Amarante (São Gonçalo)

It wasn’t so much the good amount of ascent that got me, it was the 900 m of descent that had my left knee feeling it by the time I arrived. The heat (over 90) and the tremendous amount of asphalt didn’t help either. The ascent started as soon as I left Mesao Frio and by about Km 12 I was on top of the monte with its several wind turbines. That meant that the next 17 km were basically all descent, sometimes steep, sometimes gentle, but always going down.

Today’s walk quickly left the vineyards behind, and the scenery was not as pleasant. Scattered pines and some scrub. But I went through lots of little villages, which gave me a chance to struggle in Portuguese with some friendly residents. My longest conversation was with two women with a wheelbarrow and some sort of farm tool. I asked them if they were going to work in the fields (it was about 9 am) and they told me no way, that they were done working in the field and now they were going home to work at home. Wash clothes, clean the house, get the main meal ready. They shook their heads and said there was always too much to do. And there I was just sauntering across their country. They told me to make sure I was careful with the heat, took lots of rest, and drank lots of water, just like they do in the fields.

There were some slightly dangerous kilometers alongside a national highway. It wasn’t tremendously busy, because there is a super highway paralleling it, but there was a lot of local traffic. I found myself pulling off to the side and just stopping while the cars or trucks passed.

So by the time I got here I was kind of struggling. But a shower always does wonders.This is a beautiful little town (actually it’s a pretty big place, but its historic center is compact and charming.) I remember the pastry shop where Joe and I had a coffee looking out over the river. I popped my head in but it didn’t look like they had anything that was less than 90% sugar, so I passed. Only an hour till dinner!

Riddle of the day. When is a Peregrina delighted to see asphalt? Answer (in the last picture) — when she’s been walking on those Portuguese tiles/cobblestones for an hour.Read more