Camino de Santiago - Day 2, Portomarín to Palas de Rei (Holy Thursday) - 16 miles

Day 2 (Holy Thursday): Portomarín to Palas de Rei - 16 miles

The morning started with the tearful goodbyes when leaving dear Mónica behind at the Hotel Portomarín.  She was a skillful bartender the night before and handled breakfast and all the check-in and check-out activities.  She also bravely attempted to keep a group 20 Cuban men quiet.  She barely slept.  (I asked and she mentioned she’d only had four hour’s sleep.)

Also, the hotel has formally barred any groups of Cubans larger than 3 due to the noise levels in the lobby and the need for the owner to come out to the lobby in the middle of the night and turn the lights off on some revelers.

We awakened to fog and a bit of a chill.  David displayed his hardiness by showing up only in a t-shirt for the day’s walk.  He’s all man.  (Cold, pointy nipples, but manly.)

Downhill and across the river to a long uphill climb, first through forested paths and then through farmland.  Much of the latter part of the morning included views of the nearby mountains and valleys and the fog eventually disappeared as we climbed higher. We ended up having a beautiful sunny day.

A quick stop for a coffee and off to walk to lunch.

From the pictures others shared, I saw how the group moved at different paces, a part of the group arriving at lunch (starting with a fantastic and needed “Caldo gallego”) well before us and heading off to Palas de Rei before my group had lunch.  

I’m told Sague took a leak pretty much everywhere it seems.  Some pilgrims made several stops for beer and wine along the way.

This is where my post is a bit different than yesterday. 

Some of us stayed behind to accompany one of our group who had been struggling with maintaining the pace. (Two really, but the other kept a faster pace and I did not spend the afternoon with him.)  I won’t name him to protect his privacy in case others read this post.  

This has really been an extraordinary day with him. We walked together, slowly.  We talked about superficial topics and about deep ones.  He and I were not close at Belen (just in separate social groups, but friendly) and acknowledged as such as we talked.  Yet there was an implicit trust that allowed him to accept help when needed and allowed us (Ron and I) to assure him that we were not going to go off without him when he felt guilty about somehow holding us back.  We had hoped to get to Mass on time, but it was not to be.  

Yet the walk was deeply spiritual, certainly for me.  He pushed through his pain and his suffering in an attempt to complete the walk he started.  At times he needed a hand getting up or down an incline or a slippery spot.  He never really complained, though the distance was long.  We talked about praying a Rosary as we got to O Rosario, but we did not he had to concentrate on his steps and was exhausted.  

We arrived at Mass during the consecration and were able to receive communion, about 50 minutes late.  Yet it felt for me as if we had lived the ritual in today’s liturgy in which Jesus serves others by washing the feet of the Apostles.  We did not see that because we were late but we had lived it along the road, in a sense.  It was somehow fitting that we joined the mass when when we did.

I am in awe of him and saw our walk together as a fitting in with the journey of this and every Holy Week, that pain and suffering are part of the redemptive mystery of the Resurrection.  A blessing of this trip has been to experience this firsthand today with my brother.