In order to walk only 22 km today instead of 27, we cheated a little and took a bus through Laredo to the other end of the 5km-long beach. We got there at 8:15 and had time to have a nice sunrise-breakfast at the beach while more and more pilgrims arrived and sat down waiting for the first boat to Santoña.
This mini-ferry took us some 200 m across the bay to the city opposite – Santoña. We crossed it and followed the descriptions in our book, as there were many alternative ways today and we wanted to do the shortest and nicest. While doing so, we had a happy reunion with our Brazilian friend Andre from the first days. We walked with the pilgrims caravan for a while across the village and along a road with bike path until the big group dissolved little by little into smaller groups going at different speeds and different ways.
We crossed the beach of Berria and the mountain next to it, enjoying the amazing views while climbing. At the other side of the mountain, we found ourselves right on the beach of Trengandin. We had to follow it on the sand and right next to the sea for 3.3 km until reaching Noja. We did some drawings in the sand with our sticks, talked to different other pilgrims and enjoyed the sea breeze. Half way there, we even met the two brothers from Utah (the one with the broken tooth from three days ago) and happily started walking together and updating each other about the last days’ events.
After Noja, we took an alternative path next to the road on a smaller hiking path which took us to the marsh of Joyel and a former mill.
Here, we split up from Leire, a Bilbain grapic designer and went on with our group of four – Ben, Mitch, Johanna, and myself. The rest of the day consisted in walking along very deserted small roads, connecting very deserted and small villages. In two hours of walking, two cars and one tractor passed us, there was no bar, no supermarket and not even a water fountain. The weather was hot and windy and we walked talking and in silence for the last 10 km towards Güemes, only stopping for lunch under an old Holm oak tree next to a little church.
The albergue in Güemes is something like the Camino’s heart. During the last few days, everyone had started to talk about it and when we arrived at the “cabaña del abuelo Peuto” at 4:45, it didn’t disappoint us. The albergue is like a little village itself, with several small houses and over 70 beds, two huge common rooms, community dinner and breakfast and an enormous and beautiful garden.
After our daily duties (shower, whashing), people were laying around the garden, writing, chilling, stretching and talking for a while until 7:30. We were hanging out with the americans and a pretty crazy dog until we all gathered in a big round common room. There, the 82-year-old owner of the albergue told us about it’s history and philosophy which is inspired by what he has learned from his ancestors, by his migration to Catalunya 60 years ago and by what he had learned from the culture of a simple mountain village to which he travelled at the age of 25.
We were all pretty cold and tired and the translations of the guy who volunteered as a spanish-english translator were very bad but the message we got from the old man was a very good one.This albergue is definitely very much different from all the others along the camino. It is built in the house of his grandparents and financed completely out of the solidary contributions of the pilgrims. It’s values are those of solidarity and fraternity between people.In this sense, it was the first place with a community dinner to which we proceeded after the little “class”. There was a soup as a first dich and potatoes with meet as a second dish, wine, water and dessert, all of it cooked by the volunteers and an old lady for all the 67 pilgrims from 14 different countries that gathered in the common room to eat together.
Afterwards, there was another story told, another piece of history and culture shared and we proceeded to visit the little “chapel” next to the house and the painting of the “Camino of life” on it’s walls. The meaning of this painting is basically that you can move from obscurity, darkness and slavery to light, freedom and liberation through an open mind and solidarity. It was very refreshing to hear him speak about a life in which everyone is connected by the way of life, independently of their culture or education or religion. Being actually a Christian priest, his voice was one of maximum tolerance and open-mindedness, highlighting also the critical aspects of religion which can be a prison rather than a liberation. He was definitely a very inspiring person and the albergue a very special place (don’t worry I’m not getting religious).
