Left Arzua at 9:10 am. Arrived O Pedrouza 3:50 pm. 12.54 miles walked.

No taxi for us. We walked straight down the hill and were back on the Camino in less than 15 minutes.

The map shows us really close to Santiago de Compostela and that’s because we are that close. Just about 25 miles to go.

We have only seen a couple of people that we “know” since we left Lugo. This is a whole new crop of folks and they are noisy. Missing our old friends.

Now that we’re close to Santiago, there are guards on horseback in case of need – whatever that may be. We were passed by two groups of them today. I’m sure we’ll see more tomorrow.

Met a retired bus driver from Chicago who was quite chatty. He felt compelled to tell stories, so we listened. He also introduced us to an Episcopalian youth group from Charlotte, NC.

I talked to the group leader and she says they do this every year starting from Sarria. I didn’t catch how long they’ve been doing the trips, but I believe it’s been more than a couple of years. There were about 10 kids, all going into either junior or senior year of high school.

Rather an uneventful day other than the temperature was up to 92 degrees and we simply wilted.

The bridge is covered in stickers from all over the globe. Kind of cool, but also a little weird.

Walls – beer bottles and shoes. We both remembered the shoe wall from two years ago.

As the day wore on, we stopped for drinks twice, and then lunch indoors – the heat got to us. I actually had bacon and eggs. Delicious. Spaghetti for Caleb. The last couple of hours were just putting one foot in front of the other. Hotel is fine, but dinner was disappointing.

We had about 6 dinners pre-purchased in towns where restaurants are few. Tonight, unfortunately, we were at a pizza place where they had a group of about 100 people and we were put outside in the blistering heat. Caleb ordered pizza. I mistakenly ordered a burger. He was done well before my burger arrived. I was ready to cancel and just leave when it arrived.

The server was extremely apologetic. She brought me another drink (which I needed at this point). We retreated to our hotel knowing full well that things sometimes don’t go well, but it’s not the end of the world.

I was pretty annoyed for a bit, but I rebounded. Caleb, in contrast, was very cool. I need to take lessons.

We reach Santiago de Compostela tomorrow. Time has gone all too quickly.

Good night.