Day 3 and 4 – Santiago, Bank Issues, the Botifumerio and the Pilgrim’s Passport

Last time I was in Santiago I was not able to see this. The photo below is of a massive 120 lb incense burner.  It is still used regularly, not every day but several times a week.   Since the Cathedral has two of three masses a day it really isn’t very often. It is called a Botifumerio.

I didn’t see it in 2012 and was sorry I didn’t. It is worth seeing. It takes 8 monks to handle it as it swings in the cathedral from one side of the transept to the other. As you watch it, you can see the bright red embers from the coals glowing inside and copious amounts of incense smoke trailing after it as it swings from side to side and up and down

Supposedly, this releasing of massive amounts of incense smoke by a swinging burner was started in the 1400s to hide the stench of the pilgrims who came to mass and confession after weeks on the road without bathing. This specific burner only dates back about 100+ years

The burner that is used now looks bluish silver in the upper left quadrant of the photo. Towards the center of the photo is of what looks like an older Botifumerio, but is not identified as such.

Upper Left (blue-Silver) is the Botifumerio

Here is a YouTube video. It looks great in the video, but in person it is so much more impressive. The burner swings across the trancept to within about 4-5 ft of the floor and within 10 ft of the ceiling on each side. Check it out on You Tube – just copy and paste into your browser.

Seeing the burner was a goal left over from my walk in 2012. This part of my day was fulfilling.

The rest of the day was challenging, primarily because of the continually long lines at the Pilgrim’s office and Bank of America’s failure to allow me to pull money from my checking account.  But the money part has been settled (supposedly – tomorrow will tell) and I hope to be at the Pilgrim’s office when it opens in the morning.

Day 4 – Money Issues
I’m ready but apparently the cosmos support services are not.

My Bank of America ATM card isn’t accepted by the world banking community any longer. Verbally and by email the bank confirmed, before I left the USA, my ability to withdraw cash with my ATM card while in Spain and Portugal. But Bank Santander, Deutsch Bank and Banco Popular refuse to issue cash saying ‘the transaction cannot be approved’ – same message at all three international banks.  And Bank of America refuses to accept that the issue is theirs.   Finally worked through that by using a different bank.  MASSIVE amounts of frustration dealing with their Customer Service by myself here in Spain and Bonnie back in Los Angeles.  Bank of America is not a reliable banking or investment organization in my experience. The words ‘Customer Service’ certainly are defined differently by B of A than my experience at other financial institutions.

Then getting a Pilgrim’s passport’ took several trips to the ‘Pilgrims Office’ the ‘Santiago Tourism Office’ and the ‘Galicia Tourist Office’. The passport is a record of the journey and allows for discounts. It is required to get a certificate of the journey.  The issue was, the Pilgrims’ Office only helps when traveling TO Santiago.  The Santiago Tourist Office only helps in Santiago.  Finally found out about he Galicia Tourist Office where they gave me maps, the passport and a list of places to stay and eat as I walked to Fisterra

Frustrating but on my way tomorrow (Saturday) morning.  The good news is I have fully recovered from my flight and journey to get here and I really am ready to get going.