Spain
Boente

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    • Day 34

      So close now!

      October 22, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

      I think I’m getting wimpier rather than stronger lately, or maybe it’s just that the bounce has been ground out of my trail shoes. Today was a very average length day but the last eight K seemed to take forever! The state of our shoes has become a frequent topic of conversation lately, even more common than describing the state of our feet.

      As Morgan and I were eating breakfast this morning a parade of men in blaze orange started pouring into the small bar. Hunting season! A familiar sight. Another sight at the end of the day? A rather fit young man skinny dipping in the very cold river by our albergue. I’ll just show pictures of us soaking our tired feet.

      Morgan pointed out earlier today that we were basically one Birkie away from Santiago. Ha!

      There are threats of turning tomorrow, our penultimate day of walking, into a bit of a pub crawl. We are excited to be close to the end while also dreading the goodbyes. Work and other realities are beginning to come to mind more, and making the day a sort of party has some appeal. We’ll see what actually happens.
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    • Day 42

      42. Etappe: Boente (28,5 km)

      December 7, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

      Ohne Frühstück gings heut los, denn die Bar gegenüber hatte zwar abends lang auf, aber leider morgens noch zu als ich kurz vor Sonnenaufgang in meine Etappe startete. Und so gab es die erste Stärkung des Tages erst nach 8km in Palas de Rei. Dann noch schnell zum Supermarkt, die nun aufgebrauchten Vorräte auffüllen und weiter durch die schöne galicische Landschaft bei milden Temperaturen. So einige Pilgergruppen sah ich heute auf den Weg. Man merkt deutlich, dass wir auf den letzten 100 km sind. Pinkelpausen müssen von jetzt an wohlüberlegt eingelegt und in Windeseile erledigt sein 😅
      Da mir die größeren Städte auf Pilgerreisen immer zu viel sind, schlendere ich nur kurz durch die belebte Innenstadt von Melide und kehre dann 5 km weiter in Boente in einer kleinen privaten Herberge ein. Die Gastgeber sind schon etwas älter und sehr nett und erklären mir alles mit Hilfe von Google Translate. Das warme Wasser und Heizung sind bereits abgestellt, aber dafür gibts Decken! So rum ist es mir ohnehin lieber, als wie letzte Nacht in einem überhitzten ungelüfteten Zimmer ganz ohne Decke rumzuliegen. Und hier gibts sogar richtige Bettlaken und ein Handtuch! Ein Traum! 🥰 Und die kalte Dusche ist schön erfrischend nach einem bewegungsreichen Tag.
      Jetzt freue ich mich schon auf das Abendessen - in jedem Fall gibts ne galicische Suppe! Dann können die letzten 50 km kommen! 🥳
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    • Day 32

      1 month of Camino

      August 23, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

      Today is the 'monthversary' of my start at Saint Jean Pied de Port, and I only have one more day of walking to get to Santiago.
      Everything went so well! I remember in the beginning, I had so many doubts about how things would go:
      How will my feet handle it?
      How will my legs handle it?
      How will I feel carrying that backpack for so long?
      How will my hands handle hand-washing the laundry every day?
      Do I have everything I need?
      Will I meet any nice people, or will I be too lonely or bored?
      Will I get sick of so much walking?
      What if I get covid?
      What if I get any other illness or injury?

      Because of all these questions, I couldn't be sure that I could complete the Camino in one go. And even if everything went well, I couldn't calculate how long it would take me.

      I read that, on average, most people do it in 35 days. I allowed up to 42, in case I needed or wanted to take days off, or in case I needed to do shorter days. But assuming I arrive tomorrow, it will be 33 days for me.

      This means I have up to 9 spare days. I also don't want this to end just yet. I have a plan 😉

      Today's walk was about 25k, a good part of it under the shade of trees.

      I walked most of the day with Jan, and we met other people on the way.
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    • Palas de Rei to Boente

      October 21, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

      21km in good weather with just a short shower of rain.

      The weather forecast had been dire so we were expecting another drenching. Grateful it didn’t happen.

