My friend Pacheco (Day 31)

Last night we had a chance to have an incredible dinner with friends at Sarria inside an historic building that only had 3 tables . Over the last week or so Sergio and Michelle from Mexico (Cancun) joined our dinner group. Sergio lost his wife just over a year ago and is walking rhe Camino in her honor. He is accompanied by his childhood friend Michelle. They started the Camino in Leon and quickly connected with us. Incrediblely fun duo that brought lots of stories and energy to my Camino family. Attached is a photo from our dinner last night. Sergio is holding the camera. He normally smiles a lot but the responsibility to make me look good in the photo got to him.

Amy and I left Sarria this morning at 7am. It was an amazing hike today and the weather was as good as it could be. Partially cloudy in mid 50’s. In the early hours of the hike as I was approaching a field, a donkey saw me from a distance and walked to me and came within a feet and stared into my eyes deeply. I don’t know why this happened as we looked into each others eyes for a full minute. I could feel and hear is breath and he definitely listened to me as I talked to him. I don’t know what he was thinking but there was a connection between this beautiful, strong animal and the donkey. I will remember him. Named him Pacheco. Here is a photo just before I left him.

The Camino is full of farm animals. It is absolutely the opposite of what we have seen in industrialized farming of US. The cows are free range, in groups of maybe 10-12, grazing on this beautiful land. There is dignity in how these animals are treated in Spain. Here is another friend of mine from today.

Amy and I arrived to Portomarin around 1pm. Walked the last bit with Jeff. The Camino is dramatically more crowded now due to: if you do the last 5 days you qualify to get a compostela. The average age has also significantly dropped and we are seeing a lot of pilgrims in their twenties.

Portomarin is gorgeous. Here is a a few photos of it coming in. Just before we entered, I also took a photo with the 100km to Santiago marker. I stood on the right side of the marker to signify that I have less then 100kms to Santiago. Amy called me a “dork” when I explained. I hope the Camino speaks to her on the last 4 days so she doesn’t call me a dork. The last photo is our view from our room tonight.

Kms today: 23 kms

Kms total: 730.5 kms

Steps total: 268k Amy, 997k Ahmet

Photos from the day: