LAST FULL DAY OF WALKING!!!! Fourteen days doesn’t seem like very much but the days blur together and some of the events of early on seem forever ago.

We started again in the dark of 6:45 and immediately (well, after we passed within a foot of several sleeping cows) set foot down a muddy & treacherous cobblestone path that seemed like an active riverbed! It was extremely precarious!! “The Group” was playful today and at one point in time we all eight joined hands in a serpentine line, walking down the hill a ways. We stopped at several cafes, a fountain where everyone but “Miss Stick in the Mud” (me) put their feet in and also at a grocery store where our two young men loaded up on supplies for a surprise dinner to prepare for us. They distributed the considerable weight amongst us, including ample supplies of alcohol, which made going up the 4 1/2 km STEEP HILL at day’s end rather challenging.

Most of all the day was again very pleasant in terms of terrain, weather and vistas. The spring blooms have really come alive in the last couple of days and the landscape around us is bursting with color!! Azaleas, Gerber daisies, roses, camellias, jasmine, wisteria, hydrangeas!! I wish I could attach a smell option to this blog – so many variations of cow (not always pleasant) as well as the wonderful fragrances of the forest and fauna!!

We walked once again through another cow herd, across another Roman bridge and Yay, YAY, YAY, completed our last Long and Steep hill!!! I cannot tell you how happy that makes me!

One of the highlights of the day was stopping in at a Casa Leiras (a cafe and albergue) run by an extremely nice Italian couple to enjoy some of the local Albariño vino blanco.

Our albergue for the night was large and architecturally very nice – kind of Palm Springs like. And we are reunited with our friends from Britain, Estonia, Germany, the Spanish couple and, new from a few days ago, a Dutch couple. Kisses all around!!!

Dinner was challenging for our Dudes to prepare since the albergue had no pots and pans (nor plates, glasses, or silverware) and the oven didn’t work (even the the guide book said it had an operating kitchen)!! Luckily they bought chorizo & canned items, there was a working microwave and they were ingenious!! They prepared a rice (microwaved in scrubbed flower pots) and beans dish with corn, carrots and peas and we had soft tacos with avocado, lettuce, white onions and cheese!!! Served on (scrubbed) garbage can lids!  And lots of vino tinto (and plastic dinnerware) provided by our friends. It was Muy Magnifico and a good time was had by all!!