May 12th, 2017
Camping de Castro to Alburgue Juvenile de Sontona
Km walked: 31
Km total: 228
It was a fairly boring day through a long road walk alternate. We didn’t have to do the road walk but it cut off quite a bit of unnecessary backtracking so we took it. The route lately has been too many roads and paved sections, leaving my ankles and feet sore, and my eyes sore too, since the scenery has not been particular impressive. I might as well be touring this on a bicycle- it would be more pleasurable that way. We actually saw quite a few cycle tourists on the road today, and for a brief moment I missed riding my bicycle.
We eventually emerged into the town of Loredo, which has a 3 mile long beach tucked into a bay. We walked near the beach up to its apex on a peninsula, and took a 5 minute ferry boat over the water to the other side to a town called Sontona.
We are camped out behind the youth hostel. The worker there let us pitch our tent for free, which was nice, and also let us use the bathroom and shower. It smells a little like rotting fish here, because we are by a port and inland bay, so maybe that is why he let us camp outside for free. It doesn’t matter much though. I don’t have to pay to sleep in an Alburgue, and that’s just fine with me.
It rained off and on today, but nothing hard, just a few rain showers, and the day was cloudy and cool. After we set the tent up a large storm cell pushed through, along with rain and thunder. It passed as abruptly as it arrived, and the sun is shining again. The sun does not set here until around 10 PM, which is late, and doesn’t rise again until 6:30 AM. There is a lot of daylight now, and we seem to have quite a bit of downtime at the end of the day. It is a nice change from hiking the PCT/AT/CDT, where you push for miles and rarely have time to relax. This trail is structured so that 15-20 mile days are routine. Each segment is called a “stage”, and I think we are on stage 9 or 10. At the end of the stage there is always a medium to large town with an Alburgue and often multiple hotel options. Cheap hotels here are called Pensions, which are often tacked onto bars and restaurants, and rooms are cheap, like 40-50 euros, about the same as a Motel 6 in the States.
What’s interesting about Spain is there doesn’t seem to be any store chains, aside from grocery stores. Everything is locally owned and operated. You don’t see signs for fast food everywhere you go, or for department stores, or anything resembling a Walmart. Maybe these exist somewhere else in the country, I don’t know. But it is nice not seeing all these signs. At times in the States we are suffocated by these signs, and advertisements in general (there are also no billboards here I have see), and it is nice not having to be told what to buy, or what kind of McDeal I can get at the next McDonalds down the street, or which attorney I should get a hold of if I find myself in legal trouble. These signs aren’t here and the landscape can breathe a little, look a little nicer, and the towns can be more unique and individualistic. A place here is not like any other place, which can’t be said for places in the states, which often embody a certain cookie cutter mold- Walmart? McDonalds? Target? Bed Bath and Beyond? Best Buy? Check, Check, and check, etc. There’s not much originality anymore- just convenience that comes at the price of visual mediocrity. A suburb in Boston can be a suburb in Chicago can be a suburb in Dallas. But we love it all the same. Right? We can’t seem to get enough of it.
