Natalie and I left Armenteira the next am..after our obligatory coffee and SOMETHING Ham and cheese like! It was going to be another LONG DAY back down to sea level..an overnight in Villa Nova de Arousa and the the boat the next day from there to Padron...the route that carried the body of St. James. After a short stop to get a download of a photo from Natalie’s boyfriend and a big smile on her face, we began our walk down through the magical “Route of Stone and Water” the pictures tell it all...GORGEOUS! We ran into the French couple once again and had coffee and carbs at a lovely little cafe on the way. They packed up ahead of us and carried on leaving Natalie and I to finish our chocolate croissants and move on not long after as well. Many orchards of grapes in this famous wine area of Spain. It was a LOOONG DAY back to back with the big climb the day before and even though I was without my pack, I was a HURTIN UNIT! My Kneeee!

We really just HAD to stop at this quaint little pub for a much needed beer and Tapas (which was a little sardine on a slice of French bread) and had laughs with the locals..mostly men that were in there at the crack of 2pm. Natalie broke out the tunes after that and AGAIN, a second wind arrived. A special moment with no picture unfortunately, was a young man, about 8yrs old with a table outside his house selling jewellery he had made for 1€ each. He was ecstatic when we both invested in a butterfly necklace and we could hear him screaming the Great News to his mom inside as we walked on with our purchases!

We finally got to the outskirts of Villanova de Arousa where we would spend the night before our boat ride the next morning and were having a hard time finding our accommodation. We saw a HUGE LONG BRIDGE in the distance and I remember saying...”There is no way I can walk across that bridge girlfriend!!!” To which she replied “We might not have a choice!!!” Not sure how long it was, but it looked TOOOTALLY OMINOUS!

As it turned out, the map was wrong for our accommodation and we didn't have to cross that big ass bridge after all..lol but we were half way across already!!! Out came the tunes again and a “3rd wind arrived” as well as an UBER after we got back to land!! OHHH YAAA...I don’t even remember hitting the pillow that night after our “salad in a bag dinner”lolo

The next morning, we met our boat at 8am which was to take us up the channel to Padron. We were pleasantly surprised when what was supposed to be a zodiac, ended up being a large tourist boat complete with hot coffee and a major stop along one of the many mussel farms to allow us to watch how they harvest and sort them. Spain is a Major producer of these tasty morsels. The trip was lovely in the early morning mist and the crosses at various points of interest were explained by the captain. We arrived in Padron to find the local market in full swing and plenty of eye candy...Gorgeous! Natalie was jonsin for some churros (little deep-fried tubes of flour dipped in sugar and cinnamon) and we found a place there that even had them dipped in dark chocolate. I would not normally partake in such things, but gladly tried a still warm chocolate dipped one which was Delish I must admit!

Because it was almost noon by now...it was getting hot, so we stopped for some of those little Padron Peppers and a cold drink...after all, this was The Town they were named after...yes! By 1:30 we were feeling the need for another stop...OMG...were both feeling really DONE and we assessed the situation and how far we still had to walk to our reserved hostel that night in Farmello at La Calabaza Albergue. It was only about 5 klms and as we sipped a glass of vino, we strategized our next move. Would we Uber? Bus it? What the Hell? We had our boots off by now, and asked the bar maid in our broken Spanish if the busses we saw stopping across the street stopped in Faramello, to which she replied that her mother was coming in a half hour and was driving right past there on her way to work if we wanted a ride???? YES WE DID THANKYOU! Just enough time for another glass of wine...lol Nice Manifestation high five!loll

As we arrived there not long after 3pm...Rhonda and her daughter Olivia from Tennessee we had met another day greeted us at the same hostel. They had just arrived too..so we slid into a room with 4 beds to ourselves and showered up for dinner. It was one of the best meals we had on the trip! Check the pictures for proof! It was a Super night with lots of laughs and prepping for our last day to walk into Santiago...the Culmination of the Way....