It's Saturday ..."T" day. On my way to Portomarin, thirteen miles and it's crowded.

It's 8:00 am and I will check out the breakfast. It's good they actually have eggs, fruit and more. There will be very few places to stop so I will bring with me a couple of apples and a small bag of nuts along with a little extra water.

It's forty degrees and foggy. I will use an extra pair of socks as gloves. There is a reason it will be crowded. When I reach Santiago I will go to the Camino office and present my credential which I have had stamped along the way at least once each day but most days two or three times. I have filled one credential and I'm now almost through the second one. From this point on I will have it stamped once each day accept for a couple of places I will revisit. That is all the room I have left.

The Camino office will review the stamps making sure you actually walked the Camino from your starting point, in my case St. Jean , France the entire five hundred miles of the Napoleon Way. However if you begin in Sarria and have your credential stamped at least twice a day you can get a Compestella in Santiago just like mine. The only difference is it will show the starting points for each. So, you can walk the Camino for about sixty miles and you qualify. Or you can do less and still get the Compestella. I'll give a real example.

I leave Sarria at 9:30. When you return to the Camino from central Sarria you immediately face a staircase of about eighty steps followed by a left turn up another hill. It took me about thirty five minutes to get started and it was hard. It's early, it's cold and in my case my legs are just not ready for this opening challenge. From here you continue up hill for the next six miles, nearly half the days total. It's hard. 

I'm working my way up the hill and I cone to a railway crossing. I remember it from my first Camino because when I got here a high speed train came by and it was impressive. As I start to cross the tracks I can see three pilgrims attending to another who is on his back and bleeding badly. I stop and I ask if I can help. I have bandages. The guy on the ground bleeding simply tripped over the tracks and went face first into the concreate. He has a serious gash above his right eye in addition to other scraps on his arms and legs. The others tell me that they are just working on putting pressure on the gash to reduce the bleeding. There is a lot of blood. There is also nothing I can do so I move on. File this away momentarily. 

I get back to it and at end of about the seven mile mark I'm about to cross a road when a group of twelve American women are getting out of their van and starting to walk the Camino. This means that they purposely drove be young the first most difficult miles because of the climb, None of them are carring anything, not even a bocadillo pack. I pass them but they are soon past me. They are at best in their late forty's. 

I don't see them again until the next small village where they are all busy getting their credential stamped as the van waits to take them beyond. They have walked a total of about a mile and a half and are now on their way to Portomarin. So when they get there they go to their hotels and check in and have their credential stamped and they are on schdule for their Compestella. They will have walked

a total of one and a half miles, none difficult, collected their stamps and will soon be getting their Compestella. I can see it now. I'm in line at the Camino Office to get my Compestella and all of these woman are ahead of me telling anyone who will listen how difficult the Camino walk was! I think there should be two lines for the Compestella , one for those who did it and another for those who started in Sarria. Okay I got that off my mind. 

I arrive In Portomarin at 4:00 so it took me about  six and a half hours. You cross the bridge over the man made resiviour. The village you can see on the top of the hill was at one time here in the valley. Each of the buildings were moved stone but stones. Each were numbered and the result is impressive. Once the buildings were moved the valley was flooded. I like the town, it has a nice feel. Today it's not how I remember it because the weather is turning and most of the outdoor cafés are empty.

It will be an early night. Tomorrow I will walk to Palas de Rei which is a sixteen mile day and it has a hill climb which will take us on a climb of 450 meters or about 1,500 feet which is followed by a steady decent into Palas de Rei. It will be a long day especially with the weather report showing rain stating tomorrow and continuing through Tuesady. When I reach Palas de Rei I will have forty two miles to Santiago. Good night and Buen Camino. Sunday's letter is "I".

SANTI_ _ _,