Go – The Unhurried Traveler

CAMINO STAGE 20- Villaviciosa to El Berron (Pola de Siero) El Camino Norte Route diversión to Camino Primitivo of El Camino De Santiago 21 miles- Day 21, 16 days to go

“Wherever you go, go with the wholeness of your heart.”
Lailah Gifty Akita

Popping into a store to buy and send my sister-in-law a postcard, at the checkout I stood next to a t-shirt aimed at pilgrims with a front that said ‘those that walk with God reach their destination,” and a back that said “GO with God.” This popped back into my mind as we walked into Villaviciosa yesterday, damp in clothing but not in spirit, and two different residents said to us “Vaya con dios.” This means “Go with God.” This is a goodbye but also a blessing offered for someone on a journey. This small gesture touched my heart, and I recalled it a few times today on the Camino as the rain fell for six hours while we forged overflowing streams, walked in mud, slid on mountain trails and found neither shelter or water to drink. We were watched over as we made the twenty miles unharmed. It was not a coincidence that at the top of each steep hill, there was a little chapel or hermitage to remind that we were “going with God” in this wild, beautiful land.

All through Asturias, there are incredibly green rolling hills courtesy of the rain. It felt at times like we were in Ireland. At one point while walking, I thought the rain might have stopped, and I started to take off my jacket only to realize the famed Asturian mist was just as damp as the rain. The jacket stayed on. It’s interesting that the locals have several words to describe the different types of rain like L’orbayu to describe their misty rain.

“During our lives…head down in the rain, just try to stay upright..go on with a little hope.” Lance Armstrong

“Go and do the things you used to talk about doing but never did. Know when to let go and when to hold on tight.”Kristin Armstrong

We had a couple stints getting off mountainous trails and walking on the road. These giant colorful slugs, nearly the size of my boot, inched along with us.

There were also vibrant flowers coloring the gloom next to grazing cows unfazed by the rain. Apple trees dotted the mountainside as fermented apples, not grapes, are the basis for Asturian cider or sidra. Now we understood why in Villaviciosa the day before, we saw numerous“sidrería” —an Austurian institution where friends and families gather to drink, eat and celebrate life. Locals pour cider from a large wooden barrels and laugh and sing. Silos also dotted the landscape which store apples at harvest time. In my mind, I could see why people who still made and cured cheese in caves and made apple drinks and tarts, thrived here.

“Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.” Carl Sagan

The main irritant besides the rain was dogs growling and snarling at us nearly the whole Camino trek today. There were angry chained German Shepherds and Perro de Presa Canario, a Mastiff dog breed from the Canary Islands off the coast of Spain, known to be aggressive guard dogs. We weren’t sure if these dogs were protecting cider vats and presses or just a warning by the hardy people inside that they weren’t to be trifled with. But every house had 3-4 dogs as well as alarm signs. Historically, Asturians were the only people not conquered by the Moors during their occupation in Spain, and earlier when the Romans liberated Spain from the Carthaginians and tried to be one power to keep safe boundaries in Spain, Asturians, an aggressive, recalcitrant people from Celtic origins, declined and offered a lengthy resistance to Romans. They proved they were capable of defending themselves. (Asturians, have a DNA match to Celtic tribes with Danish and Norse Viking blood. And interestingly enough in Asturias, there are megalithic burial mounds/dolmens that mirror Celtic burial mounds in Ireland.) Asturuans are as rugged as their mountains. There terrain is considered one if the most difficult to traverse with its steep hills, narrow valleys and wet conditions. We are both of Celtic descent, with Steve also carrying Basque DNA, and we did just fine stubbornly walking on in our sodden boots as other drenched poncho covered pilgrims lagged behind.

“Whatever comes, let it come, what stays let stay, what goes let GO.” Papaji

Along with the avoiding the growling dogs we were forced to avoid Pola de Siero our destination on this Camino stage. In 1270 King Alfonso founded the city, specifically created to provide accommodation and sustenance for pilgrims travelling the Camino de Santiago en route to Santiago de Compostela. But entering Pola de Siero, through the fertile countryside, we got a strange set of mixed messages. There was a feeling of “GO away pilgrims” (as there were no hotels available to pilgrims) and locals looked at us with suspicious stares. But then there was the funny message ‘come buy our cider from our cider-centric village.’ The cider became a mainstay during the 16th century voyages to South America and whaling and cod expeditions in the northern Atlantic. Sailors that didn’t drink cider contracted scurvy, a vitamin C deficiency. Drinking the juice from the apples fermenting in huge barrels on the ships prevented scurvy, and from them on this low alcohol content apple cider became mainstream in Basque and Asturian culture. We bought apples but pressed on with our tired feet to El Berron for the night.

When we lived in Rome there was this little church “Quo Vadis,” outside of the city walls where a discouraged Peter, tormented by the city inhabitants, decides to leave the city. He is stopped by an angel who tells him not to go, as God walks with him. There was a little plaque with a scripture from Romans 8:31 on the wall: “if God be for us, who can be against us?” In the spirit of “Vaya Con Dios” going with God, we carry on to our destination come blister, back ache or high water to Santiago de Compostela as we go with God.