Wednesday, September 21, 2011

ARCA

Today was our penultimate walking day.  Coolish in the mornings (I have been wearing the South African flag arm warmers Tammy bought me) but soon have to moult the chill cheater and arm warmers as the day heats up.  We walked for two hours again before stopping. for a Cola Cao.  I had a banana so I bought a chunk of ´pan´and had a banana sandwich.  The path is quite busy.  Many more pilgrims left from Arzua this morning than have been leaving from the smaller places we´ve stayed in between.  Arzua is one of the stage stops in most guide books and it seems that many pilgrims religiously follow the Brierley guide (or other guides) and stay over at the places suggested in the books.  When we left Morgade, and Gonzar or even Casanova, there were far fewer pilgrims on the road early in the morning.
We covered the 20km in just under 5 hours and arrived at the Pension Maribel sign on the trees in the forest just before 12h30.  The sign says 500m to Pension Maribel.  After walking what seems like a km the next sign says 100m - then when you get to the next intersection another sign also says 100m.  We all booked in and I went to to the centre to get more time for my cell phone and to check out the restaurant where we will eat tonight.  It is the same little place we had a wonderful dinner in June so I´m looking forward to eating there again.
Some of us are planning on leaving early tomorrow so that we can make the 12 o´clock mass.  We will then wait in the square to meet the others as they walk in.  We are all looking forward to meeting old Santiago but are a little sad that our adventure is coming to an end.  We have booked two taxis to take us to Finisterre tomorrow night to watch the sun set over the Atlantic at the End of the World.

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