A well-worn pathway

I have just arrived in Portomarin, a charming little town on the banks of Mino, a major river in Spain.  Our day started at 8 am (I slept for 10 hours) and we struck out after a little pastry and fruit.

The first few km of the road out of Sarria features a steep climb that was quite taxing and time consuming.  I wasn't sure of our pace or exactly how my pack would work, so we were pretty slow. By the time we got to the top, I had discovered how to adjust the straps on my pack so that the weight would be distributed evenly (very important) and the kind of pace that would be required to get to Portomarin on time.

The well worn pathway was incredibly beautiful.  Small Spanish farms dot the landscape, but vast fields of green are the staple of the countryside.  We were delayed a bit by a dairy farmer who had some naughty cows who use the pathway to get to their grazing field.  Not all of them wanted to go up into the field--they found the pilgrims more interesting.

We had coffee in a modern but very tasteful cafe and abregulo where I found a little time to email you.  The sky was a little cloudy most of the day, so I wore a long sleeve shirt and jeans, but we saw no rain.  Along the way we saw dozens of pilgrims, mostly from Europe, but a handful from the US.  A couple were from Australia.

We had lunch at a nice cafe in ....  I just had bacon and eggs and Duran had a salad and we shared a large plate of padron peppers.  We felt fortified to get to the larger town of Portomarin (pop. 2000) which is quite modern and clean.  Very little English is spoken here (Duran points out that even less Chinese is spoken), but we are able to get by.

We arrived at the pension, a small family run hotel, and were quite taken by how clean and modern it was.  Duran didn't want to share a room with me, so he is now living separately--and I suppose he will sleep now.  I got in the room, took a bath, rested a little and we went out to get our passport stamped at the Portomarin church and grab a little fruit for tomorrow.

Once we got outside, it started to rain significantly.  I hope this is not an omen for tomorrow, but I had considered dumping some of my rain gear because I want to reduce my weight.  I will reconsider that tomorrow.