First, rewind to last night: we did laundry and after bringing it down 4 floors to our room, I discover that there is an article of clothing that is not ours. I seriously did not want to go up and down 4 flights again but it is what it is. Find lady hanging up her laundry and clothing belongs to her. Briefly chat. Then at dinner when Cooper and I were sitting at a table outside in a square, lady and daughter come over and chat. Very lovely people. We ask if they want to walk with us tomorrow- leave at 6:30am.

After walking for about an hour, we come across a gal with a table selling Camino souvenirs. Amanda goes to purchase something and discovers that her wallet is missing. They call for taxi to take them back to hotel and we exchange numbers. Cooper and I walk at least another 50 minutes and stop at a cafe for Cooper’s first chocolate croissant of day which was lackluster. Upon leaving cafe, we see Isabella and Amanda. They had found wallet and taken taxi back to random spot to continue walking which happened to be at the cafe we were at.

The Hostel that we stayed in just opened this week. We are first people to stay in 4 person room and had it all to ourselves. Room had own air conditioning control and 2 flat screen tv’s. I was so tired and did not want the grand tour that went on and on. Got to our room and I say to Cooper “ Julio is too chatty for me showing us every floor and every room!” Cooper said “he is just proud of his new place.” Ok. I now feel an inch tall and attitude was checked. Thank you Coopie.

We wander around the town being silly before meeting Isabella and Amanda for dinner at 8:00 at a fancy restaurant.

Walking back to hostel after dinner finished at 10:30, we notice that every table at every restaurant and cafe is full. People eat much later here.

It is said that there is nothing random on the Camino. 1: Laundry item mixed in our clothes 2: I decide to return item at exact moment Amanda is putting her clothes out. 3: Isabella and Amanda walk by at exact restaurant at exact moment that we are outside 4: upon returning from wallet hunt they stop taxi at exact spot we are coming out of cafe. Those are a lot of incidents that had to happen at perfect times. I’m so glad that they did because we had a very lovely day with new friends.

Total miles walked : 15.4

Since we are carrying over 3 pounds of water, we have trimmed down on other things in our backpack. Cooper has few snacks and I have a big bag of supplies like bandaids, drugs, tape, Cooper’s contacts, needle with thread etc. We took out our rain jackets and back pack covers to lighten. After leaving hotel at 6:45 am, I glanced at weather. 2 hours of expected rain. Perhaps I should have checked prior to leaving hotel. Luckily, we outran the rain and only experienced 3 drops. I use term of outrun in jest. We walked 20 miles in 5.5 hours. We are outrunning nothing and no one.

Day 5 walking

Walking along boardwalk on Spain, we noticed interesting paint marking on trees. Finally figure it out that it you stand at a particular point the images on 3 or more trees come together.

We decided that we wanted to leave early tomorrow to beat some of the heat so went to grocery store for breakfast items. Pastry cases look better than they tasted.

Made a small sandwich at Hostel to eat on the run for breakfast.l leaving around 7:30.

Didn’t exactly get lost but didn’t exactly follow the arrows either. 1 nice older gentleman saw us and walked us down a hill to a “better path”. He did not speak a bit of English but radiated kindness. Walked on boardwalks, through farmlands and along highway.

We were too tired to sit at cafe so went to Supermercido- size of our family room. Got cereal, milk, bananas, yogurt and cookies for dinner and ate poolside.

Left at 7:00 am to beat heat. 🤣😂🤣. Did not arrive until 5:00pm. So many long stretches on boardwalks with no access to water, shade, bench or WC. Ran out of water even tho we each were carrying 2 liters. 2 Pilgrims from Columbia were struggling also and had ran out of water asking if we had any. Finally, came across a village and were able to fill up. Full transparency- we only had over 2 miles to get to hostel and I tried to call an Uber. No Ubers out in country so we hobbled to hostel. Still took over 80 minutes through farmland to go 2 miles.

1 bunk mate was from Taiwan and the nicest gentleman who complimented Cooper and was envious that a son would want to walk with a parent as his do not. 2 other gentlemen from Italy who were surprised that we walked as far as we did.

After having breakfast at hotel, we leave at 8:30. We want to start our Camino at the official starting point, the Cathedral, even tho that means we add extra distance and have to back track.

At first, there were plaques in streets and painted yellow arrows but very quickly those stopped. We just tried to navigate getting to river and keeping it then ocean on our left as we walked. No signs or arrows for 3 hours.

Today we walked on many surfaces: cobblestone streets- gruesome with the turning and twisting on weak ankle, asphalt- hot, gravel, boardwalk.

The whole day had zero zilch shade. The first 5 hours didn’t have even a breeze. Then holy cow the wind picked up and the last 2.5 hours we were walking against the wind. I could feel it push me sideways. These last hours I had to concentrate on walking for just 5 more minutes then starting the 5 minutes over. I about started crying with the pain in my hips, back, calves, knees, feet, and that darn ankle. Okay If Cooper would have given the okay, I would have called an Uber!

I remembered the first day we did The French Camino and crossing The Pyrenees was brutal. That first night, I cried and cried in the shower from pain and exhaustion. I’m hoping that we will build our stamina quickly like we did on our first Camino.

Diner was at a restaurant overlooking the ocean. We split a pizza and don’t know if it was delicious in its own right or the fact that we were super hungry. Returned to the beach to watch the sunset after relaxing in room.