Quintans to Dumbria

7 April 2018

QUINTANS

Our camino started with a beautiful walk into town. The church was locked so we could only admire it from the outside.

Sun with dark clouds … very typical of our Camino so far. At the end of the road is our marker with our arrow direction.

Out in the woods and off the pavement which is good for the feet.

The eucalyptus trees send a fragrant smell through the fresh country air.

Several workmen in the field hoisting cable and stringing it between the power poles. Looks like hard labor … it was a Saturday morning too. We wondered if they were being paid overtime.

We reached a small town called Senande.

On the left is a chapel with a bell tower. Someone was manually tolling the bells.

As usual, the doors were locked so we could not look in.

We wandered across the street to the cemetery. Two men were working on a headstone. As we left the cemetery, we saw a trailer hitched to a car. We wondered if this trailer carried the body that they were preparing the tomb marker for. The bells kept tolling. There were no people around other than the two men grinding the edges of the stone.

• We needed a little foot break, so we stopped for tea. We met an interesting character whose name was Bienvenidos. It took us a long time to figure out that he was saying his name and not greeting us. (“Bienvenidos” means “welcome” in Spanish). He finally took out his photo ID and showed us that it was his name.

Bienvenido lived here but worked in Dubai. He is a mechanic for a solar energy company.

We really enjoyed our tea stop. Carmen and Jesus were the proprietors. They told us about a stop we needed to make on the camino. It was the site of healing waters that come from an underground stream. They gave us an empty water bottle to fill with the sacred water from the Fonte Santa.  They also gave us holy cards, I’m sure there was a nice Spanish blessing mixed in there too.

We started walking and the road led us by a green pasture with sheep grazing.

Entering Trasufre which is where the sacred fountain and the Chapel of Our Lady of Espino are located. The pieces of cloth tied to the hedgerow shown below are a local tradition going back centuries. According to the Brierly guidebook, “Pilgrims come to this shrine for healing by leaving behind unwanted ailments to disintegrate along with the cloth that is their symbolic representation.”

We have found the healing waters of Fonte Santa!

Still raining. Lunch in the courtyard of the Our Lady of Espino chapel. Too wet to sit down so we ate standing.  Of course the chapel was locked.

Back on the trail again.

This beautiful chicken looks like it could be somebody’s pet.

Our hotel for tonight is the  O Argentino.

The weather was rainy and chilly so we welcomed the opportunity to sit by the fireplace in the bar.

This was a one-woman operation. The seniorita tended the bar and an adjoining little grocery store, the restaurant and the hotel. She did the cooking and serving too. She even built a fire in the fireplace.  We had Galician Soup with dinner and it was the best we’ve had yet.

The O Argentino did not have a triple room. Being the snorer of the group, I had my own room. Very nice room but it had no heat. Diane asked for more heat and the woman brought her a portable heater and she gave me a fan. We did get that straightened out and I did get a heater but it didn’t help much.

Even though my bed was piled with blankets, I woke up with a cold nose — reminded me of tent camping. Happy to get up and get moving that morning.