continued from last blog

Sorry about that.. anyways after a couple chupitos my soul was warm and lets just say i slept like an angel (PS Rebecca and I are the angel´s of a young man from the Canary Islands.. at least that is what he calls us). The next morning we let for a 24km walk to Portomarin which at first I would have described as slow and silent. BUT after passing the 100km mark to Santiago we thought we would stop for our morning ¨cafe con leche grande¨and ths morning a piece of celebratory ¨tarta de Santiago¨. wow wow wee wow wow did the coffee and cake do us good! The next 14km was far from slow and silent; we each popped on our music for a few minutes, Rebecca took the lead and we might as well have been running, o maybe not running but compared to the morning saunter we were fast and furrious. We even finished our entrance to Portomarin up a large set of stairs Rocky styles.. it was pretty funny. Day 26 finished with a picnic in the park along with a huge group of Italian scouts.

Day 27 we woke up t 5 and left in half an hour in hopes of getting into the municiple hostel at Palas de Rei (which we did). The interesting/complicated thing at this point is the number of people doing the Camino. Many start in Sarria (111km away from Santiago) as 100km is all that is required to get your Compostela. Today we stopped to on a makeshift bench to have a quick bite to eat and in 5-10min 200 people probably passed us. It isn´t always like this.. but we were lost for words with the mass of people that morning. Fewer people travel with their packs and many take the bus out of convenience.. but for most of us the struggle remains part of the Camino and we would not let anyone advance our packs not even a meter for us.

Day 28 was an interesting day ahaha.. Rebecca and I had planned to wake up by 5 and leave by 5:30 to avoid the heat of a long 27km day. Well it was ten to 6 when we woke up and found that the rest of our group had kindly let us sleep in and left without us(on their behalf they thought we wanted to leave later). By 6:10 we were out of the door on march to try to catch up with our friends... but... 30min after walking and arriving into a town not exactly knowing where we were a kind gentlemen told us we were in Palas de Rei. Not knowing the size of the town and seeing a small group of pilgrims sitting, for a brief moment I thought we had done a full circle of the town and ended up back at hour hosted. Thankfully I was proven wrong when infact these pilgrims were waiting at a bus stop. A taxi driver redirected us to the camino and it wasn´t more then 30m ahead where we took a right turn and there it was... our hostel! We had left the town gone through the forest, a recreational area, over a river and some how ended up back in the same place. Thankfully at this point it was daylight and it didn´t take us long to find out where we had gone wrong. Although a bit frustrating in the morning we ended up laughing about it later once we caught up to our group and it turned out to be a cloudy day and there was no rush to reach our next town Arzua. Once we all arrived we made a last family dinner (pasta of course) as we were setting off to Monte de Gozo the next morning which houses up to a thousand pilgrims.

Day 29 to Monte de Gozo... it was a long day and though it was beautiful along the path in the forest it started to get a bit daunting as we crossed the main road several time on our windy path to Monte de Gozo. This was also the most rain we have had on the trip and I now know what i thought was water proof is maybe ... maybe water resistant as I arrived so wet i might as well have jumped in the shower with my clothes on haha. But we all got warmed up and did some laundry so we all walked dry into Santiago (now only 5km away) the next morning.

Day 30 Finally up to date. This morning we left on a quick 5km walk into Santiago the final destination of the Camino de Santiago and where I would leave my walking group behind as I continue to Finisterre. We got up early and were the first this morning to get our Compostelas (a cirtificate saying that we have completed the camino). I went to the Cathedral kissed the tomb of St. James ( Santiago) and heard them announce that two canadians had arrived into Santiago that morning along with the thousands of other pilgrims. The mass was beautifull and I will have to go into that more at a later date. After mass I said my goodbyes to my friends and I continued on my way. Leaving Santiago at 1:30 I knew I had a long day in the sun ahead of me, but I ran into Barbara a girl from Slovakia who I had met a week ago in Marjarin. So we arrived at 6:30 today and it looks like we are sleeping outside tonight. It is a small hostel and it is full as are the 6 tents outside and the rest of us will sleep under the overhang of the building.. I will let you know how it goes tomorrow ahah though i reckon it will be pretty funny.

2 days left and I will be finished my small walk for a BIG cause.. it will be wierd to wake up and not start walking.. but we will deal with that when the time comes. For the moment I am going to send a quick email to the friends I left in Santiago and hit up the grocery store as my tummy is eating itself haha.. hope all is well at home and that you were able to get through this massive post.

much love xoxox mila