O Pedrouzo to San Marcos

DAY 40: SATURDAY, MAY 27, 2017

We are so close to Santiago right now … about 20K (12.4 miles). You can feel the buzz among the many pilgrims staying in O Pedrouzo. There are a lot of “shiny pennies” (those whose started in Sarria which is 100K from Santiago). They are very eager to get their miles done and get the prize. I was feeling tired from the cumulative miles and from the previous day’s 5am start but also excited to be getting so close to the end.

This is Terry and I in our last Albergue (ever!). Our dorm mates started getting up at 4am. By 7am, most were gone. We were still tucked in. They don’t boot you out until 8am.

The only dorm mate still around at 7am was Bjorne from Koln, Germany. He is traveling by himself and started in Sarria and hoping to make it to Santiago today.

It was hard to get going today but we only had 14.5K (about 9 miles). This first part of today’s trail was through a Eucalyptus forest.

These (Eucalyptus) treeas are very tall and appear to have no bark. Some had a circumference of 6-7 feet. It was a nice hike through the forest but we had some long, steep hills too.

The camino circles around the Santiago airport. It’s like the airport is blocking the trail and you have to walk around it.

Not sure but this must be the city? County? Line for Santiago. We’re still quite a distance away.

Even though were getting close to Santiago, there are still animals grazing.

It’s 11:45am and fatigue is setting in. It’s time to celebrate how close we are to Santiago. We’re on the last page of the map guidebook.

We didn’t celebrate too much. Back on the trail. We met Helena, Martha and Julia from the Massachusetts area. They walked with us to the next town. They started in Sarria and needed to be in Santiago tonight. 

Fatigue set in again. Time to stop for a beer and croquets for lunch. 

Back on the road again. Every time we go into a big city, there’s about 5-10 miles of industrial businesses that we have to walk by. You can tell were getting close to Santiago.

Thee’s about a half mile of fence with handmade crosses woven into the fence. Looks like a pilgrim thing.

We walked by the San Marcos campground. I didn’t really see anyone camping there.

It’s getting foggy over the hills as we enter our final destination for today, San Marcos. This puts us about 5-K (3.1 miles) from Santiago. We’re feeling really smart for choosing this stop before Santiago. We’ll get a good night’s rest before Santiago and even better, there are no swarms of Pilgrims hanging around … they’re all in a big hurry to get to Santiago. So we get a break from the pilgrim action.  We checked into a little hotel and found a Pulperia for dinner — this will be the 5th time I’ve had Octopus.