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Sarria to Portomarín

Now that we’ve hit the 100 km mark in Sarria, the number of other pilgrims on the path has skyrocketed… however, they aren’t the only ones on the path. Several times today we have passed through a herd of cows being leisurely guided to pasture. While eating lunch on a low stone wall, greeting the pilgrims who passed us by, we heard footsteps, looked up to say buen camino to whoever it was, and found ourselves eye to eye with a cow (and perhaps a dozen cow friends, and goats, and some farm dogs who found our sandwiches particularly captivating.)

Although I was feeling a little better, my pace still was a bit slow and we didn’t start at 5am like the truly industrious pilgrims… so by the time we got into Portomarín in mid afternoon, every bed was full except for a private room in a three star hotel. The tricky part about this stage of the journey is that – in our case – we have been walking so long that our legs easily have more than 25 kilometers in them (at least, when I’m not sick.) With so many people on the trail, however, if you don’t stop at around 1 or 2pm, there’s a good chance you won’t get a bed unless it’s somewhere swanky and expensive.