Camino Portuguese Day 10 Arcade to Pontevedra

Today was a short day, only about 9 miles. Which considering our second day was 17.1 miles this was a piece of cake.  As we left Arcade, we walked across a bridge where apparently a group of locals defeated Napoleon's army in 1809. They are very proud of that fact in Arcade. From there it was quite literally all uphill...AGAIN!

We ended up in yet another forest, but this particular forest excursion was filled with people. It's here that the Portuguese Coastal Route and the Central Route converge. SOOO there were nearly twice as many people on the trail. There were also pop up cafe's along the way, shortly after the 2 trails converged. We picked up 1 additional Camino traveler. It was someone we had met a few days before in A Guarda right after we made the boat crossing from Portugal. We didn't stop to talk much then, just a bit of friendly jibber jabber and then we were off. However this time, we all kind of started walking together. It seemed when we past "Pilgrims" traveling alone they, or we would latch on and stroll together for however long it seemed natural. Shortly after reconnecting with the the person from A Guarda, I should mention her name is Ann-Marie from Dublin. We decided to all stop at one of the pop up cafe's in the middle of nowhere and have some coffee. The cafe attendants were very kind and very busy. It was also clear that they had only a finite amount of coffee that they brought so when you ordered coffee they gave you just the tiniest amount. You know those little dose cups you get some with some over the counter medicines? Yeah it was like that much, and the cups they have you were so paper thin, I was sure the heat from the cup would cause the paper to start leaking. My friend was so desperate for coffee they asked for more and more and more and held out about 7 Euros to get more coffee. All they got was just a bit more but with no extra charge. For me I was thrilled just to have something a bit hot to drink, the morning was chilly and that it the spot. I was pretty sure my friend wanted to just give the cafe peeps the 7 Euros and take the entire pot of coffee. Some people just can't be satisfied with half a Dixie cup of coffee.

Our new Dublin friend walked with me the entire way into Pontevedra. She spilt off and went to a different set of accommodations but we all met up later that evening for dinner.  Oh and in Pontevedra they have this pretty big church dedicated to the La Peregrina, "The Lady Pilgrim" La Peregrina is also the Patron Saint of the Camino. So she's kind of a big deal.

Until next time, stay outta trouble, and if you can't do that. Don't get caught.

Tim

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