Day 31-32: Santiago

Santiago, April 11

Dominicanos playing softball on a Saturday afternoon: chatter from the stands, the slap of a ball in a glove. The occasional ping of a bat and rattle of the backstop fence, another foul ball. Either great pitching or bad hitting closes out a scoreless inning, and then rain ends the game and everyone heads to the nearby shelter for beers and rum and laughter.

Hue

A street side cafe on a rainy morning in Hue, Vietnam

BONUS Dec 12: Omaha

La Buvette on a snowy Omaha Friday afternoon: a bottle of wine. A plate of cheese. The last 50 pages of a book. People who did not come here together but know each other well enough to stop and chat on their way in or out. A waitress who understands exactly what I’m looking for, ignoring me almost entirely, stopping by my table only once, slowing down just enough to give me a thumbs up, her raised eyebrows serving as the punctuation to her wordless question. Yeah, I’m good.

Oct 30: Baiona

The coast at Baiona, near where Columbus first touched land back in Spain after his first visit to the Americas. This is just 15 minutes of the ocean.

Day 31-32: Santiago

At the cathedral in Santiago, pilgrims gather with the euphoria of a long hard task completed, or exhaustion, or both. Friends meet after not seeing each other for weeks, and pose together for photographs. In the distance a man plays bagpipes incessantly, confident that that’s what everybody was hoping would be here when they finally made it.