Day 12: Boente to O Pedrouzo, 29.4 km, 18.22 miles

It has been said that familiarity breeds contempt – disrespect or disdain follows extensive knowledge, experience, or extended association with a person or thing. That could be true of these last two days into Santiago; especially if you spend too much time on the Camino social media pages: hordes of pilgrims, tour-a-grinos, no beds available, rude hospitaleros, rain, sleet, and snow, uphill all the way, and endless urban sprawl. These certainly exist, and all can be irritants for me, but…

Santiago is my goal. I ignore social media, take those first steps out of Boente, and let the walking solve the problems (remember solvitur ambulando?).

The solution came by recollection – this same path in 2017, when I fell in love with the Galician countryside, ate the freshest fruit ever in Arzúa, walked with the Florida gang, and stood with a man weeping tears of joy at the edge of a cornfield. And on this path once again in 2022, my friend in the graveyard, the uncertainty and provision of a bed for the night, and the unintended fast in Santa Irene.

What a blessed way to exist!!

Yeah, the art gets a little kitschy. And there are more souvenir shops. And there are a lot of people on the path. And there are a lot of people on the path that aren’t walking in the pilgrim spirit. And some of our hosts were less than excited to see us walk in their doors near the end of a record-setting pilgrim season (just under 500,000 over the year, not all traveled with the humility of Saint Francis).

But still it was good, familiarity can breed contentment. My walk into O Pedrouzo ended with a half hour conversation with a friend from Seville – his Spanish was impeccable, and he patiently spoke with me, understanding my Spanish was that of a 6-year-old (no offense to 6-year-olds). The capstone of the good day was the meal at a restaurante-for-locals in O Pedrouzo – vegetable soup, Pimientos de Padrón (the second-best food on the planet), and the finest food known to mankind: Melón con Jamón Serrano.*

*This is not a subjective statement. All people at my table were surveyed and unanimously agreed with the claim. For details on the sample size and research conditions and questions, please email me at melonconjamon@bestfoodever.com.