Walked today: 5.9 mi. Camino’26: 278 mi.
Just across the main street in Boente from our stopping point is the Iglesia de Santiago.
Our stopping place was Albergue Fuente Saleta. We’ve stopped here each Camino since the pandemic, for a rest after a 4 mile walk, and to decide: (1) to continue on to Arzúa or (2) to skip the next 4 miles of very steep up and down hills via taxi, then walk the remaining 1.5 miles into Arzúa.
Today we chose the latter.
The lady owner speaks Spanish and French. Her husband speaks only Spanish. Jim communicates with the owners in French or broken Spanish, whatever works. The owner at the bar (in the above photo) is calling a taxi for us when the photo was taken. The albergue/bar is for sale, so this may be our last encounter.
The taxi arrived in a few minutes and took us to the outskirts of Arzúa, as we continued the walk into the city and to Pención Luis.
Our timing was good today as we reached our destination before the temperature got too hot. When we began the final stage into Arzúa it was 70F. When we reached mid-town, within a block of Pencion Luis it was 75F… but we found a table and chair outside the restaurant on the Plaza in the shade, where we were comfortable waiting for access to our room.
Our problem was one of a different timing than our walk in the sun. It was 10:30 and check in time was 1:00. After several emails with the property manager, it became apparent that we weren’t getting in until 1:00.
The cool breeze in the shade, became a warm, getting warmer, diminishing breeze by the time we got into our room, which was not air conditioned. It did have a fan, so although we weren’t cool we weren’t too warm either. As the sun lowered in the sky, the temperature outside went from 95F at check in to 82F at sunset.
In closing, for this incredibly special day, and as isolated and distant as the Camino may seem to family and friends back home, last night in Cary, NC (or early this morning in Melide, Spain) our grandson won his first professional (ATP-Challenger) tennis tournament championship.
We watched it on the ATP app, live!
Congratulations, Braden!
Jimandi 