Negreira to A Picota Mazaricos 11/20/23

 Holy smokes, what a day! A mere 24.5 miles of up and down.  I thought it would never end. 

As I was leaving Negreira, I spotted this statue of St. James.

The old city gates.

I loved this statue.

Especially when I walked around to the back of it.

Beautiful scenery.

There were at least six of these solid black cats in this village.  I was feeling relieved that none of them crossed my path, not that I believe in any of those old superstitions. Best to be careful just in case. About mile 20, I was beginning to think one had snuck in front of me.

I know I am in Spain when I see these.

Lots of these mini waterfalls with there gurgling sounds. Such peaceful music.

There were beautiful stones flanking the trail, making me feel like I was walking down the red carpet.

The Alto da Pena Alburgue had Coca-Cola Zero and it was brand new and shiny clean.

I ordered a French omlette bocadilla, which is a fancy egg sandwich.  There were real chickens nearby and having a fresh egg is so much tastier. And the breadman delivers the bread daily.  Might be a simple sandwich but it was delicious. I ate the shorter half and saved the large section for later.

I saw this sign when I THOUGHT I had about six miles to go.  Soooooo tempting.

This was uphill. I thought I was going to walk to the top and continue straight up into the sky.

I knew I was getting close - maybe under a mile.  I pulled out my phone to check the map for distance and it said that I was off trail.  OFF TRAIL!  I had been carefully following the trail markers so this couldn't be.  OMG! I decided to to believe my phone because it had been right all day.  I also knew there were two towns that you could spend the night in.  No signs, of course, because I am in the woods. I didn't want to end up in the wrong town (which I have done before) so I walked back up the steep mini mountain.  I managed to add 3 miles to my already 21 mile day.

I was so tired I could barely walk up the stairs to our room.  A couple of glasses of wine and while, I cannot say that I was as good as new, at least I was better. Dinner was delicious.  I had a enormous bowl of lentil soup.  I would call it lentil stew.  It was filled with many vegetables and the Spanish are wizards of tasty broth.  For my entre, I got a tomato filled with tuna salad.  Spain has excellent tuna.  Forget Starkist, it is barely the minor leagues compared to the tuna here.  Ice cream for dessert and it was off to sleepy town Spain.