Pontevedra to Caldas de Reis

Sooo many pilgrims walking out of town this morning! But as people found their own pace, the crowd thinned out. It rained the ENTIRE 13 miles, and we ended up dripping wet, with shoes squelching and spattered with with mud. There were puddles and mud on most of the paths, and we encountered two flooded streams rushing over the Camino, quite unnerving. The first one we were able to ford, completely drenching our shoes; the second one turned all of us back to find an alternate route.

Along the way we met Jason from Seattle who was walking at about the same pace as us, We spent much of the day chatting with him. He was charming and a character and meeting him was the highlight of our day. That and lunching on another bocadillo the size of our heads — and they gave us a packet of mayonnaise! We miss American condiments!

After dinner (which included a scrumptious caldo Gallego, the national soup of Galicia), we walked down to the chuch where we were treated to amazing traditional Galician music — a chorus of singers with bagpipes, drums, tambourines and hurdy-gurdies. Celtic music blended with Galician music is rousing and goes back centuries. Standing ovations and encores should happen more often in churches.

As of today we have walked 135 miles with only 27 to go!Read more