Walking the Camino de Santiago

August 16- Woke up this morning bright and early and headed downstairs in my beautiful luxury hotel in Oriente for buffet breakfast. Ate that up rather quickly and ran back to my room, grabbed my pack, and hit the trail. So far the accommodations have been different than last year…. Mostly because there are no Albergue’s yet, or pilgrims for that matter. 🙂 so, that means staying in hotels until I get further in the trail where they cater more to pilgrims.

What a gorgeous day! I could not have asked for nicer weather: low 80’s with a breeze. I had heard that todays walk was boring, but I found it to be the opposite. It was good ole fashioned Camino. And to boot, I had a long stretch along the most beautiful water as I exited town.

The walking trail along the water was a welcome surprise. I had read about this and was looking forward to it. Relatively flat walking trails along the waters edge. I have read on the blog sites that there is also a new bridge with walkway that is scheduled to open this month. As I walked, I hoped it would be open. They say it will shave almost 5km off of todays route, but everyone on the Camino de Santiago blog site has been waiting for someone to report it’s open. Hoping I might be that guy!

As I walked this morning, humming to myself, waving at people passing by, I came across the new bridge! It looked open. I couldn’t have been more excited! I might be the first pilgrim to walk this new path and report back to everyone. I hopped on the bridge and began my journey. This would cut 5km off the walk too, all along the waters edge instead of more inland. Imagine my fortune! So awesome! As I walked to the other side of the bridge and began to walk on the new trail, I hit a dead end. The trail was fenced closed. It was not open yet as expected, and alas I had an ego check and walked back over the bridge to continue my walk the “regular” way. Shucks!

As I came back over the bridge, I saw another pilgrim! Turns out his name is Claude, 72 years old, from Bordeaux, France. He is walking to Fatima first and then onward to Santiago de Compostela. As I chatted with Claude (in his very broken English) he told me this is his fifth Camino. He’s walked several of the paths, including the one I walked last year, Camino Frances. We chatted for a bit as we found the trail. After 30 minutes, Claude needed to take his morning break, so I continued onward and waved him au revoir. His destination today is the same city as mine, so maybe I will see him again. He is a very nice man and it was good to see someone else on the trail.

Once off the water, the trail turned into something more familiar to me. Dirt paths with plants surrounding. I thought to myself, “now this I know how to walk!” I have to say, this trail continued a very long time and I was all alone. I put some music on my iPhone and one earbud in and had a good ole time walking and singing out loud.

Once I reached the town of Alpriate, with about 2.5 hours left to go on the path, I decided to stop for a rest and bite to eat for lunch. Today I chose Bifana, which is sort of Portugal’s version on a Cuban sandwich. Bifana’s are traditional Portuguese sandwiches made with thin slices of pork that are marinated and simmered in a sauce of white wine, garlic, and paprika and served on soft rolls with plenty of mustard and piri-piri sauce. So yummy I ended up having two…. and drank a full liter of water.

Knowing ahead of time that there were no hotels in Alverca, my original destination today, I did my research and booked a room in the neighboring city of Verdelha. I had read this would take me off the Camino route about 1.5km. No big deal. Of course there is no documented path off the Camino trail to Verdelha, so I opted for Google Maps to give me walking directions from Alpriate. BIG MISTAKE! Instead of walking 1.5km, it took me almost 8km off trail, which added well over an hour to my journey. All of this was through cities, in the full sun. Not the best option, but again, my ego needed checking from thinking how easy the trail was this morning. “Embrace the suck” as my buddy Mike always says, so I put one foot in front of the other and eventually reached my destination for the day.

One more ego check was to be had as I was shown my very simple, no air conditioned, twin bed accommodation with a shared bathroom down the hall. Okay okay…. This is how the Camino is supposed to be. No more luxury rooms. By the way, after I checked in, the hotel owner gave me a map to get back to the Camino trail that is only 1.5km away! Ha ha…Darn you Google Maps!!!

My thoughts: Being alone on the trail today was great. It gave me much needed time to “just think” and to enjoy all that was around me. I’m very appreciative to have the opportunity to walk the Camino Portugal. I’m excited to see what each day brings and staying open to whatever happens as part of the experience on this journey. I suspect I’ll run into more pilgrims at some point, but for now, I’ll just keep chatting with Harry and Larry (my walking poles from last year) ha ha ha. The Portuguese people are nice, much more reserved and maybe less patient to those who don’t speak their language. I’m trying.. I have my translator app and I give it my best “gringo” shot. Time to wash the sweat and dirt off and take a little stroll through town. So far, no sign of Judas the giant blister! 😉