Heat Wave

It's hard when we only have access to the Internet every few days to remember what to blog, as so much happens. The last few days have been amazing. Friday, we were walking through landscapes that the German girl accompanying us said reminded her of the alps - green mountains, flowers of all kinds, singing birds, etc. Saturday, we walked through the Bierza valley - small towns, a farmer plowing his fields with a donkey that his wife was guiding; fresh cherries (delicious) that we bought from a roadside stand. Yesterday, we climbed to O Cebreira. Apparently it snowed 10 days ago in O Cebreiro, and the pictures I have seen of it show a town shrouded in fog. I don't know what happened to the snow, but yesterday it was 26 BEFORE we started to climb. In fact, it has been 25-30 degrees the past three days, with blue skies and a blazing sun. We are usually soaking wet by the time we stop for the day; we are also walking more slowly and needing to rest more often so that the days are longer. By the time we got to Fava, about 5 km from our destination, we were hot and exhausted. I stuck my head and arms under the village fountain - I tell you, I can't remember the last time something felt that good! The view from O Cebreiro is like nothing I have ever seen ¡ it is truly like being on top of the world. The sunset was magnificent. We had pulpos galiano (octopus)wiht our cerveza - delicious.
In Canada, the scenery changes every few hundred km; here, we see different scenery every 20 or so km. We started this trip by going through mountains, then the plains, now more mountains, and soon a wet, temperate climate - almost like a miniature version of Canada - except you don't get eaten by mosquitoes when you walk!

After 3 hot, relatively long(26, 32, and 27 km)days, we decided to do a short day today (21 km) and stop in Triacastella. We were walking with the 2 Brazilians and a German girl, then decided on Saturday that we needed to be alone for a day. That was nice. Today, we were 8 of us, the 2 Brazilians, a Quebecois father and daughter, a Portuguese South African,and a German. We are all in the same room in the albergue, and the German has offered to cook dinner for us all. I have noticed that in the cases where there are parent child pairs, (generally the child is a daughter) that other young people, generally young men, tend to join the group. I was glad to have the companionship of the Quebecois father today - I hadn't had a conversation with someone my age for a week. Nadine and the young girl really hit it off. They both noted that it was nice to talk with another girl for a change as young men really act like boys i.e. childish, sometimes!

We are on the home stretch. Less than 150 km to go! Barring unforeseen circumstances, we should be in Santiago by Sunday the latest.

Gisele