      We had a good breakfast at a bar in Palas de Rei and put our heads down and cranked out 10km or so while the good weather was with us.

      Stopped for café cortado and cake at O Leboreiro. Then pressed on expecting rain at any time.

      By 14km we were in need of a proper refueling and had arrived in Melide so we stopped for a lunch of pizza.

      Melide looks like a pretty busy center but we didn’t linger. A km or two beyond the town the rain started falling so ponchos were deployed.

      But it rained lightly and only for about 30 minutes. Not enough to wet our feet.

      Eventually the ponchos were stowed and we walked on to our destination of Boente. It’s a pretty small town. The pensión is very good. We will dine here too as other options are scarce,

      There were lots of eucalyptus trees in the forests we walked through today. Some were quite old and large stringy barks.
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    • Day 33

      Day 33: Palas de Rei a Ribadiso

      June 1, 2022 in Spain ⋅ 🌧 17 °C

      I wake up leisurely in my private room with Kevin, at around 7am - yesterday we ate some snacks in the hostel and had a long conversation for dinner.

      Yesterday evening, everywhere was very loud with lots of pilgrims all connecting vocally in every restaurant and bar throughout the small town. I found it all overwhelming (Doesn’t take much it would seem!), so I was grateful for something lower key.

      Kevin mentions that he thought it was a nice touch that I turned my phone off for dinner, and he wanted to mention that he felt I would be a special friend in his life. I felt honoured.

      We leave in the morning after a sugary breakfast of yoghurt and pastries and make our way out around 8am. The day starts off with promise, even if the way is extremely busy. Kevin is experiencing some severe foot pain, and I am feeling tired still. Lacking in the energy of the earlier days, thoughts of the experience being over begin to flicker in my mind like a small flame. Showers, cups of tea with Chris, exhibitions in London, walks in England…start to flood my mind. Perhaps there is a feeling of my life rushing back to the surface, after many weeks of being at the back of my mind. I feel perhaps some longing for that, but a desire to also bring some changes back with me. I am unsure how I will feel in a few days, but I can only feel what I feel, and accept it.

      The skies begin to cloud over, we keep walking. However after stopping for some coffee the sky threatens even more. We decide to get rain packs and rain jackets on. Timely, as once we start again the heavens open. A biblical deluge of rain, which soaks me through completely in about five minutes. We make it about ten minutes before we huddle under a roof to get out more rain gear. I try on (for the first time) my rain poncho, which I have carried since SJPDP, and I tell Kevin I will keep going.

      We walk together further, he is surprised that I didn’t give up! We are smiling, or at least I am, as I feel that I hadn’t really experienced any rain to this point so - how lucky am I?!

      I walk 10km in the pouring rain to Melide, which is where I plan to stop for lunch. I am completely soaked, feet are drenched and the rain doesn’t stop. I get lured in to a famous Pulpo restaurant and I order for a family of 6, which of course I can’t eat! Best tasting octopus but I later tell Chris that I will be a vegetarian when I return for at least 3 months to offset all of the meat and fish I have consumed on this walk.

      I tell Kevin that I need to walk alone, he reserves at the same albergue as me, so I need some time to myself. He says he admires that in me, and I leave happy that I have set a boundary!

      The last 10km are sunshine, which I am beyond ecstatic about. I listen to albums from my childhood, walking through familiar smells and singing along. I probably look insane, but I feel great on this last bit of the walk today.

      I arrive at the albergue in a small town, most pilgrims will go further today, so the room is quiet. I manage to do some laundry and make dinner plans with Kevin.

      I start to plan my final real walking day tomorrow, it hasn’t really sunk in yet. I will go on to Finisterre, but the French Camino will end on Friday. I will have walked 780km.

      Over and out from me today, I love you all.
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    • Day 43

      Ja.

