luggage, food & security

[Rosina Lila]

Hello you all,
Last September I spent about a week in Santiago after finishing my walk from O Cebreiro. While there I met a very shy non-Spanish speaking pilgrim from Ireland who wanted to take the bus to the airport but did not know how to go to the bus station or which bus company to use (In Spain different bus companies go to different places and they park in different places at the station..... and, no, the bus station workers do not speak English). Because it was raining buckets and I had nothing pressing to do, I went with her to the bus station and helped her out. Owing to the heavy rain, and the afternoon hour, I suppose, there were no taxis around so I took the city bus back to Plaza Galicia which abuts the Casco. I sat on one of the high seats by the bus driver and fumbled through my coin/purse/wallet for the proper change.
I got off the bus at the Plaza and when I went into a cafe by it to get some churros and coffee I realized that I had lost the coin purse/wallet.
I walked back to my hotel, As Artes, on rua Vilar and stopped to leave some film to be developed at a small stand. When I told the lady there about my wallet she suggested that I go back to Plaza Galicia and wait for the bus and ask for the wallet.  I though the entire idea absurd and unrealistic, but the woman was so insistent that I did go back, in the rain, told a driver of a bus what had happened and he told me that I had probably taken the number 10 bus. As I was about to leave, I saw the number 10 bus rounding the Plaza and when I went to its door the driver smiled from ear to ear and waved my wallet.
There were 220 Euros in bills in the wallet and about 4 in coins in the purse.
Needless to say I was awestruck.
A couple of months later, when I went to Santiago for Thanksgiving, I left my Nikon F4 camera, with a 2.8 20 lens atop a bar in the heavy-tourist-traffic street parallel to Vilar. When, hours later, I realized that I had lost the camera somewhere and went back to the bar, not only did they have the camera waiting safe behind the bar, but they had reported it found to the guardia civil in case its owner  inquired about it.
So,.... in the famous words of Fat Waller, one never knows..... do one?
Warm regards,
Rosina