Leaving Melide.

We leave Melide and arrive at Boente. We see some bars beside the road and, in the nearest bar to the church, we ask if they let rooms. They do not let rooms but they tell us that, a kilometre away on the road, they do so in the bar Mato (a waiter tells me). I tell Paca to wait for me there and head for the bar Mato. I go up very fast and when arrive I see the bar beside a bus stop. That gives me some hope. The person in charge is a lady in her seventies.

• "Excuse me, is this the bar Matos, please?"

• "Yes." (She eyes me from head to toe)

• "People told me in Boente that you let rooms."

• "I have never let a room in my whole life."

• "I see that you even work as a waitress, but my wife and I come from Roncesvalles, walking the Camino, and are dead tired." (I say that with a little bit of sarcasm, waiting to her to pity us.)

• "I do not who told you, but I never let any room."

• "Well, thank so much and sorry, madam. Bye!"

I go down to Boente feeling very upset. When I tell the waiter what happened to me, the phlegmatic man says:

• "If they do not let rooms in the bar Mato, you can only try in Melide."

• (Sure man, have another drink! I say that to myself looking at him in anger.)

When we arrive at Ribadiso da Baixo we find a bar where we can have lunch. The bar is two hundred metres before a pilgrims’ hostel. We decide to stay in Ribadiso.

In the hostel they say that even though we come from a faraway place, they, in Galicia, only take into account the order of arriving (First come first serve system) and we must sleep in an army tent. We tell them that there is both a lack of control and infrastructure in Galicia. The hospitalera, very cross, tells us that no Spanish province of community would be able to deal with as many pilgrims as they do, and that she also has covered the Camino and that besides she is there as a volunteer. We, with the passion of those that have walked along several hours and in a foul mood during the Galician stages, answer that Santiago de Compostela is the capital city of Galicia, that Galicia promotes the Xacobeo Year, that the rest of Spanish communities in the Camino have enough infrastructure both public and private so as to lodge and help pilgrims and finally, in a polite but clear way, pronounce that we do not careless whether she is a volunteer or not. Finally, as there is justice in Galicia and pilgrims are lodged in the order they arrive (God protect us from favouritism!), we are sent to an old ragged army tent without a wooden floor. We are also told that we can go to sleep in the dining room at night, when people leave it.

We have lunch and dinner in the restaurant near the pilgrims’ hostel. We chat with two sisters and their brother from La Coruña. One of the girls and the boy live in London. Their father wants to see them arriving together at Santiago. We have a nice time with them.

Paca and I sleep, or at least we try it, in the tent where we were told. Some people with support cars, as we can see for ourselves in the evening, sleep in the hostel beds. It has been raining during the whole night. I do not mention the effects, all those that have slept inside the tents share those. Basic suggestions: providing tents without holes and with wooden floors. Will this unbalance the budget of the Xunta de Galicia? We hope not.

*hospitalera/o.- Person who is in charge of a pilgrims’ hostel.

Stage 28 Stage 29