15 September 2023
Chantada to Vilaseco - 7 kms
We had a semi-restday today. We spent this morning in Chantada as we had such a short walk to tonight's accommodation near Vilaseco.
As we didn't need to check out of our accommodation in Chantada until midday, it was a lovely break from our usual morning rush. We did a supermarket shop last night knowing that they would be shut today, Sunday, so enjoyed a lazy breakfast with the spoils of our shopping.
I had been trying to find out Mass times for today but didn't have any luck looking online so we decided we would check out the small old Church of Santa Mariña we saw when we walked in yesterday, only it was still locked.
We wandered on a wee while then walked back on another street and spotted what looked like another, more modern, church not far from the back of the old one. It was locked too but as we stood there looking a man crossed the road walking towards the church. When he saw us he asked if we were peregrinos and used sign language to ask if we wanted a stamp. He indicated to follow him. He unlocked the church, switched on some lights then took us to the sacristy and stamped our credentials. I asked him what time Mass was. He had limited English and my Spanish is almost nonexistent but he managed to tell us that Masses were at 11 and 12. He then indicated that we should look around in the church and wished us Buen camino.
It was very modern compared to the ages of most Spanish churches but we have no idea when it was built. It was beautiful with stunning stained glass windows and other artefacts.
We left the church and had a hot drink for morning tea and bought some tasty treats from a panaderia which we took back to our accommodation to enjoy as it was still quite early.
We did a final pack of our backpacks and left our accommodation just before 12 and walked to the church for Mass - this newer church is called the Church of Santa Mariña, the same as the old one. And the priest who said Mass was the chap who opened the church earlier and gave us our stamps. He recognised us too and gave us big grins.
When we came out of church it was raining, not heavy but heavy enough to need raincoats. We were standing huddled under some street umbrellas wondering where we could find some early lunch - the Spanish don't have lunch until nearer 3 pm - when a man approached us wanting to know if he could direct us somewhere. With his help we went to a nearby bar/restaurant and after a simple but good lunch we were on our way - wearing our ponchos. By then the rain had settled to a light drizzle and about half way through our short walk it stopped altogether.
We're in the middle of nowhere tonight, at least it feels like that. It's in the country with no houses in sight. We've been told that dinner is at 8.30pm and breakfast will be at 8am. That suits us as it's not light enough to start walking until nearly 8.30.
We have a decision to make tomorrow - to go on the original camino route up and over Monte Faro, which is what we would prefer, or to walk an alternative road route which sidles around the mountain - Brierleys guidebook suggests taking the road variant if the weather isn't good. Rain is forecast for the rest of our camino.
We are now less than 100 kilometres to Santiago de Compostela. We had been keeping an eye on the mojones, watching them count the kilometres down expecting to have one marking the 100 kilometres distance as on the Camino Francés but, unless we both missed it which is unlikely, there wasn't a special one. They went from 100.258 to 99.278 kms.
