We started our day with a great breakfast. Marybel and I stumbled upon a restaurant called Cristal serving a breakfast buffet of tortillas (potato egg omelet), jamon, chorizos, croissants, breads and of course wonderful coffee. They even made us eggs (not included in the buffet but an exception was made) without charging us extra. We love these buffets as they are great value. We get to sneek bonus sandwich lunches into our packs. Only $5 for each.

Fortified by a delicious meal, we set off on our trek. Going out of Sarria is easy. However, this trek composed of some slippery hikes of mud and slosh. If you wear runners, you won’t want to use them again if they traverse through the sludge. That is how bad some areas are. The only good grace is that the weather held up well for us today. Nice day with sunny moments throughout. Great day for a hike ofapproximately 22 kms.

I entered the city of Portomarin and like its name, the city resembles a harbour with waterscapes around it. I was quite tired and was quite disheartened when after crossing a bridge, I found that I had to climb some steep stairs to get to the city center. I stood at the bottom of the stairs for 5 mins before I found the strength and place my foot on the first step. Then it was just one step at a time until I was at the top. Once at the top, I was greeted by a wonderful paranomic landscape of water surrounding the city. What a view!

I walked the main square and found our albergue. Marybel had arrived earlier and had visited the supermercado nearby. She greeted me with potato chips and a cold beer as my reward for arriving at a reasonable time. After the welcoming mini repas, we showered and did our laundry.

For this evening, we visited the Farmacia to purchase some gel heels for Marybel’s shoes. We then had dinner at a restaurant nearby of lentils, salmon and fries for $9.

Later in the evening, after checking emails, we looked for a wine bottle or rolling pin to facilitate a healing method as advised by Taira to help Marybel’s tendonitis. She said to use a rolling pin or the wine bottle and roll the muscles from ankles to calves to ease the tensed areas. Unable to locate either, I make a fist and simulated a rolling device and attempted the makeshift healing. It helped somewhat but did not take the pain away completely.

For tommorrow, we decided that Marybel take the backpack taxi service to transport her and her backpack so that she can give her feet a further rest.

I will perform the walk of approximately 15kms to Ventas De Naron by myself for this day and Marybel will wait for me in the Ventas albergue.

We will break this length of our trek into three stages due to the difficult climbs ahead. Remember, this one is classified as Three Shells. We will stay overnight in Ventas and then the next day go to the next big town of Palas De Rei and then onto to Melide. Marybel may walk or not depending on her heels.

On this night, Marybel was creeped out by a guy sleeping in a bunk next to us. He kept asking her if “everything is ok?” and telling her “I am here”. Maybe the guy is hitting on her. She was not happy about this incident and reported it to the caretaker of the albergue, Beline.

I was not concerned and not as aware as I had quickly fallen asleep in my warm zipped up sleeping bag. Overall, I find the Camino quite safe. I shall be more aware so that we may avoid this sort of incident for the rest of the Camino.

That is it for this day.

Peace and love,
Hilda 🙂