Today was a difficult day. And I did not have a tantrum. In fact, I am pleased to say that I have not thrown one tantrum this whole walk. And today was day seven.
We couriered our packs ahead today. We knew it was to be a 30km day and that it would be hot. I SO thankful that we sent them forward to our next hostel in Vigo. I can’t imagine the walk today having packs.
I wasn’t so thrilled about shoving my feet back into my boots, but surprisingly, they handled it well overall. Mom has some blisters brewing also and could feel them throughout the day. Karis seems decent with her feet, but her knees are bothering her again. Even with her fancy knee braces.
The morning stared off great! We left in the dark, slipping out of the hostel just past 6:00. We made a couple wrong turns and ended up following a main road nearly as far as Nigran rather than the trail. We found the arrows again as we met up over a cute, old, walking bridge.
The roosters called as we made our way through the cobblestone streets as the sun came up. We stopped while Karis ate some grapes, and while she put flowers in our hair.
There were some hills today. Still nothing huge to complain about and really – we had no packs! How easy was that!!! We traveled up and down windy tree lined trails, watched the ocean in the distance and saw other pilgrims carrying their packs (and some who weren’t!!)
We pounded out 17.5km quite quickly and easily before it started to get to hot. We stopped at a cafe for a drink and after that, the heat really came on strong. Walking through the city of Vigo took a really long time. The heat off the asphalt was intense and sucked the energy out of us quite quickly. We dipped into another (air conditioned!) cafe about 8km later and had some cold water. We regrouped and found a close by Pizza Hut to head to for dinner. (I’m happy to report that we paid with cash this time so no $5000 pizza bill!) 😜😜
After dinner we braced ourselves and made our way to our hostel. The heat was absolutely, horrifically intense. The pavement was so hot. Very little shade. By the time that we FINALLY made it we were literally dripping with sweat. We were soaked. We were disgusting. We smelled terrible. We looked terrible. So, so gross.
The lady at the front desk took her time checking us in and with the language barrier told us she didn’t have our bags. We went to our room and collapsed our revolving bodies onto our beds. Our room was sweltering and the lights didn’t work. It was our own version of hell. All we wanted to to shower and we had no packs.
Mom called the porter company and they confirmed that our packs were delivered downstairs at 12:30. Back down we went. Aha! After a fun game of charades we discovered our packs were in fact there! Back upstairs to shower and complain to ourselves about no lights or power outlets working. I typed up our problem in google translate and limped back downstairs to ask about it at the front desk. Dumb Canadians. We needed to put our key card in the slot. RIGHT ABOVE THE LIGHT SWITCH. 🤦♀️
Problem solved! We were showered, the lights worked, we could charge our phones and then the A/C kicked in. Life was better.
Tomorrow we have decided to use a rest day. Our bodies could really use it. We’ve checked into a hotel downtown by the waterfront in Vigo and plan to lay in bed for the majority of the day. Maybe some laundry will be done too… because we stink. 😖




