2012-10-04 Thursday

2012-10-04 Thursday

Sarria / Portomarin

Camino day 27. Today's segment is 22Km. 

Terry, Nancy, Paulo, Jeovan and I met at 0730 for breakfast. The only neighborhood bar open was full of people, with only one person attending everyone, so we were late finishing breakfast. Gunther is staying in another hotel, on the other side of the town, near the exit point of the Camino, we had planned to meet at the Roman Bridge, where the Camino exits the town, but we were very late. He called me at 0820 to say that he was waiting for us there since 0800, but we only left the hostel 15 minutes later.

As we were crossing the town, Jeovan was ahead walking with Adele, with the rest of us following them. We were walking fast because we were late to meet up with Gunther, and the two in front missed a yellow arrow sign to make a turn and kept going straight. When I noticed that I had not seen one of the yellow arrows for quite some time we were way off the trail, we ended up walking almost 2 extra miles before we got back to the Camino. It was past 0900 when we finally met with Gunther, the poor guy had been waiting for us in the cold since 0800.

Today was another beautiful walk, we only had one long gradual ascend and one hill to climb, followed by a long descend. I carried my pack, I felt muscle soreness at the end of the day, but no joint pains. We arrived at 1430, Jeovan, Gunther and I arrived ahead of the rest and waited for the others in the first bar as you arrive in the village, drinking beer. 

Paulo and Gunther on the Camino

Erico and a local farm lady

Erico and Gunther on the Camino 

Pilgrim's mementoes

Erico arriving in Portomarim. After a long walk, a staircase to reach the old town!

Portomarin unique chuch-fortress

Erico and the church

We checked into our hostel, the Albergue Complejo Jacobeo, and rested for the remainder of the afternoon. Early evening we went out for a drink in the hotel bar where Gunther is staying, and he joined us. Ruth walked by, and she also joined us for drinks.

The four Spaniards from Saragossa are taking a rest day tomorrow and doing a side trip to Lugo, another city about 30Km from here, before resuming their walk. Tonight is our last time together, and we agreed to have a farewell dinner. The problem is that, as typical Spaniards, they never have dinner before 2100, too late for Terry and Nancy, they had an earlier dinner with Jeovan and Adele while Paulo, Gunther and I waited for the Spaniards and we had our "farewell " dinner at 2130. After our long dinner Paulo, Gunther and I went back to our hotels to sleep, the four Spaniards went bar hoping, for their nightcap.

There are now only 93Km to go, 4 more days! Tomorrow's segment is 25Km.