Day 36

I have seen a couple of these before Galicia but now they’re everywhere: donativo stands. Unmanned tables full of snacks or jewelry or knickknacks, all with an honor-system donation box, now dot the trail. Some are just a tree stump with a plate of muffins, others are like a full-on fifteen-foot buffet of room-temp delights (like bananas, nuts, and hard boiled eggs — all of which are considered room temp here).

The donativo stands have got me thinking and I would like to make an update to a previous blog post, the one where I talk about how most of the Camino villages feel SO empty. The general consensus was that the towns feel empty because everyone is gone during the day to work in bigger towns, and that these little towns are full of 2nd homes that are used just for vacations. I am sure this is true. HOWEVER, I have also been wondering if someone is in the market for a 2nd home and they don’t care which tiny village it’s in, a Camino footprint might be very off-putting.

I still love my fellow peregrinos but I’ve spent a month with these folks now. No one is a perfect tourist every minute, and when you’re a tourist for a long, long time? These little villages suffer every time one of us pilgrims forgets we’re a guest. For example:

1. Trash. Biggest thing I notice. I’m sure not all of it is on purpose (if you walk constantly for a month, you will probably drop something), but there is a LOT of it. Even if every pilgrim accidentally drops only one piece of trash, that’s like 250,000 candy wrappers. I thought I was being so careful but I can’t find my Chapstick and I’m worried it’s littering the trail somewhere. :-(

2. Bed bugs and “albergue fever.” Pilgrims might bring euros to town, but they also bring germs and critters.

3. Just being IN THE WAY. A town I walked through yesterday was very tiny, just one or two farms with lots of buildings clustered around the single, barley-one-lane road. Two older ladies were moving their cows (each the size of a bus) on this road from one barn to another. I came over the hill and saw them and they saw me and I know you can’t “see” a sigh from 50 feet away without glasses on but I knew it happened. I said I would wait. The 2nd lady firmly said I should go and held a cow back for me with a giant stick.

4. Noise levels on a non-Spanish time clock. All the locals have two hours yet to sleep but the pilgrims are up, yelling at each other across the town square about directions in the pitch dark.

This all brings me to the donativo stands. I am now on the most popular part of the Camino, because most people start around Sarria because you can get a Compostela (fancy pilgrims certificate) for a minimum of 100 kilometers and Sarria is 100 kilometers from Santiago. I think because Galicians see the most pilgrims, they might be the most sick of us, and donativo stands are their solution.

Or maybe I’m being negative because I’m still just mortified I was in the way of those two ladies’ cows!!!