Triacastela, Spain

We were awake at 7, and walking by 8. There’s always a lot to do the first hour of the day. I usually start with my stretching exercises for my legs, feet, spine, neck and shoulders. Then there’s packing up the packs, both the ones we ship and the ones we carry. Preparing my feet to hike takes some time as I rub them with arnica gel and vasolina, then slip on my injinji toe socks with compression sleeves, then the boots carefully laced. We layer our clothes, and I carry dry socks, spare shoes, a down jacket and rain poncho. Today I wore my rain pants with leggings underneath, layered shirts, and I carry poles. Sunscreen is important too. We left our packs by the door for the Jacotrans service, and we walked to the next town for breakfast. Breakfast was disappointing this time because it was just coffee and packaged wares. We had our coffee and moved on. There’s always a second chance at breakfast in the next town. In the end, we had to settle for toast. It was cool, misty, and cloudy most of the day but there was little rain while we hiked. The flowers, moss and ferns were abundant. We passed quite a few other pilgrims. When we finally stopped for lunch, we saw a large tour group seated around a support van eating the lunch provided by their guides. I had a caldo with greens for lunch. It was a long steep trail down to Tricastela, and we were happy to be ahead of the rain. Our new hotel is at the far side of town. Our packs were waiting for us. When we went down for dinner, we were seated at a small table in a corner as the main dining area was all reserved for a banquet. We weren’t so hungry, so I just had soup and Norm had salad. Soon a young man came in as it was getting dark for a room and dinner. We invited him to join us at our table. Jamie came from Vancouver and had walked forty km that day! He’s twenty two and told us he just walks everyday until he’s worn out. He finished off two tureens of soup and a chicken dinner and commented he may go down the road for pasta. The funny part about this is he looked to weigh around 120 pounds. We enjoyed his company, but excused ourselves for bed before he was done with his dinner.