Camino Portuguese Return & Summary

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I woke up this morning in no particular hurry, since I didn’t have to check out of the hostel until 11am and my bus didn’t leave until 4pm. After gathering my stuff up a bit, I went to the nearby café to have my morning cup of café con leche, coffee with milk, in case you’d been wondering. I had looked in the nearby minimarket the night before for some more instant coffee packets that came with powerdered milk and sugar, but could only find the K-cup variety and jars of instant coffee. One wouldn’t work, and with the other I might have to buy both sugar and milk, depending on what the hostel had hanging around. After my coffee, it was about 10am, so I went back to the hostel to organize and repack in preparation for the trip back to Chipiona.

Even though I’d poked along with no hurry, I still got to the bus station about 11am, 5 hours before my bus left. After exploring the bus station and finding a room with lockers for my backpack, I figured I should have some brunch in the attached cafeteria. I ordered some ensalada russa and ham croquettes, both of which were quite good, along with another cup of café con leche. At this point, still having hours to go until my bus departure, I got in the habit of sitting somewhere for a while, then wandering around the station and vicinity, then back to the station to relax. I’d learned from my loooong trip to Porto on the bus that I shouldn’t drink too much before getting on the bus, since you never know how often they’d stop, much less for long enough to use the bathroom, so I nursed a can of Coke for almost 3 hours! There were a lot of pilgrims coming and going the whole time, plus quite a few just sitting or actually sleeping in the station. Again, I remembered how hard it had been to sleep on the bus to Porto, so I avoided taking any naps, hoping I’d be tired enough to sleep on the bus, which was going to take 16 hours to get to Chipiona and my wife.

Finally around 3:30, I made my way down to the platforms to await the arrival of my bus. Another lesson learned on this trip is to never count on the platform number to be accurate. My ticket said it would leave from 15, but when I checked with the bus guy, he told me it would be 18, and actually ended up being 21! The same thing happened when I changed buses in Jerez de la Frontera. The departure sign showed platform 6, but ended up being 7, because the driver said he’d made a mistake!!! Lol I’d selected seat number 4, in the front row and near the window, thinking that would be the roomiest and easiest to get in and out of. Well, it might have been, but on our first stop we picked up an older lady who had seat number 3 and I had to fight to keep my space the whole trip, with her using both armrests and some extra seat space. It made the task of sleeping even more difficult. I’m sure I must have nodded off now and then, but I don’t remember any long periods of time. Most of the time I watched “in flight”, so to speak, movies and tv shows, using my earphones so I could hear it and yet not disturb others. They actually had a decent selection of shows, many in English and other languages besides Spanish. We stopped a number of times along the way, sometimes very briefly, but a couple of times long enough to get off, use the restroom and even get a small coffee.

I finally arrived in Jerez around 8:45am the next morning and checked for buses to Chipiona. I had only bought one to Jerez figuring somebody from Chipiona would pick me up there, but since it was an early morning arrival my wife had asked me to get a bus from there to Chipiona. There was a bus at 9am and another at 11, but the one at 9 was rather close and I wanted to eat something and wake up a bit, so I ended up getting a ticket for the 11am bus. LOL That was a story in itself! When I’d asked the lady at the ticket window about buses to Chipiona and she told me 9 and 11, I asked for one for the 11am bus, but was told to come back at 10am. It seemed a bit strange, but oh well. I went across the street and had a nice serving of tortilla and anther cup of coffee to keep me awake. When I returned to the ticket window, it was 5 minutes until 10, but again, when I asked, she told me to come back at 10. Well, I wandered around a few minutes until 10:02 and returned to the window, only to have her start to tell me the same thing. I told her it was several minutes after 10 by my watch, and she asked me to wait a minute while she printed something out, then took my money and gave me the ticket. I can only figure they have to close something out at 10am before selling tickets for buses after 10am.

After a fairly quick trip, I arrived at the Chipiona bus station and my sweet wife was there waiting for me. We walked back to my brother-in-law’s house, I showered, changed clothes and took a much needed nap. Yesterday, I'd checked the Rota Naval Base Space A Passenger Terminal Facebook page, to discover there was a flight scheduled tomorrow (I’m writing this in Chipiona on Wednesday) at 11am direct to Charleston where our car is waiting.

CAMINO PORTUGUESE SUMMARY, OR LESSONS LEARNED:
I have to say that after doing both the Camino Frances for 800 kilometers over 35 days, and the Camino Portuguese for 280 kilometers over 12 days, I enjoyed the Camino Frances much more. It’s hard to say just why, and I’m pretty sure it has nothing to do with me being 2 years older. On the Camino Frances, I was with fellow pilgrims and friends the whole way, while on the Camino Portuguese I briefly met a number of people but didn’t make any friends, or even know anybody’s name. This is probably partly my fault, since I’m somewhat of an introvert and not that sociable. There were a lot more pilgrims in the Camino Frances and I was around other pilgrims for a longer period of time. On the Camino Frances I don’t remember ever getting lost, or at least not for any period of time, I guess because it is very well marked. On the Camino Portuguese, I got truly lost several times for considerable periods of time, once by 5 kilometers, ending up on the Coastal Route instead of the Central Route I’d intended to take. And that is not mentioning the numerous times I got slightly off-path but soon found my way back. On the Camino Frances, there was a lot more pilgrim support, with there always being someplace to stop and have a coffee, drink, and/or food, every few kilometers. On the Camino Portuguese, there were numerous times that there was nothing like that to be found for 6, 8 or even 10 kilometers. Also, even though there were a lot more pilgrims on the Camino Frances, there was seldom any problem finding a decent albergue, hostel, or something similar. On top of that, I seem to remember the lodging was typically more complete and hospitable. Both Caminos had some wonderful scenery and quaint little towns, but that is one of the few things they had in common. Oh, and the Camino Frances had some special places like the Alto de Perdon and the Cruz de Fero, while the Camino Portuguese didn’t seem to have any special monuments or sights, unless you enjoy the beaches and ocean that much. To be fair though, I did the Coastal route instead of the more traveled Central route, so some of the above might have been different.

All in all, I’m glad I did the Camino Portuguese, even though I considered quitting a couple of times, but I definitely would not recommend it to any first-time Camino walker. Do the Camino Frances, or at least the biggest chunk you think you can do.

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Comments

[richard ferguson]

Beautiful Experience!
Glad to learn that the people on the Camino Frances trip were very friendly. But I was a little surprised when you called yourself an introvert...lol. What a great trip! Glad you enjoyed yourself! Loved the pictures!