      September 8, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

      JA.
      Das hatte ich vergessen: das Ja-Sagen. Also nicht das fatalistische zu allem Ja und Amen sagen, sondern das Ja, so ist es! - das Staunen darüber, was gerade geschieht.
      Ich will Abbitte leisten. Das, was ich über die Lawine gesagt habe, war hässig. Nicht diese Menschen grenzen sich ab, sondern ich grenze mich ab und sie aus. Ich habe etwas aus einer eigenen Not heraus bewertet und verurteilt. Das habe ich, seit ich die Herzkraftfeldmeditationen mache, eigentlich gut verstanden. Insbesondere die Donnerstagsmeditation zum dreifachen Ja. Verstanden! Ja. Aber erst jetzt erlebt, empfunden. Wie kam das?
      Bei mir läuft es so ab. Zuerst möchte ich etwas verstehen. Dann perfektioniere ich das, gehe immer tiefer in die Materie, forsche – und falle den anderen damit manchmal auf die Nerven. Dann muss ich es erproben, also überprüfen, ob meine Theorien auch der Wirklichkeit standhalten. Oft verpasse ich diesen Moment, weil: es ist so schön, in diesem in sich geschlossenen Ideen-System zu baden. Dann gibt es – Gott sei Dank – die geliebten Menschen um mich herum, die mich wach rütteln. Das ist nicht immer angenehm, aber wir berühren uns!
      Nun so eine Berührung hatte ich vorgestern Abend und über Nacht hat sich etwas bewegt, was beim Aufwachen klar vor mir stand: das war blöd – dieses Ab- und Ausgrenzen und Ablehnen hat mich immer mehr in die Enge geführt. Es hat mich in Beschlag genommen und fast meinen ganzen Tag bestimmt.
      Und das habe ich gespürt, also physisch in mir empfunden, dass das nicht stimmt. Das habe ich heute getestet. Was passiert, wenn ich vorverurteile: dann verschwinde ich in meinem Bauch, der Kopf wird dunkel und alle Wahrnehmungen sind reduziert. Der Fokus liegt nur auf dem Nein.
      Wenn ich mich dann ehrlich öffne, meinen Blick in die Natur wende, das quirlige Wasser im Bach anschaue, die Blumen bewundere, die Vögel höre, und tastend über die Landschaft schaue – dann wird etwas weit in mir und ich sehe das Schöne – auch in dem, was ich vorher abgewertet habe.
      Danke.
      Nun habe ich noch eine Frage. Wenn ich Abgrenzung erlebe – zum Beispiel so, dass ich nicht beachtet werden oder andere mich nicht wahrnehmen, weil sie mit sich beschäftigt sind –, grenze ich mich aus. Das ist fast wie ein Mechanismus. Wie kann ich in solchen Situationen offen bleiben? Und nicht nur gespielt, sondern wirklich mitfühlend zugewandt, Raum schaffend, Weite …
      Ja, das will ich mal üben.
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    • Day 29

      O Pedrouzo

      May 8, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 48 °F

      Second to last day of walking! I’ve reached the 19km mark and I’m saving those for tomorrow. Hasn’t been as nice lately because the trails are SUPER crowded with SDNPPs. I’m excited to finish tomorrow and have my last albergue night tonight.

      Also I couldn’t take a lot of pictures because my phone wasn’t working for the majority of the day.
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    • Day 11

      In Melde auf den Camino Francese

      September 6, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

      Heute haben wir uns entschieden nur ca. 23km bis Boente de Abiaxo zugehen. Das Wetter war leider immer wieder schlecht, so dass wir keine Lust hatten weiter zu laufen.
      Da die Reststrecke noch 47km ist haben wir uns entschieden diese nochmal aufzuteilen und am Donnerstag nach Santiago zu kommen.
      In Melise vereinigen sich der Camino Primitivo und der Francese und auf einmal sind 10mal soviele Pilger unterwegs 🤦‍♂️.
      Jetzt ist es mehr eine Massenwanderung 😵‍💫
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    • Day 37

      Going up on Camino

      June 23, 2022 in Spain ⋅ 🌧 55 °F

      Is like USPS
      It never stops

    • Day 26

      Melide to Arzua

      June 13, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 64 °F

      Up then down then up then down. The Norte Way joined The Frances in Melide.

    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Boente, 15826

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