Wynette: In books we read by people who have walked the Camino, occasionally they would mention that they started out in the morning before the coffee places opened so they had to walk to the next town before having any coffee. When I read that I said “no way I’ll ever do that.” But, yep, that’s what happened to us the last two mornings. The weather turned quite warm so we have been starting out around 7, hoping to miss the worst of the heat by doing most of the walking in the morning. But the towns we stayed in were small and the bars weren’t open by then. (You’ve probably figured out that bars are the main places to get the wonderful café con leche. The bars are more like cafes. They do sell liquor but also many other things and people of all ages, including kids, go into them.) So yesterday we had to walk 4 miles before we had any coffee and today we walked about 3.5 miles before coffee. It might be in my mind, but I have felt much less energy when I’ve had to start out without. Above is bar in tiny town of Azofra where we had delicious coffee this morning. There were lots of early-rising pilgrims there. Check out all the packs on the bench.
The two women in pink are women we met on the camino day before yesterday. We’ve passed each other a few times. They are Canadians who immigrated there from Denmark in the mid 60s. They are a little older than us. They said they “looked at their birth certificates” and decided if they didn’t walk the Camino now they never would.
PS. The weather actually turned quite cold again today.
