Day 16: Cobreces to San Vicente Barquera

September 27, 2022

I was not sad to leave our cigarette smoke laden rental apartment in Cobreces. We had a single cup of coffee from some old ground coffee in the apartment. We were resigned to a sparse breakfast due to lack of groceries nearby. As we headed west along CA-131 we expected to be wet and a little hungry for a while. But within 500 meters, I could smell fresh baked bread on coming from a group of little buildings to the right. I poked into one of them and found a guy buying coffee from a coffee machine for 1 Euro. They young man at the desk sorting newspapers said I could get bread next door at the bakery. I ventured into the building. There was no desk, just men working, and no one seemed bothered or even to notice that I was in the room scattered with baguettes croissants and other breads. It was hot, like a blast furnace and the overwhelming scent of fresh bread was present. I bought two croissant from one of the men and headed out. With our vending machine coffee and fresh croissants, we had breakfast.

We headed back onto the roadway with early morning light and only a light sprinkle. Soon we were heading down to an inlet from the sea, and then back up into the hillls, always following the yellow arrow.

We continued west, weaving in and out of interesting small towns. After about an hour we came to Ruiloba where there was a campground bar and restaurant. It looked like the campers were thinning out at the end of the season. We got some fresh squeezed orange juice and headed on. The rain started and stopped, but it was light, and as the morning wore on, it appeared the clouds were breaking and we saw the first little patches of blue sky, a very welcome sight.

We continued to weave our way through towns: Comillas, Rubaracena and Rabia ( I thought that meant anger, at least it does in Mexico). The rivers stared to be named Ria instead of Rio. Other subtle changes in spelling made me think we may be seeing some of the Cantabrian dialect, but I need to investigate. I had just read that Cantabrian can refer to the ancient Celtic language of the area, or to the modern dialect of Spanish.

By 11am we were close enough to the port town of San Vicente to see it ahead along the surf.

At 1:30 we walked into town after 23 km, and we soon happened upon a restaurant with beautiful seafood and treated ourselves to a nice meal. We were hungry, tired and had painful feet.