Camino de Santiago Portugues - Day 19

Daily Overview

• Summary of the Day: We spent the night in Vilanova de Arousa in anticipation of taking the boat ride up the river to Padron today. It was a beautiful clear sunny day and this is something I was really looking forward to but I had no idea what it was going to look like. So I didn’t know exactly what to expect. When we gathered on the pier it was clear that the number of people on the boat would be around seventy-five to a hundred. That seemed like a lot for the size of the boat. In the crowd there was an older Spanish gentleman yelling and laughing and acting like he was in charge. As everyone got on the boat we were instructed that all backpacks had to be stored in the hold below. That meant that some people immediately lost access to things they might have needed for the trip like sunglasses or a jacket because there wasn’t time to get those things out because there were too many people boarding all at once. As the boat got under way the crew turned on very loud music from the ships megaphone that is used for announcements. It ran the gamut from Spanish pop to old 1980”s American pop and rock. As the trip progressed the boat operator began to give out facts like a tour guide but only in Spanish. Shortly there after the crew put out large tables with trays of mussels for people to eat and about as much wine as anyone wanted to drink. The trip itself up the river was beautiful but I was not at all prepared for what things ended up looking like. I’ll have to admit I felt a little betrayed. I had to process my way through this. In the end it felt like I was on a party boat with mildly intoxicated pilgrims dancing to old rock and roll songs while their friends laughed and videoed it all. The Spanish man from earlier on the pier only got louder and more animated, clapping and yelling and laughing. In the end I realized that for them, this is their “Camino” but it is not mine. I came face to face today with how different the intentions of my heart were from so many of the people on board the boat around me. It’s not that what they were doing was wrong, it was not wrong, it was just profoundly different than what I needed and wanted and it was completely incongruent with my pilgrimage and the path Sandy and Jonathan and I have been following. In that way the experience was very helpful to me. Realizing that I must know my own path and I absolutely must make allowance for others even though the path they have chosen is completely different than mine. That is true today and it will be true tomorrow also.

• What we planned to do: Today we planned to leave Vilanova de Arousa by boat and travel up river to just south of Padron often considered the last stop on the Camino Portugues before Santiago

The Day's Focus

• Topic: Strangers and Aliens - I know full well what it feels like to be an alien at this moment in this place. I cannot read the menu at the restaurant. I don’t know how to use the right words to ask for help. I don’t know what to do or when to do it. I feel vulnerable and scared sometimes. Sometimes I feel embarrassed that I don’t know things that seem simple. Because I have fellowship with others who are in this same place I can be a future resource for those who will occupy the same place that I do now. I can be kind, and patient and understanding and compassionate. I can be for others what I desperately needed others to be for me.

  
  

• Word for the Day: Stranger

  
  

• Scripture: 1Peter 2:11 -

  Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.

  
  

• Spiritual Practice: As an alien yourself in a spiritual sense consider one way that you can be a resource to others around you who are aliens in a practical sense.

  
  

Moments and Images

• Images from the Way Today: 

  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  
  

• Beautiful Spot of the Day: 

A view of the Coastline while traveling up the Rio Ulla to Padron

• Spiritual Meditative Moment: Sitting in the church after the rather raucous boat ride

• What Church We Visited:

  

  

  

  The church in Padron was a respite for me today. I was so happy to rest there, it was a refuge for me

  
  

• People we experienced: We had to walk some distance from the boat to get to Padron. Along the way we encountered a woman from France who was very upset and disappointed with the boat ride. We understood completely how she was feeling and we were able to encourage her. That felt redemptive.

• Unexpected Surprises: Getting on the boat to make the trip up river to Padron only to discover that we had booked passage on a boat that has all the trappings of pilgrimage and the Camino but no real understanding of what it really means at all.

  
  

• Animal/Nature or local life: Mussels are delicious

  

Camino Portugues Video of the Day

A view around the boat as we were going up river

Reflections and Learnings

• Reflections from Today: Pilgrimage is not an event or a series of stages that end with a destination. Each of us is on a pilgrimage everyday whether it feels apparent or not. It’s true whether we are physically walking a certain path or following God in a certain way that he is leading. It is the same and it makes demands on us often in ways we are not prepared for. I cannot expect the larger culture of the world around me to agree with me and cooperate in this enterprise. It cannot and will not. Therefore I must be the one in whatever way I can to make the space for others that the world will never make for me. I must lend a hand, offer acceptance or consolation or whatever meager gift of encouragement that I am able to give knowing that just as the pilgrimage that I am on is dependent on others so also is their pilgrimage dependent on me.

  
  

• "Well, that was hard": Getting into the small apartment we rented for the night in Padron required the following:

  1) Find and book your accommodation online at booking.com , and pay for it. Know that you can’t cancel it or get a refund

  2) Contact the owner of the property via the phone number on WhatsApp to get check-in instructions

  3) Receive info from owner in Spanish with Link for checkin via WhatsApp

  4) Go to link provided by owner and fill out four pages of information with name, address and phone plus picture of you with your passport and your electronic signature. Do this for all the people in your party

  5) Notify owner that you have completed the registration

  6)Owner sends you a picture of the building and front door with a code and any other information in Spanish

  7) You arrive at the location and let the owner know that you are there

  8) the owner opens the door to the place remotely

  9) You use the code sent with the earlier checkin instructions to open a lock box inside the building

  10) Remove keys and locate apartment entrance inside building

  11) Figure out how to use key to open door

  12) And last but not least call your therapist because you have just lost your mind.

  
  

• "What helped me today": Sitting in the church in Padron and being able to rest there was very therapeutic for me today

  
  

• "Something I learned": This region of Galacia is the world’s second largest producer of mussels second only to the entire country of Canada. The mussels are harvested from some twenty-six hundred floating platforms in and around Vilanova de Arousa

  
  

• "Insight for the day": Breaking into the CIA headquarters in the US is easier than getting into some rented rooms in Spain.

  
  

• "Mystical occurrences": It may not have been mystical but seeing the exuberance of the pilgrims on the boat for the pilgrims walking on shore was beautiful.

Daily Conclusion

• A View of Our Compostela

  

• Gratitudes (1–3 things I'm thankful for):

  A day to rest our feet

  A beautiful ride on the boat

  Getting lunch just before the cafe closed at 3pm