09/26/2023 Bikepacking Spain Day 49 : Do as they do.

Nice start to the morning. Another great weather day.

Janet and I saw this tourist spot - a world heritage site (so we paid attention). It was dedicated to Chocalheiro. Having no idea what that was, I looked it up online and pasted 3 paragraphs below. After seeing so many Mary statues and shrines, I was a little surprised to read that these rituals are preserved: “Before Christianity, the Chocalheiro was simply an embodiment of wishes that people made by the end of the year, in the winter solstice. As such, people would bid in an auction for the right to name the person who would wear the Chocalheiro mask in the ritual, as a way to convey their wishes for the coming year. The bids would be payed as tribute in gold, food or drink. On the days before winter solstice, they would go out in the streets as a demon from the ending year, playing pranks, stealing and drinking. With the growth of Christianity, pagan rituals were either banned or changed in order to fit Christian belief. The Chocalheiro was then adopted as a way to collect people’s donations in coin or food, and promote a sharing culture in the villages. The ritual is still done in the winter solstice and most of the pagan symbols are still used, but the dates coincide with relevant Christian dates. Usually the door-to-door collection of donations is done in the day of São João (in the Mirandese dialect, “San Juan”, hence the name of this mask). After Christmas, the mask and its suit are stored away until the Carnival (in February) when they bring the Chocalheiro to a public place and burn it as a way to cast away the evil of the year that is now far in the past.”

Water… this time brought to you by Mary. Today Janet and I saw an old couple hobbling over to one of these springs where the water comes out of the mountain through a pipe. They were carrying large jugs. It’s not an uncommon sight to see ancient looking folks collecting large amounts of water from the springs. Perhaps this means that spring water makes you live a long time. Or perhaps spring water just makes you look old and hobbled. 🤔 —

Today we had a nice start on a great trail. Super happy and excited to be riding. We came to some towns and a big grocery store. I noticed that Janet was kind of like WTH with Portuguese and bravely started talking to people. She said “Bom Dia” to everyone (including later in the day… when we said “good morning!” To a guy walking his dog at 5pm.) He replied “Bom Tard” (good afternoon)… and so we learned a new one. I admire Janet for just “going for it” with her mostly Spanish Portuguese. People have taken to it very well and have been quite friendly! Anyway, at the store, Janet had made a new friend. I didn’t know it, but then her new friend found me and started jabbering in Portuguese. I asked if she spoke Spanish and she more or less explained that the sardines I was looking at are much cheaper in a different part of the store… and she took me over to see them. She just wanted to let me know. It was cute. It is kind of funny how we keep having these interactions where people want to get deeply involved in stuff we are doing. I think it is their way or reaching out maybe? —

All good things must come to an end. Our route so far was nearly constant mountain scenery and isolated villages. Spain is great for that. We have designed a few routes through Spain now and it is easy to take trails or quiet roads. Now that we are in Portugal, it was harder to design a route that sticks to more natural scenery. We did some satellite view scoping - and nothing but farms and olive orchards ahead. Then we spotted a place for RVs on open street maps. It was a public pool, but they allow motor homes to park here. We went inside together and asked if they spoke Spanish. Not really, but they understood our Spanish perfectly (but spoke back to us mostly in Portuguese with a few Spanish words which was hard for us). But we got the gist: we could camp back here for free and we could take showers too. They were very welcoming and nice. It’s been a while since we have traveled to a country where we had to do this type of interaction! I kind of forgot what it was like. It is scary to not be able to communicate, but I get the feeling a lot of times that people go out of their way to help you more when you seem more helpless like we did. I know that theory doesn’t always hold up, but it did today! —

Maybe it’s the carrying of large masses of water that causes them to live so long?

Mark G.