My Walking Playlist & Taco Tuesday on Camino Primitivo

Stage 2: Grado to Bodenaya

This stage started with a steep ascent out of Grado. This stage is notably mostly because of the exceptional albergue in Bodenaya, which is truly one of the best on the Camino. I spent most of this day walking alone listening to my Camino playlist. It’s mostly songs about walking but here are some of the highlights:

Dixie Chicks – Taking the Long Way`
The title track from the Grammy Award-winning Dixie Chick album, this song is about the fallout from some innocuous comments in 2003 but is relatable to anyone who left their small town for something better. It also was quite literally relevant when I took longer diversions for one reason or another.

Dolly Parton – Travelin’ Thru
The song that lost the Oscar to “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” in 2006. This song almost sounds like it was written for the Camino. “Like a poor wave-bearing stranger that they speak about in song//I’m just a weary pilgrim trying to find own my way home”

How Far I’ll Go – Auli’i Cravalho (Moana Soundtrack)
I realized that I start to cry-sob after a few bars of this song. I saw Moana with my mom, my cousin Liz, and Liz’s daughter Hannah. Mom saw it four times in theaters, and I had this epiphany today that Mom loved Moana so much because she identified so much with the title character. She wanted to see the world and wasn’t content staying in her hometown. This realization brought the waterworks.

500 Miles – The Proclaimers
Not only am I literally walking 500 miles but this is a song I associate with my mom. I remember scream-singing it with her when I was a child.

A Thousand Miles – Vanessa Carlton
Ok so I’m not walking 1000 miles but this song presses a nostalgia button for anyone in my particular age cohort.

I met a really interesting pilgrim during my walk named Katya. Katya is a blonde 20-something with Katniss Everdeen-style braided hair. Before learned one another’s names we were sharing information about our prescription anti-depressants. The Camino can be weird like that sometimes. Katya was extremely fast and liked to do 40km stretches at a time. Her pace was so extreme that she tended to never any of the same pilgrims more than once. Anja and I had booked beds at the albergue in Bodenaya and convinced Katya to join us as well.

The Camino took us through the town of Salas, where Anja, Henric, Katja, and I stopped for a picnic in front of its medieval church. I made my “Bocadillo Americano.”

Here is the Recipe:

1/2 of a Baguette
100g of sliced Pavo (Turkey) or Pollo (Chicken)
Tomato (Your mileage may vary)
A package of cheese

When we arrived at Bodenaya it was instantly a feeling of being relaxed. We were told we could take beers out of the fridge. There was basically wine on tap. All of this was donation-based. They also instructed us to put our dirty clothes in a hamper so that they could be washed and ready in the morning. I was particularly shocked when I saw a scarf for BSU. My twin sister works there! I pressed Celia and David for details. They told me a professor from BSU stayed at the albergue. Apparently he teaches Euskera (Basque) at Boise State University. Boise has one of the largest Basque communities outside of Basque Country.

Celia prepared a wonderful dinner for the pilgrims. There were two tables and my pilgrim family (Anja, Kathleen, Andrés, and Katya) sat at a smaller table while the rest of the pilgrims sat at the large table. That’s how we started referring to ourselves as “La Mesa de los Niños.” Celia gave us each a hug before we went to bed, just another way the albergue felt like home.

Etapa 3: Bodenaya to Borres

Celia told us about a new albergue in Borres that had been opened by a cow farmer. It was €12 and had only been open for two weeks. It sounded promising so we had her make a reservation for the five of us the night before. We bade farwell to Celia and David and began the walk. David told us about a slight diversion where we could maybe see the ocean under the right weather conditions. It was pretty clear out so we gave it a try. We think we saw the ocean but we definitely saw two pilgrims following us off the Camino. That’s what you get for blindly following the people in front of you!

The first stop of the day was in a town called Tineo. I stocked up on groceries and made a pitstop to get some Flexeril at the Farmacia. I’m not sure if it’s helping my muscle spasms but it’s certainly helping me fall asleep at night. When I asked for the “cyclobenzaprina” I ended up having to google it and show the pharmacist. Fun fact: many drugs, including Flexeril, do not require a prescription in Spain. In extremely typical Spanish fashion three elderly customers started talking to me. They asked me where I was from and about my Camino. They also told me they heared the the Camino Primitivo was “Muy duro.” It was a pretty cute moment as they all said goodbye and “¡Buen Camino!”

Tineo is an extremely hilly town, and the ascent out of it was beautiful. The rest of the walk to Borres was uneventful but I’ve grown to love sending voice messages on iMessage or Whatsapp. You still get to hear a person’s voice without needing to be available at exactly the same moment. The time difference between Spain and the United States has been good for getting me to unplug (More or less). People don’t start waking up in the US until it’s about mid-afternoon in Spain.

When I arrived at Borres I was pleasantly surprised by how nice the albergue was. The owners were cow farmers and they new to hosting. They had never walked the Camino but their location was perfectly suited for the Camino Primitivo.

For dinner, Andrés volunteered to cook tacos and would not allow anyone to help him in the kitchen. We sat down for family dinner of tacos and wine. The hospitaleros were happy because were were the inaugural group to utilize the outdoor dining area. I DJed the dinner with the music on my laptop. This meant there were no songs more recent than like 2010. Sitting around the table over a home-cooked meal was a real treat for someone who lived in New York City for 8 years. Communal meals in New York City tend to happen to dimly lit but lively restaurants, not outdoor tables 30 feet away from a cow pen.

When we ran out of wine, Andrés just went next door and bought a bottle of wine for 3€. Among other things we shared stories of broken bones. I’ve never broken a bone, but Kath had quite a bad accident when she attempted to re-enact the iconic lift from Dirty Dancing. While not wanting to do a repeat I did go for a pretty impressive dip when “{I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” came on. There were no broken bones this time.

We eventually went to bed way past our normal 10pm bedtime. The next day would be the hardest day of the Camino Primitivo.