Camino del Norte part 13

As usual, before getting to my story of the Camino del Norte, I present my weekly logic puzzle.

Logic Puzzle

Kevin secretly chooses a playing card and Gordon and Charlie want to know what it is. Kevin says it is one of the following ten cards.

Hearts: 2, 3, 6

Clubs: 4, 5

Diamonds: A, 3

Spades: A, 2, 4

Kevin then tells Gordon the suit and Charlie the rank. The following conversation then ensues:

Gordon: I don’t know the card, but know that Charlie doesn’t know either.

Charlie: I didn’t know before, but now I do.

Gordon: Now I know too.

What is the card?

Camino del Norte part 13

This chapter in my adventure shall cover the last four days of my 25-day adventure on the Camino del Norte. This part starts in Parga and ends in Santiago.

Day 22 (April 8)

Day 22 was the fifth out of six days on the section between the north coast of Spain and where the Camino del Norte joins with the Camino Frances in Arzúa. The walk that day was perhaps my least favorite of the trip. Much of it was on paved roads with the associated car traffic. No interesting places to stop or see.

My destination that day was the monastery in Sobrado Dos Monxes. This was a large working monastery that had quite a few guests who I presume were tourists as opposed to pilgrims.

I arrived before the big groups did. The lone monk who registered pilgrims seemed eager to chat with me. Some magic tricks helped break the ice. This monk was completely unlike my mental image of one. He was funny and talkative. Every question I asked he was happy to answer. For example, I asked him what kind of jobs the monks have and how it was determined who did what task. He said they tried to match jobs according to interest and previous experience from the outside. He went on to say that sometimes it was hard apply such talents in a monastery, as in the case of a gynecologist.

The rest of the day, I did the self-tour of the monastery, went to a prayer service and ate in a restaurant outside of the gates. The room I was assigned to was one of many with about 20 beds about half of which were taken. Overall, it was a very interesting experience. I’m happy to cross off “stay at a monastery” off my bucket list. Maybe I’ll do it again sometime for a longer stay.

Distance covered day 22 was 24.9 kilometers.

Day 23 (April 9)

Day 23 was my last day covering fresh ground. Like the previous day, much of the walking was along paved roads. The area I went through was more populated than previous days. To be more honest, the walking was boring, urban and tedious.

After 21.9 kilometers, I reached where the Camino del Norte joins the Camino Frances in Arzúa. I did the Camino Frances in 2024, so the rest of my journey would be retracing the last part of that journey.

To start, I checked if my last Albergue from 2024, the Pensión del Peregrina had space. They didn’t open their doors until 3PM, so I relaxed in the town square while I waited. Here I saw Lena and her boyfriend walk by. We waved at each other. That would be the last time I saw Lena or a familiar face on my trip.

After 3PM, I returned to the Albergue. They still had about 60% of their beds available. The one I recall from two years ago was taken, so I chose another bed closer to the bathrooms. This Albergue had a high bed to bathroom ratio, so being close to a bathroom had some advantages.

That afternoon, I went to the same pilgrim’s mass that I attended two years before. The priest flung holy water at the attendees, which normally doesn’t happen at any kind of mass. That night, someone in the next bed snored to decibel levels I had never heard in my life. I often used earbuds that play the sound of rain to drown out such snoring, but this time they were outmatched.

Day 24 (April 10)

Before I go on with my story, here are some statistics for the route chosen in 2025 as reported by the Pilgrim office in Santiago.

Camino Frances: 46%

Camino Portuguese: 36% (coastal and inland combined)

Ingles: 6%

Primativo: 5%

Norte: 4%

As you can see, the Camino Frances is far and away the most popular route. To qualify for a credential in Santiago one must walk at least 100 kilometers or bicycle 200. The town of Sarria is on the Camino Frances and conveniently just over 100 kilometers from Santiago.

When I did the Camino Frances in 2024, once I arrived in Sarria the number of pilgrims seemed to suddenly increase by ten times. I call the section of the Camino between Sarria and Santiago the Camino 405, named in honor of the Interstate 405 freeway in Los Angeles and Orange counties, of which I have spent much of my life, sitting in traffic. There is another 405 outside Seattle that isn’t much better.

In 2026, it was just as bad. One huge teenage group after another. Many other smaller groups of what looked like Americans who had their luggage shipped from one hotel to the next, which I refer to as slack-packing, a term I picked up on the Appalachian Trail. I suppose it’s not in the Camino spirit to complain and be judgmental about others having a seemingly good time with their friends. However, it’s also dishonest to lie about my feelings about going from seeing zero pilgrims all day long on the Camino to suddenly seeing hundreds in a single day.

