Locals. A few theories: South Korea had a special on TV and a large number on the Francés are from there. There are a lot of Germans here, it seems to me that’s the largest single county represented. Apparently a German comedian did the Camino, had it documented, and lost a lot of weight and had a very positive experience. These shows, in addition to Martin Sheen’s, The Way, and finally the pent up demand due to COVID has caused an influx.
