Day 17 - April 21 - Portomarin to Palas de Rei

We started early today at around 7:30 AM. Jose and I slept in an Albergue while the rest of the guys stayed at one of the hotels in Portomarin.

Larry chose to stay behind until the shops opened so that he could buy a pair of sandal and meet us later at Palas del Rei, our stop for today.

Another pleasant day of walking. For a long stretch we walked by shrubs full or bright yellow and purple flowers. At around 11:00 we stopped at a roadside "Pulperia" where we again saw our camino friends from Chicago, Karen and Tim. The octopus was ready so we ordered some. It wasn't as good as the one we had in Sarria but by the time we were done eating there was none left on the plate.


Later on, around 2:00 PM we passed by a restaurant where we saw the cook grilling meat outdoors. It looked good. The restaurant was nearly full with locals and we decided to have lunch there. It was a long leisurely meal with lots of wine and lots of meat while our feet benefitted from being out of the hiking shoes. Another four Kilometers of difficult walking, due to our bellies being full, brought us to Palas del Rei where we met Larry who was waiting for us by the church.

Day 16 - April 20 - Sarria to Portomarin

Today was one of the nicest walks we had so far. A pleasant sunny day and a beautiful path from Sarria to Portomarin.

Yesterday my feet were shot so today I prepped them as best I could by applying a blister patch to each of the two main blisters, then I put a bandaid on top of the blister patch and then I covered everything with mole skin. By the end of today's walk my feet felt a lot better than they did 24 hours ago.

Today we crossed the 100 Km-to-go point and finished up at 88 Km to go with four days to do it in.

The poor Wi-Fi is preventing the Photo Stream to synchronize between the iPhone and the iPad so today's pics may have to wait.

All the walk data that I include at the end of each posting is derived from the Striiv application running on my IPhone. This is a free app and I encourage everyone to download it and use it. Set your target to 10,000 steps everyday and see what that does to the way you feel. Ten thousand steps is very doable, I do almost four times that everyday :-)

Day 15 - April 19 - Triacastela to Sarria

Today may have been one on the easiest stages so far. There are two choices as you leave Triacastela. One is shorter with steeper climbs and descents, the other a bit longer but with less pronounced ups and downs. Given what we went through the last two days, we chose the longer route.

We got into Sarria at around 2:30 PM and as we were headed to the hotel we came across a "Pulperia." Pulperias are restaurants that specialize in octopus. The place was full of locals, we were hungry, no one hesitated and we went in and had lunch there.

Ed says that it was the best meal he has ever had. Emilio said it was the best octopus he has ever had. Jose said the pulpo was great but he wanted meat! I just ate it and enjoyed it tremendously. I would do the camino again just to eat there...

Take a look at this brief video

Day 14 - April 18 - La Faba to Triacastela

What a tough day! After spending the night at the German albergue at La Faba we left at 7:30 AM. It was cold and foggy in the mountain. It took us about two hours to climb up to O Cebreiro where we had the third coffee of the day. We thought that the worst was over but we continued to climb for a while longer.

At Fonfria, we came across a bunch of acquaintances that we've made along the way. A couple from Chicago whose name escapes me, another couple from Minnesota, a couple of folks from the Bay Area, Jennifer and Bruce, etc. Really nice people. Seems like the camino brings out the best in people.

We had a bit to eat at Fonfria and we resumed our walk. Today we were only three since the other two guys, smarter than we in retrospect, had a premonition that today was going to be tough and decided to take transportation to Triacastela.

The descent down to Triacastela almost destroyed my feet. The path was steep and full of rocks which made it very hard to maneuver. I'll see how I feel tomorrow...