[Gocamino] Re: Santiago Post

[Blaroli at aol.com]

Hi Glenn and all,
You can send packages for retrieval in Santiago by addressing them to:
                                                          (Your Name)
                                                          Lista de Correos
                                                          15705 Santiago de 
Compostela
                                                          A Coruna
                                                          Espana.

Since you'll be mailing the package at the Post Office itself ask them to put 
a "Pilgrim" tag (Etiqueta de Paregrino) on it. If they don't have one, then 
mark the package yourself, conspicuously, with the word "Peregrino".
You can buy the box(es) at the post office; they have them in all sizes and 
shapes, and they have special ones for bottles and whats-have-you.  The 
packages come with their own masking tape, and if the package is poorly put together 
they will retape it. 
Sending packages is surprisingly inexpensive in Spain; you can even send a 
whole suitcase, as long as you put it in one of their boxes.  The boxes, too, 
are inexpensive.
You can also send packages home, and they have two rate structures for doing 
so: the regular (by air) which is expectedly costly, and the "Economica" "en 
la Superficie" (On the surface) rate which costs about 20% of the rate by air. 
The latter is by ship and it does take four to five weeks to arrive..... but 
it does arrive, unfailingly.
They will keep pilgrims' packages in Santiago for up to three months; when 
you go to retrieve them you will need to take the receipt issued by the post 
office when you mailed them and your passport. Without proper identification they 
will not release the package and will send it back to the address shown on 
the remittance information. If you lose the Post Office receipt but are able to 
provide convincing information that it is your package, and have acceptable 
identity documentation, they will give you the package.
Lastly:  the "Etiquetas de Peregrino", (pilgrim tags), are only for packages 
sent from and to a place in Spain. Packages containing bottles cannot be 
mailed to the USA and packages not clearly containing books and such, and weighing 
over 2.5 kilograms will probably be opened by customs here.
Oh! When you go into the Post Office in Spain make sure that you take a 
ticket. They have a little machine right after the door, cream-colored and sort of 
like the gizmos where they put your tickets in movie houses as you go in; the 
machines have two buttons; press the one that says "envier" (to send) and go 
in and sit down un til your number flashes on the above head screens telling 
you what window to go to. The post office workers  will NOT attend you without 
the numbered ticket (they collect it) regardless of how long you may have been 
waiting, unknowingly, on line. Also, while the post office workers may speak 
some French or Italian, do not expect them to speak English. I've never met one 
who did; in fact, I've frequently spent time in the post offices as an 
unwitting translator.
Best regards,
Rosina