Camino del Norte part 4

This week we continue with part 4 of my series on the Camino del Norte. However, before we get to that I present the usual weekly logic puzzle.

Logic Puzzle

It takes five people five days to paint five houses? How many days will it take ten
people to paint ten houses?

 

Camino del Norte part 4

Day 4 was March 21, 2026. As you know from part 3, the day started in the beach city of Laredo. My roommate at the parochial Albergue where I stayed was already gone by the time I woke up, so I didn’t have to be care of my noise or light level as I packed up
for the day.

After breakfast near the Albergue, I enjoyed walking along the coast in this delightful beach town. If I ever return to Spain and wish to relax at medium-size city along the coast, I probably would pick Laredo.

 

 

The city was located on a peninsula of which I eventually reached the end. My map showed a dotted line indicating a ferry to the other side of a bay but I couldn’t find a dock anywhere. I was a bit nervous that I was in the wrong place but somebody evidently noticed this and assured me I was in the right place. He was right. The ferry simply stopped just offshore of the beach and lowered a gangway to let passengers on.

It was a small ferry that could take maybe a dozen passengers. That day I was one of only about four. The cost was about two Euros as I recall.

I love ferries the way some people love trains. I wrote about that topic as well as my five-day ferry trip on the Alaska Ferry over a three newsletters, starting with part 1

This particular ferry between Laredo and Santoña was one of the smallest I have ever been on. Smaller than the ferry to Balboa Island in Orange County, I think. However, I believe one I took in the Netherlands over an aqueduct was even smaller. In this case, the trip took only about ten minutes.

 

 

Santoña was another pleasant beach city, like a smaller version of Laredo. A short walk across another peninsula and I was in yet another beach down – Playa de Berria. Then the Camino was a walk along a sandy beach for a while to Helgueras and then Noja, where I had lunch. This was one of the most pleasant mornings I had on the Camino.

 

 

After Noja, the Camino turned inland for the rest of the day, taking me to the small town of San Miguel de Meruelo. Here I stayed in a small hotel that was at one time probably a private home. The proprietor obviously had an interest in horror movies as pictures
from scary movies adorned the walls, but scenes that were not scary without context.

For example, the twin girls in blue dresses from the Shining. On the shelf was a small reading library that I noticed had an x-rated humor magazine, kind of like Mad, in Spanish.

Once again, I seemed to have the whole hotel portion of the business to myself. I killed time by going to an ice cream store in town. During a lull in business, I offered to do magic tricks for the two workers, who I would later learn were husband and wife and
owned the place. They were a great audience, much unlike the skeptical Americans I’m used to. In fact they were so entertained they gave me a free coffee of my choice. That
made my day.

For dinner, I had a hamburger in the same hotel I stayed at. I was the only customer. I’ve said many times that few people outside the United States know how to make a proper hamburger. However, I didn’t listen to myself and received what was a grilled
patty between two pieces of toast. Even my mother could do better than that.

Overall, day 4 was a very scenic day but didn’t score well in terms of human interaction.

My magic show was the only exception. The whole day I saw zero pilgrims and had only minimal conversation with restaurant and hotel workers.

 

Logic Puzzle Answer

Five days.

 

Logic Puzzle Solution

Let’s start with the following formula for the number of houses painted.

Houses painted = Number of painters * number of days * Houses painted per day per person

To rearrange:

Houses painted per day per person = Houses painted / (Number of painters * number of days)

We are given that it takes five people five days to paint five houses.

Houses painted per day per person = 5 / (5*5) = 1/5 = 0.2

Now that we know the rate of houses painted per day per person we can answer the question at hand. As a reminder, it is “How many days will it take ten people to paint ten houses?” Let’s rearrange the original formula again to solve for the number of days.

Number of days = Houses painted / (Number of painters * Houses painted per day per person)

We know everything on the right side of the equation, so the answer is:

10 / (10 * 0.2) = 10/2 = 5.