The road to Santiago

We hiked into fall.  One item I had not excepted, was the absence of all things pumpkin.  I wouldn’t consider myself a huge pumpkin spice fan, but as a white girl, once the leaves begin to fall, I was on the hunt.  I was making friendly chatter with a sweet lady at a panaderia (bread and coffee shop).  I had seen calabazas (pumpkins) in the fields and I knew they had to go in something.  I asked her about pumpkin bread or muffins or cookies or cake or bars or just a slice of straight up pumpkin.  She had never heard of such a thing, putting pumpkins into bread.  And when I mentioned we even put it into our coffee, she was sure I had the wrong word.  But no, I googled it.  We are also missing the pumpkin patches, apple days, trick or treating...  the first holiday away.  It is starting to sink in exactly what a year abroad means.

However, our last days on the trail have been full of anticipation and excitement.  We got to wander through a 4th century BC ruin, it was kind of like a hay maze.  Or at least I told the girls it was, to bad they are tall.

We did get to meet a donkey.  He was as warm and fuzzy as Claire could dream up but not at all interested in carrying our packs into Santiago.

Claire also met another kid!  First 7-year-old in over 40days for my girl, she needed a buddy.  His family was originally from Israel, and he spoke Hebrew, but he also spoke Minecraft which meant there was plenty to talk about.  

In general, most hikers hate the rain, it certainly isn’t my favorite.  However, as we were heading into our last days on the Camino the news was widespread on every channel: Galicia is on Fire.  A dry summer and under resourced firefighters in Portugal, meant that there were wildfires throughout our region of Galicia. Almost 50 people had died and countless lost their homes.  We walked through charred forests and the smell of smoke in the air was a reminder that there are worse fates than hiking in the rain.  We don’t mess with forest fires, not with our babies, not even without our babies, so we were prepared to call it or wait it out. And then the rains came. Rain meant we could finish this thing, and I was thankful I didn’t chuck all the rain gear on the Meseta (it had been close).  Next stop: Santiago de Compostela.