April 12, 2024

I had been advised, or rather warned, that many of the paths on the Camino del Norte were “asphaltiert” (paved over) instead of being softer, dirt paths. This came home to me today as I came out from Islares with the goal of reaching the city of Laredo. The path led away from the coast, as the weather turned sunnier and markedly warmer. I found myself walking along the side of a busy highway and came to a crossroads with indications in more than one direction, as to what the camino to Laredo was. Not especially convinced, I and others chose one road and pressed on. Eventually this led to a small village, also with yellow-arrow signage leading in multiple directions . Consulting my Camino apps, of which I had at this point three different ones, I was offered three different paths. We ran into some other pilgrims , who had been told by locals that the correct path was along a certain way, and were headed in that direction. I was unconvinced , mainly because the path seemed to be leading back to Islares. Given that there seemed to be so many Camino del Nortes to choose from, I decided to lead us (myself and two other pilgrims) along another path . The heat and glare from the sun was now increasing to the extent that it was not pleasant to stand around deliberating.
The path turned steeply upward into an area with more tree cover. Again the road split into two, both uphill, and both with camino signage.

The midday heat was increasing. There also started to be a discussion regarding my decision to take this current path. The wisdom of my leading us up this hillside with roads leading everywhere and nowhere, was called into question, and found fundamentally wanting.
The group atmosphere was becoming noticably less comfortable. We were now next to a farmhouse, with a lady working outside. Not knowing what else to do, I decided to try my limited Spanish to ask for advice regarding which way to take.

The response came in a sonorous torrent of words, of which I could not understand a single one. She repeated, and I now thought that I recognized in the maelstrom of sounds, the word coche – which is one of the Spanish words for “car”. I was not sure why she was talking about a car, since I did not see one, we did not have one or any way to acquire one. Patiently she offered more streams of words, and I eventually discerned that she was offering to drive us to Laredo!
More than happy to take her up on her offer, we arrived in Laredo and checked into an albergue, formerly a convent, where we were received without ceremony.

Given that we had covered some of the distance by car, there was still time to walk a bit on a huge beach in front of the city.