As I wrote the posts about each stage, I became tired of simply writing the events like a diary, rather than telling you about the people and quirky things that happened to us. I decided that the description of our Camino wandering wouldn’t be complete without describing the cast of characters that we met on our journey. So, here is a partial list of the most memorable ones:
- Happy: An older gentleman (60+ ??), originally from Vietnam, but lives in Europe. We saw him in Leon, and met him a couple days later in a small town. He was always happy, smiling and full of energy, so we named him Happy. Although he is short, we walks faster than any of us. The most amazing thing about Happy is that he started his Camino in Paris and the day he walked into Santiago was his 69th day walking. I’d love to know what inspired him to make the journey. Maybe we’ll see him in Santiago and I can ask him.
- Annet: A fun, friendly Puerto Rican lady who has walked the Camino in 2005. She is a mother of 3 children and the oldest is studying for a semester in Madrid. We met her in the O’Cebreiro bar that cold, wet, foggy night, and we didn’t see her again until we arrived at the Hotel O’Pino. She was sitting in the hotel bar with her husband, Xavier who had stepped of a local bus at the very moment that she was walking by on the Camino! He had wanted to surprise her by coming to walk the last day of the Camino with her. That story is real Camino magic.
- Guillermo: A retired Spaniard who we met at Foncebadon. He was videotaping the Kumbaya song circle at the comune – with a video pen! Tony thought he was so high that he was holding up a pen, like people at concerts hold up lighters! Turned out he was recording the session because he liked it so much. He thought Tony was the “lider del tribu” – or leader of the tribe of the commune because he was playing the bongo drums. Guillermo was having a blast walking the Camino with his grown son. One day he did tell us how he had gotten lost earlier in the day. He took a wrong turn and ended up walking along a mountain ridge, not knowing how to get back down to the Camino. He said he could see the trail a hundred feet below him, but couldn’t get down to it. He was ready to call the authorities to rescue him when he found a trail, and hiked down through a very wet grove of trees, sinking in water and dirt up to his knees. When he finally got back down, he found an arrow made of stones marking the Camino and followed it, but it ended up being a wrong turn and was lost again for a while. He finally made it to his destination. Apparently, someone had purposely marked the wrong direction with stones. Bad Camino karma to anyone who does that!
- Grumpy Waitress: A Moroccan waitress in Villadangos del Paramo who was rude to us and every other patron of the restaurant. When we asked whether the “cheeks” that were on the menu were pork or beef, she answered, “Yo que se!?” which in English would be, “How would I know?” Then, she brought the wrong dessert to a nice Brazilian lady and when the lady said it wasn’t what she ordered, the waitress told her that she was wrong. Grumpy went on to tell the customer that she was not paying attention when she ordered. I swear that I have never in my life met anyone as rude as that woman.
- German Sprinter: I already mentioned her, but she was an absolute walking machine of a woman, who we did not see after Astorga. We met her in Astorga and turned out she really wasn’t German, but Finnish. Too late by then to change her nickname.
- Pablo: We met Pablo in the “jousting” town of Puente de Orbigo. He is young Galician and always carrying a camera. He had long hair and beard, and always seemed to be in the midst of the action. We liked him right away. I think he has that effect on everyone. He also seemed to like the smoke wafting from the commune. We haven’t seen him since just before O’Cebreiro. We popped into an albergue to use the bathroom about 8:15 in the morning and he was the last one in bed, just waking up. I guess he had too much fun the night before. Perhaps we’ll see him in Santiago.
- Jimmy: A young man with long hair and a beard, who has passed us several times in the last two days. He has a small, low slung, square backpack, a bottle of water tied to the pack. He also carries two plastic bags full of stuff. I named him Jimmy because he looks just like one of our family friends.
- Las Andaluzas: Three young girls from Cadiz who are walking the Camino, but started in a city after Leon. I don’t know which one. One of them had problems with her knee so badly that she was limping like an old woman today. We pass each other on the Camino a lot and they always have something funny to say.
- Belgian Chocolate: I’m sure that Tony knows his real name, but I just call him Belgian Chocolate. He is a young man who was walking with Pablo when we first met him, and he was eating chocolate from his native Belgium. I think he must be a student. Very nice fellow, who always seems to appear wherever we are – including the cathedral.
- El Burgales: The older man that asked about the bus in O’Cebreiro is from Burgos. He has walked the Camino 10 times! He said he had lot of stories to tell. I wish we had coincided with him again, but after we got off the bus in Triacastela, we walked toward Samos and he went directly to Sarria. Perhaps we’ll see him again in Burgos! I’d love to hear his stories.
- Francesco, the Italian: We met him in O’Cebreiro when he was lit, as they say. He was so drunk I don’t think he remembered meeting us during the soccer game. We saw him several more times during the Camino and again the day after we arrived in Santiago. I was never quite sure where he was coming from, but someone said he was very religious.
- The Mexican without a Name: We passed him regularly and vice versa. He was tall and thin and walked super fast. When we actually introduced ourselves to him, we were in O’Cebreiro and he said that he carried a pack weighing 20 kilos, which I find hard to believe. In that pack he apparently carried 2 bottles of wine all the time. I’m not sure why anybody would carry around 2 bottles of wine in Spain since you can buy great wine everywhere.
- Gypsy Girl: Tall, dark, thin and exotic. She turned out to be Brazilian, not gypsy, but once we name a character, it’s hard to change their name. She was a fast walker and was alone on the Camino, like many other women. (We originally thought she was in cahoots with an American hippie who seemed to be tagging along on the Camino, but we never saw him walking.)
