We’ve walked through England, across France and the Alps, the length of the Italian Peninsula and Portugal without encountering more than a handful of fellow travelers per day, so walking in a river of people flowing toward Santiago requires an adjustment.  We are with walkers of all sizes and shapes and from every nationality known to the UN.  There is the large group of excitable English walkers, no more than 20 years old, walking with a soccer ball, playing the anthem I Will Survive on their boom box as we were scaling a steep hill.  There is the quartet of older men in matching brown t-shirts who stopped to examine every vineyard.  There is the sextet of men and women from Japan – the women wearing long sleeves, gloves, turtlenecks, long pants and full-face masks – who seemed in a hurry.  Cheery faces, loud conversations, boisterous laughter, the kaleidoscope of hiking outfits seem out of place to the secluded world we have become used to while walking.  

Several “Caminos” converged at Redondela, tripling the number of pilgrims.  We knew this pilgrim high tide was coming but it’s another thing altogether to be in it.  What are all these people doing on a trail in the middle of nowhere and why?  Which begs the question: what are we doing on the trail?  More than likely that a good number, perhaps 75%, are walking to Santiago as an act of devotion to the Apostle James, who is buried there, or for the plenary indulgence which one is granted for competing the walk. More on that in later postings.   Some are walking for bragging rights (How many Caminos have you done?), kind of like peak bragging or ironman tattoos.  Others, and I put Paula and me in this group, are doing it because we like thru walking with a destination in mind.  Paula thinks some are “revenge walking” after a divorce or after being fired, but the only evidence of that category is some of the sullen, angry faces we encountered. 

One final note.  Today the River took us to Pontevedra in Galicia.  What a jewel of a town.  A large, vibrant, pedestrian historic center lined with restaurants and cafes where Ponteverdians, young and old, gather and socialize, what urban life should be.