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Day 36. To Palas de Rei
The picture is of a small storage structure in the yard of a house. Maybe 3 ft by 10 and 6 high. This one is dated 1957 and has the cross so we thought they had religious meaning or maybe a burial? discovered they are to store grains and nuts off the ground and away from mice and birds but open to the air for drying. See them everywhere here but never earlier on the walk. Lots of chestnut trees and see people collecting all the time.
My left foot has been giving increasing pain to the point I was limping badly last night and at the start of this morning; quite worried. The Camino candies (anti-inflamitories and pain-killers) kicked in and the day went well, but sorry to have to start using them.
Exceptionally good walk today; mostly cloudy with some wind and nice quiet, woodsy pathways. Passed through many small farming villages. In one, a lady was doing her laundry in this large 'pila' - a deep cement basin filled with water which, frankly looked a bit murky; communal wash basin perhaps?
Arriving here we were met by a very friendly receptionist who couldn't do enough for us. All Spain should be like her. Also learned we were scammed on the backpack transport fee in Portomarin; I figure the town has a deal going where they say regular transport is not available and charge a ton for transport via taxi because two places told us the same story; no Jacotrans, only taxi. Today we saw a taxi carting a full load of mochilas at 25 Euros a pop. The hotel tonight told us the transfer fee is only 3 euros. What a scam!
Couple more observations. I have been surprised at how many expensive cars we see in the little towns. Lots of Audi, Mercedes, BMW and the odd Porsche and Hummer. Clearly not all the money is in the cities, no matter how humble the hamlet. Also, some of these cars have the letter H in their license plate. I am told the H is always silent in Spanish. So how do they say the plate number????
We hear lots of gunshots and see the odd hunter, all with shotguns. Have seen deer but no game birds. We learned tonight they are hunting rabbits. Thankfully, not pilgrims!
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