In the home stretch now

Day 30: Fonfría --> Sarria (27.7 km)...

Today was fiesta day in Spain ...like when is it not?...but it was Saint-John-the-Baptist´s Day, which is a big deal. I got to Sarria fairly early and hung around the town. There was not much to do because of the fiesta day, but I made my own kind of fun. I walked down to the riverside where there were a lot of sidewalk cafés and ordered myself a pizza. It was very good...thin crust, cooked well done, and spicy (and the food I have had in Spain has really not been very spicy) ...just as I like it. I ordered some red wine to go with that. The waitress asked if I wanted a glass or a bottle and I told her that I thought a bottle was too much for just me alone. But as soon as she went inside I ran into the restaurant and told her I had changed my mind and would have the bottle! :-) That was a good decision! I ate most of the pizza but not all of it...and I did drink the whole bottle of wine! I enjoyed my meal but it wasn´t so much fun to sit on my own all night. While I sat there and watched the world pass by, I decided that I would stay an extra day in Sarria so that my friends could catch up with me. I figured it didn´t matter if I had extra days after I got to Santiago or before, but it was a good idea to wait for them and I could have some simpatico people to sit around in the evenings and with whom I could enjoy life. After eating, I went to mass. I figured if the guy at the front was going to have some wine, there was no reason why I should deprive myself. It was a pilgrim mass, i.e. they have a special blessing for pilgrims at the end of the service. Then I got my pilgrim passport stamped and said goodbye to my Texan friends who were also attending the mass. Back to the albergue I went and went to bed early. At 11:30pm the fireworks started and man-oh-man I swear they sounded like they were happening right in my room!!! Boom! Boom! Boom!!! Thankfully that lasted only half an hour and I could go back to sleep after that.


Day 31: Sarria

Sat around waiting for my friends to arrive, which they did a little after lunchtime. They were really glad to see me and I, to see them. After settling into a new albergue, Mike, Nari & I went down by the riverside and ate lunch of patatas bravas, hamburgers (what a taste of home!) and sangría. Then it was time for an afternoon nap. After the nap we met with Claude, a fellow Canadian, and had a few drinks. Nari didn´t feel that well though so she went back to rest and the three of us men had a dinner which was not memorable except it was one of the most mediocre meals I have had here. Oh well, they can´t all be good. We went to bed early and thankfully there were no more fireworks to spoil our sleep.


Day 32: Sarria --> Portomarín (22.4 km) ...

I left the albergue about an hour after Mike and Nari and slowly made my way down the path. After about two hours, one of our other camino friends came by and asked if I had seen Nari. I hadn´t. Then a few minutes later Mike came by in the other direction with no backpack and asked the same thing. It seemed she had disappeared. 

Nari is not as fast a walker as Mike and he had walked on ahead for a little bit, but after awhile, she never showed up. The next thing we knew there was a search and rescue party underway. We ended up walking back about an extra 45 minutes each...and to make a long story short, she somehow did manage to walk ahead and pass Mike without him seeing.

Well...all was well in the end and nobody was actually lost...but Mike and Nari decided that in the future they would bring cell phones for emergencies. :-) I actually have a Spanish cell phone for just such things, but nobody else could call me. lol So the rest of the day we walked on to our final destination, Portomarín, and it has been very hot day (about 35 degress Celsius). All is well that ends well...and now we ware going out for dinner to celebrate a safe arrival by all. Hey... at least it was a little drama outside of the ordinary!