Day 4: Azurara to Esposende (16 miles)

Walking the Camino

We upped the mileage today, almost changed our route on a whim, bravely battled some foot and calf issues (Jess), and deepened our Camino experience.

Early in the day, before we even reached our breakfast spot, a fellow pilgrim flagged us down. "Speak English?" When we said yes, that we're American, she said she hasn't met many Americans on the Camino. "You'd basically have to quit your job to have the time for something like this."

She and her husband are from South Africa. They talked about an option to head inland to walk through a section of the Central Route. They were planning to take an Uber to cross over to it and invited us to join them. "We love the coast but also the villages and vineyards inland."

We considered it. Jessica ran some calculations on time and distance. We determined it was too much extra walking for what was already going to be a long day. I was proud of us for being open to rerouting. It would have been fun to walk with them for a day.

But we stayed on our Coastal Route and were rewarded with another day of spectacular scenery, lovely towns, windswept beaches, and coastal flora in shades of green, yellow, purple and white. We have been on narrow boardwalks for much of the last two days, offering easy passage through beaches, streams, dunes, tidal flats, fields and forest.

Just beautiful.

We came across many friendly faces today and exchanged many a "Bom Caminho" (Portuguese) or "Buen Camino" (Spanish) with both pilgrims and locals. The feeling of being a part of something bigger is growing.

Another big walking day tomorrow. Our spirits are ready. Our bodies... let's see.