Castrelo do Val

Another long climb, mostly on a paved road surrounded by purple heather, yellow and white flowers. Every day so far has been perfect weather, cool in the morning, around 75f in the afternoon. We"re lucky because Galicia is often very rainy.
We passed through several small villages with old stone buildings and a few modern houses, but everything locked up and no one in sight. We continued to climb and I watched Olivia ahead of me, hoping her figure would descend, signalling a break in the climb.

Finally we reached the top of the ridge, with distant views in every direction. I had read a couple of things about the next town, where we planned to stay, Campobecerros. I knew that the descent to the town was steep and on unstable slate scree.

I also read alarmingly bad reviews of the one hostal in Campobecerros; that the woman who ran it was rude and unwelcoming and the rooms were dingy. One reviewer said, " just keep walking, don't even stop at the bar for coffee!" The reviews were so bad, it almost made me more interested in staying there to experience it! I mean I dont care how we,'re treated; we just wanted a place to sleep.
We entered the hostal through the bar, which was dark and full of locals, loud, either with joy or anger We recognized the sour owner right away, who pointedly ignored us. When I finally got her attention and asked for a room, she acted put out, led us to a room with two beds and left us. Dingy it was, and with that tell-tale musty aroma suggesting bedbugs. We lifted the sheet and all along the rim of the mattress was a line of spots of bood and scat from a long-term infestation. In case we weren't sure if the problem had been resolved, there was a dead bedbug on top of the sheet which meant either the bugs were still there or the sheet hadn't been changed since they were.

We went back to the bar, itching all over just from what we'd seen, and asked the "lady" to call us a taxi to Laza. She said sure, no problem and it was the first time we saw her smile, as we walked out the door.
(Pictures to come)

.Read more