It was still 40 kilometers between Arzúa to Santiago. Too much for one day. So I broke up the last portion into two easy days. My last night on the Camino was in Arca. I didn’t want to spend the night in a large crowded Albergue with nobody I knew, so splurged on a hotel. It was only a 19.3 kilometer day, so I dinked around Arca and did another Pilgrims mass. Over dinner, I met two women from Seattle who were among the many slack-packing it a short distance. It turned out we knew someone in common, one of my juggling friends where I live now.

Day 25 (April 11)

My last day. I woke up when it was still dark and hiked by headlamp for the first hour. It was nice to beat the morning rush hour of the masses of short-distance pilgrims who spent the night in Arzúa.

As I walked, I thought about many things. Did my Camino achieve what it was supposed to? What was it supposed to achieve to begin with? Was I any better off? Did I learn anything?

I did have a falling out with a friend over the phone when I was in Vilalba on day 20. Since then, things got only worse between us. Somewhere on the outskirts of Santiago I decided it would be a fitting sacrifice to the Camino to cut said person out of my life. So, I blocked him/her and have not looked back.

As the last kilometers wound down, I both did and didn’t want the journey to end. I was ready to move on but also missed the Camino before even finishing. I had the choice, all Pilgrims do, to walk an extra 100 kilometers to alternative ending points in Fisterra or Muxia. However, I didn’t. 25 days was enough. The Camino will always be there when I return.

Usually, there is somebody playing the bagpipes in a tunnel leading to the main square in the Santiago Cathedral. I imagined following the sound of them to the finish line. However, unlike in 2024, I never heard them as I made my way through the maze of narrow streets around the cathedral. What I gained by beating the crowds I lost by the lack of fanfare at the end. When I passed through the tunnel, the bagpiper seemed to be still putting the pieces of his instrument together.

Then I turned left and there was the plaza in front the Cathedral. This is where the journey ends for about 99% of pilgrims. Usually there are banners, singing, celebrating and lots and lots of pictures. However, I felt like a deflated balloon, standing there in the plaza with nobody to greet or congratulate me.

I’ll end my story there. I could go on with spending two more days in Santiago, then three in Porto, Portual and four in Marrakech, Morocco. But I won’t.

I would like to give some general advice on doing the Camino, based on this and my 2024 Camino.

• The Camino is not about getting from point A to Point B, but the experience in between.
• Your destination does not have to be Santiago. It can be anywhere on the Camino.
• Don’t do it on bicycle. You will travel 4x as fast as the vast majority who go on foot so you won’t get to know anybody. Many sections of the Camino are not appropriate for bicycles, so you’ll have to figure out bypass routes.
• I hate to speak badly about the Camino Frances, but if you put a gun to my head, I’d say I liked the Camino del Norte more.
• Bring noise-masking earbuds. The type that play sounds like rain or a gurgling brook. They will usually block out the noise of snoring in the Albergues.
• Bring only essentials. On both my Caminos I started with too much stuff and parted with much of it along the way.
• Train before you go. The better shape you are in when you start, the less blisters and pain you’ll have on the Camino. This trip, I had no issues with either.
• Don’t be mileage greedy. The Camino is supposed to be a pilgrimage, not a race.
• You don’t have to have a reason to do it. Maybe you’ll figure it out on the way. If you don’t, that’s okay too, just doing it is the important thing.

 

In closing, this will be my second to last newsletter. Next week, I’ll say goodbye to you all and share some final words.

Logic Puzzle Answer

Three of diamonds

Logic Puzzle Solution

Let’s break this down into statements.

Statement 1A: "I don’t know the card." -- Gordon

We can ignore Gordon saying he doesn’t know the card because there is no card where he could deduce that. Gordon knows the suit only and each suit has at least two cards.

Statement 1B: "(I) know that Charlie doesn’t know..." -- Gordon

Gordon knows that Charlie doesn’t know either. Charlie must have a rank that is common to at least two suits. That rules out the 5 and 6, both of which appear only once in the ten cards. So, we’re down to five cards:

Diamonds: A, 3

Spades: A, 2, 4

Statement 2: "I didn’t know before, but now I do." -- Charlie

Charlie was given the rank. The only way he could know at this point was if the rank was a 2, 3 or 4. It can’t be the ace because that could be either a diamond or spade, which doesn’t narrow it down to a specific card. Now we’re down to:

Diamonds: 3

Spades: 2, 4

Statement 3: "Now I know too." -- Gordon

Gordon was given the suit. If he was given a spade, he wouldn’t know the rank because there are still two left. Thus, given he confidently knows the card, it must be the one in a unique suit, the 3 of diamonds.

Acknowledgement

This puzzle is based on a classic one known as “Cheryl’s Birthday.”

Written by: Michael Shackleford