Portomarin to Comixa

Today we climbed out of Portomarin crossed the river up onto the river bluffs up to the ridgetops to Hospital and Sierra Ligonde all the way to Palas de Rei for 26.5 km. At Palas de Rei we caught a cab to Comixa where we are staying at a Casa Rural. We have all decided we are completely over staying at albergues putting up with crazy pushy people and sharing one bathroom with 10 other people. See prior posting re Sarria re bad pilgrims and Sue' blog re Sarria albergue experience. Last night in Portomarin we went to two places and they were full so we ended up at a hostal with one large room three beds and our own bathroom with a tub.

Todays walk started at 8:30 am and we arrived in Comixa at 6:00 pm. It was a lot of walking again through very lush green ridge country. A steady all day climb from 620m up to the high point of 1250m in elevation. It rained most of the day and was cold enough in the spot that we could see are breath and my body heat kept fogging my glasses.

We stopped in Portos for about an hour for a glass of wine which turned into a bottle of wine. We got to experience some local color. At about 4:00 pm in came six Galacian cowboys in their full regalia...cowboy hats, riding crops, and high boots with spurs. Of course we were in good spirits and wanted to take pictures and theu were in good spirits as well and mugged for us for pictures and a couple of them began singing at the bar. Pat got up and was encouraging them all to pose at the bar and our giggling got them all going. At one point, Pat jokingly asked them where are your horses and one said outside and we giggled some more like sure they are. As we were getting ready to leave, we went outside and discovered six beautiful horses tied up around the front of the bar. We could not believe it! They had on beautiful halter decorations and saddle...a couple of dapple grays. We were out front putting on our rain ponchos and they all came and mounted their horses and headed up the road with wave. We got to experience Gallega cowboys bar hopping on a Sunday afternoon. Again, Pat was in the forefront encouraging the situation.

It was a badly needed break for us during the day. Particularly me. I thought I had effectively dealt with my big blister on my heel by popping it, putting second skin on it, covering it with moleskin and then taping my entire heel. It is really depressing to develop a nasty blister when you are only carrying a light day packe. The entire two months that walked almost everday with a twenty pack I never developed a blister like this. Once one thing is taken care of, another thing occurs. About four hours into today's walk my middle toe that I had banged up pretty good during training for this trip due to wearing to short of boots for hill work, began to lift off my toe. It is like I could not believe it was happening. I am losing my toenail. I stopped and taped it down so it would not continue to catch on my sock and get ripped off before its time.

The stop at the Gallega cowboy bar was to give my feet a well need rest. We had already walked about 7 hours. My feet were feeling very hammered. Then Sue pulled the miracle drug called Voltaran out. It is like a ibuprophen in cream form. You rub it on your feet and within 10 minutes my feet quit aching and felt normal. I was able to walk another 6 km to Palas de Rei. When we got there, I said I cannot walk one more step.

Tonite we stayed at a beautiful casa rural. The owner is this gregarious woman who took great care of us. We had delicious chicken noodle soup, crusty bread, a beef dish tender short ribs without the bone that melted your mouth with crispy fries, a bottle of Galacian red wine, flan with chocolate drizzled on it and a tiny shot glass of an herb appertiv that has chamomile and rosemary in that is from this area called orujo. The owner then arranged for our next place we will stay in Rua tomorrow night. Ordered us to go to bed and get rested and said we must have breakfast before we leave. She could see that we were completely exhausted and being the good host she took care of us.

Tomorrow we have a lot of ground to cover...30 km. Hopefully my feet will be up for it. We have to be in Santiago on Tuesday the 21st to meet up with friends. Don't worry Ron, Sue promises she will make the arrangements for me to be medivacted back to US once the doctors think I will be ready to travel.

Still finding Jimmy everywhere.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with SprintSpeed