Santiago

It's a lovely feeling waking up today knowing we have lots of time to explore this wonderful old town. Of course it is surrounded by a modern city but inside its narrow roads are cobbled blocks of stone, not pavement. Lots and lots of people walking and wandering up and down the narrow roads. Streets are lined with shops and bars. No end of places to shop and eat. A number of museums and also government offices. 

Cathedral clock tower.

On this first full day in town we had a few things to look after. First was getting our credentials stamped with the last stamp and to see about getting our Compostela from the church which is a certificate showing we had done the pilgrimage. We went there early, hoping to beat today's crowd. It opens at 10 and we were there very shortly after and joined a short line-up. Whew! When our turn came up we went in one at a time and were both very quickly into a discussion about our eligibility.  The long and the short of it is we did not qualify. That's a whole other issue we are not going to get into here, but we have Lanzada on our side working on it. 

Then a lovely surprise - just as we were working on this issue, from behind the counter out pops Paula from Victoria who is volunteering here for 2 weeks. So we arranged to meet her later for a glass of wine and chat. 

Paula is in blue. So now we have an elf on the inside and can give us lots of info about how things are really done in this office, controlled by the church.

We went off for breakfast of toasted ancient grains bread (the local delicious bread), and freshly squeezed orange juice (squeezed from whole oranges right at the bar) and cafe con leche. Perfect! 

Had to move hotels and settle into our new digs just around the corner, Hostal Mapoula.

We are now wearing Canadian Company of Pilgrims crests on our vests and so have been involved in lots of conversations with other Canadians who recognize it and want to chat about their experience walking.

We met Paula for wine after she finished her shift. We will meet up with her again another day for dinner. 

Wendy picked a tapis bar for dinner tonight that she had been to last year. It was great, very noisy but the kind of place you just go and point at some stuff on the bar and they bring it to you. We sorta knew what some of them were.  We ordered 5 things, 2 I really liked, 2 were ok and 1 I didn't like at all. Then the dessert which was heavenly.

Crab and shrimp - delicious

Shrimp, and chicken croquettes, pretty good

Meatballs and calamari- Wendy liked, I didn't

We had another one that was steak with mushrooms and a quail egg on top. Very good but gone too fast to get the picture.

Then the best:

chocolate chocolate mousse which we shared.

We ended our day with a walk over to the main Praza and listened to a Tuna Band. They were excellent as they always are. Wish I could put in the video of the sound and action. 

Tomorrow more of the same I hope. Wendy is getting around ok with her crapped out knee. She finds if she uses the hiking poles and avoids going up or down stairs or ramps she is ok.

a manaña 

Wendy and Marion