August 3, 2021

Last night’s albergue was spacious and had a sunny courtyard replete with lawn chairs! And we actually ended up having five other pilgrims there, yet we got a large room to ourselves. Super nice people, of course (from Italy, The Netherlands & Madrid) but mostly, we have not seen very many pilgrims!

Plus, not only was our lodging spacious, there was abundant space in our actual room and around the bunkbeds. The “Pilgrim’s Meal” wasn’t until 8:00 so all of us chose not to join in. Supposedly there was a nice playa (beach) nearby, but since it was 2 km each way we elected not to walk that distance either! Kind of “sticks in the mud”, I guess… Though at four days in, bodies are still getting adjusted and motivation to move any extra is hard to come by!

We were all but one ready by 6:45, yet one of our group wanted to totally re-organize their backpack, so we finally got out about 7:30. And believe it or not, I am actually doing OK with that! We have just under 10 miles to walk today, so no hurry – other than we don’t actually have a reservation at our next destination so we do want to make sure we don’t arrive too late in the day. We stopped for café con leche in the cute little town of Navia. I learned a new Spanish word: Churreria!

Various foot and leg issues have been popping up for a few of the others, so we had a little treatment session before heading back out.

Luckily we arrived early at our albergue as it became full shortly after we claimed our beds and MANY were turned away! And, though other pilgrims became combative in the beginning, (like trying to steal beds) we all seemed to be having a rousing a time together later. Lots of languages being spoken and lots of sweaty bodies (plus only one shower in each of two bathrooms and two toilets in each…)

We ended up walking 11.2 miles through Villaoril, La Venta, La Colorada, Navia, El Espin, Torce and Brul. Tomorrow is a decently long day and rain is in the forecast.