July 14
Portomarin to San Xulian 28.3km
This will be our last aggressive day gaining close to 30 kilometers as we get closer to Santiago. Today was made up of gently rolling hills gaining some elevation the first half of the hike, the second half was rolling hills with a descent to San Xulian. We went through many areas of shade and had at least some breeze, most of the day. We checked out many small churches as we went, stopping to ring the bell at one, the bell pull was hanging by the main entry. Maybe that wasn´t the best idea as two locals hollered out their windows for us to stop. We apologized and quickly left. It was almost 9a.m. and we were only going to ring it 9 times. No matter, it was fun.
Here in Galicia the weather has been a little cooler with very cool mornings which made hiking very pleasant. At one point today we came across several horses with riders, probably from a riding club. The horses were beautiful. The man said one was Arabian and the others Spanish. They all neighed the same to me. At the end of our day we found ourselves within 40 miles to Santiago. Wow! We´ve done over 450 miles so far. It´s hard to believe that we will be done in just a few days. You begin to wonder what you will do when you don´t have to get up at 5:30 to get ready to walk for the day.
As we came into our final town today there were many people standing around dressed up, so we guessed that noon mass had just gotten over, then we turned the corner past the church and ran into the priest and a group of people tying a statute to the top of a mini-van. I asked a local woman what was going on and she said it was a feast day for the blessing of cars by St. Christopher and they were going to have a procesional through town.  The cars were decorated with flowers, balloons, etc. and parked doublé down the main streets.  Well, we got to be part of it.  They were driving crazy, honking horns, shouting, waving, and old Christopher was wobbling around town on top of a mini-van.  We hollered and waved and clapped for them as we made our way through town.  A great time was had by all.
We had a beautiful albergue with a mountain feel to it.  There were only 8 pilgrims, and five of them were our walking group.  It was just the five of us in our room, so we were thrilled.  We could open windows, turn on/off lights as we pleased, and had our own bathroom.  A wee bit of heaven.
Our windows were right on the camino, and just after we turned out the lights I heard a noise that sounded like horses, as I turned my head to look out a cow´s face was right in mine.  She´d stuck her head in our window as the cows were being herded through town.  We watched and had a really good laugh before falling to sleep.  This morning I woke to a similar sound, but turned out to be the early morning pilgrims passing by.  Believe it or not it was 4a.m. when a Costa Rican pilgrim family was going by with their lights and reflectors on, and pushing their sleeping baby in a stroller.  Yes, I said in a stroller.  We don´t know how they´ve done it, on so many levels, but especially how they get that stroller through some of the terrain we´ve covered!!  When I saw them later today I mentioned that we´d seen them in the morn.  The dad said, yes, it´s easier to travel when she is sleeping - no doubt!
For my Costa Rica kids, the first day I met them I said, Diay, Mae, que todo bien, pura vida.  They lit up and have been especially friendly ever since.  They are the only Costa Ricans we´ve met.
Pura Vida!  and Buen Camino.