Little Pig, Little Pig…
Today was “Bring Your Pig To The Camino Day.” Viktor and I left Navia by 7:30 am, intent on getting in a few miles before breakfast. Viktor decided to join me in walking the coastal route, as the Camino will leave the sea when entering Galicia. We put in 6 miles and reached La Caridad, where we had Spanish tortilla (never my favorite dish but Viktor loves it), and cafe con leché. On our way out of town, we noticed the cutest kitten - and when we bent down to pet it, a pig came running to the fence! The pig and the kitten were clearly friends, and the pig proceeded to throw his front legs over the limbs of an apple tree and grin and grunt at us. I’m no expert on pigs, but in Charlotte’s own words, this was indeed “some pig.” I told Viktor the bacon would probably taste apple smoked as the fellow had hundreds of apples on the ground around him, and was told that this certainly was not “that sort of pig.” For both Viktor and the pig’s sake, I hope he’s right.
We saw the usual chickens, cows, horses, mules and ponies all day, and also a huge turkey. Whenever I see a turkey, I can always hear my wheat-farming father in law’s comment about how stupid they are. This fellow was clearly king of the poultry yard, so maybe Spanish turkeys have more grey matter…?
Tapia is a small seaport village, surrounded by miles of feed corn fields and cattle and dairy farms. Imagine a sea of corn meeting the ocean, and that is the constant of the day. I’m staying just a bit off the Camino, and will walk a GR (Grand Route) tomorrow that follows the shoreline. There’s a Czech pilgrim and Danish pilgrim here tonight at the albergue who are planning the same thing. We want to make these ocean views last as long as possible. Tomorrow I enter Galicia and leave the ocean behind. Galicia is magnificent- it feels a great deal like Washington - but tomorrow marks the the closure of what has been a wild and lovely journey along the northern coast of Spain. Cantabria is a place I’d like to return to - and who knows, maybe even take up surfing?
