OBSOLETE COVID THREAD The last pilgrim on the Camino

[Felipe]

The newspaper "El Pais" interviewed today the guardia civiles tasked with catching (and fining) people who don't respect the quarantine or try to cheat it with different pretexts. A case caught my eye: it has the subtitle of "The last peregrino on the Camino".
This is a translation on the fly:

"He is the only pilgrim we have found, there is nobody on the Way," says the sergeant. This was a man in his 40s, with a bicycle. "He had nothing, no luggage, no money and hardly spoke Spanish," they recall. He was taken to the nearest town, Lalín (Pontevedra) where the City Council has sheltered him in an albergue, where he will remain until the confinement ends. "He left France one day and the coronavirus caught him on the road, he must be the last pilgrim since the pandemic began".

As you see, guardia civiles took care of him, and apparently he was not considered an offender.

 

[VNwalking]

There are way worse places to be stuck than the Lalin Albergue.
But no luggage, no money? How has he managed?
How will he manage in lockdown mode??
May there be support for all the weakest and most vulnerable in these difficult times....

 

[Rebekah Scott]

there were three people on the camino three days ago. One of them, a young Englishman, phoned my house to see if they could stay the night. "We aren't pilgrims," the man readily admitted. "We're adventurers." They had come from Vittoria in the Basque Country (which is a virus hot spot), where they'd gotten bored with lockdown and decided to "experience the post-apocalyptic meseta."
The Meseta is just about the same place post-apocalypse as it was pre. I think they still were bored.
I told them they could not stay here.
I learned later that a neighbor picked them up outside Ledigos and drove them back to Vittoria. The neighbor has family there, and this gave him a reason to get on the road and get back to the city.
The police asked around, but seemed glad to not have to deal with them. So far, I think "pilgrims" and non-troublemaker vagrants are just moved along, or taken to the nearest homeless shelter for the duration. I know of four Argentine pilgrims holed-up in a closed hostel in Villafranca, and an assortment of people staying with David outside Astorga, apparently the Policia Nacional have been bringing the waifs and strays there, and are also periodically bringing food and supplies to keep them going.
(strangely enough, David has also just announced his place is for sale.)

 

[Deleted member 73526]

"We aren't pilgrims," the man readily admitted. "We're adventurers." They had come from Vittoria in the Basque Country (which is a virus hot spot), where they'd gotten bored with lockdown and decided to "experience the post-apocalyptic meseta."

Oh dear. Disaster tourism sickens me.
Great to hear that the Guardia civil are ensuring that the waifs and strays are sheltered and fed. If the cyclist wound up in the Lalín Centro albergue, he is a lucky guy indeed. (I would guess, though, that the city council accommodated him in the A Laxe albergue ... witch should still be comfortable enough).

 

[VNwalking]

"We aren't pilgrims," the man readily admitted. "We're adventurers." They had come from Vittoria in the Basque Country (which is a virus hot spot), where they'd gotten bored with lockdown and decided to "experience the post-apocalyptic meseta."

Reb...You have said are not a saint. So how in the world do you keep your cool with this level of self-absorbed immaturity?
Geeze.

 

[Rebekah Scott]

Reb...You have said are not a saint. So how in the world do you keep your cool with this level of self-absorbed immaturity?
Geeze.

Dear Vira, I didn't tell you the full dialog!

 

[VNwalking]

@Rebekah Scott: Oh.

 

[RennieArchibald]

There are way worse places to be stuck than the Lalin Albergue.
But no luggage, no money? How has he managed?
How will he manage in lockdown mode??
May there be support for all the weakest and most vulnerable in these difficult times....

There are a group on the Camino I refer to as the lost boys. They live here. Glad the cops were cool about this man.

 

[ISABEL linares]

So unreasonable ,La Guardia Civil are very busy looking after everything.

 

[JillGat]

What are they going to do with them when they get sick, which I would think is likely. The numbers in Spain are staggering. In parts of the world where they have to ration ventilators, sometimes criteria for prioritizing includes how many years you may have left anyway. Hope they dont let an abuelita family matriarch die while this "adventurer" gets a hospital bed and ventilator.

 

[Janny]

What are they going to do with them when they get sick, which I would think is likely. The numbers in Spain are staggering. In parts of the world where they have to ration ventilators, sometimes criteria for prioritizing includes how many years you may have left anyway. Hope they dont let an abuelita family matriarch die while this "adventurer" gets a hospital bed and ventilator.

Spanish numbers are quite staggering and have overtaken Italian confirmed cases overnight - according to this source. Stay safe and strong everyone.

Latest COVID-19 News and Data - CNA

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www.channelnewsasia.com

 

[Tuesday Wildchild]

I'm still walking/cycling my section daily to exercise my dogs.
To be honest before lockdown it was rare I past anyone and now it's still rare even with more locals at home and jogging/walking.

 

[Kathar1na]

The Spanish newspaper ABC has an article about David's Casa de los Dioses near Astorga on their website today:

The House of the Gods. Six pilgrims, confined to a house without water or electricity. David Vidal has been living for eleven years in this old shepherd's fold near Astorga, where hundreds of pilgrims normally pass by every day; currently, he lives in the company of five travellers from different countries. ​

The article says that, in addition to David, an Englishman, a Portuguese (a wood carver), a Moroccan, an adventurer from Castellón who arrived by bicycle and a Bulgarian woman who gave up her job before coming to Spain currently live in the House of Gods. Click here for the full article in Spanish. Google Translate or DeepL.com will provide a machine translation into English. "He" and "she" will sometimes be mixed up and 80 days may turn into 8th day but one gets the gist. Some knowledge of Spanish is always useful.

 

[emmanuel]

What are they going to do with them when they get sick, which I would think is likely. The numbers in Spain are staggering. In parts of the world where they have to ration ventilators, sometimes criteria for prioritizing includes how many years you may have left anyway. Hope they dont let an abuelita family matriarch die while this "adventurer" gets a hospital bed and ventilator.

Well, the adventurer in his twenties may amount to something worthwhile some day. I think that's the rationale behind favoring the young when it comes to ventilators.