Today was a particularly challenging day. It was 27km uphill to the small village of Bruma, and the climb felt relentless at times. Jess and I feel the onset of a cold coming on, with a sore throat and extra fatigue, making today a bit harder. The weather was also a bit gloomy- the clouds hung low and it started to rain.

However, when I put on some music to cheer myself up, this song came on just when I needed it. It’s sung by The Cat in the Hat from Seussical the Musical:

“When the news is all bad,
When you’re sour and blue,
When you start to get mad
You should do what I do-

Tell yourself
How lucky you are…

When your life’s going wrong
When the fates are unkind
When you’re limping along
And get kicked from behind
Tell yourself how lucky you are…

So be happy you’re here.
Think of life as a thrill
And if worse comes to worse
(As we all know it will)
Thank your lucky star
You’ve gotten this far…

And tell yourself how lucky you are!”

It was a wonderful message to hear in that moment. It helped me look at my surroundings in a whole new light- the trees seemed greener, the sound of rain more peaceful…I was reminded of how thankful I should be to be here now. What a gift this is, to have nothing to do but to walk, and think, and breathe.

And, before I knew it, right when my feet were demanding a rest, we stumbled across our albergue.

wow today kicked my ass. hardest Camino day I’ve ever had. 27 kms up hill.

Last full day in Porto. Too much gelato…

Lazy day in Portugal of laying around and eating gelato.

A very short walk today. 10 km to O Faramello-Teo, a nice new albergue with three French speakers, one from France, one from Quebec, and a Portuguese fellow who lives in Ontario. Walked with anothe Canadian briefly in the morning. She worked in Ft. Murray, the tar sands town that burned yesterday.  Thanks to technology she already knew everyone is okay after one of the largest evacuations in Canada, and that folks are still looking for trapped animals.

I stopped short of Santiago to review student postings, so I’d better get back to it.

Negreira–15:59

Where am I? Santiago! Apologies for not checking in – I’m not remotely trying to be mysterious. The reason for the lapse in posts is the simplest one; technical dificulties. As a brief update, in the final 100 kilometers I experienced all sorts of “meat n’ potatoes” revelations and moments of clarity that deserve reflection. I also have a boatload of pictures that I need to upload but first I’ll have to putz around with my camera to get things working. in 90 or so minutes I’ll be in the cathedral of St. James for the noon pilgrim’s mass then I’m off to apply for my compostella (the compostella being the official document that proves completion of the Camino. yay graduation…). Each night during the trek we recieved stamps from the albergue to prove that we didn’t just ride the bus to Santiago. So, I’ll have to show my pilgrim’s passport all stamped up with stamps from last 800+ km of walking. I’ll have 5 days here in Santiago to reflect write and read before continuing the walk to the coast. This next walk however is rooted in pagan traditiom. After i recieve my compostella I am officially no longer a pergrino on the Way of St. James. I am clearly something different now. The idea of a spirit animal to represent my state of being seems outmoded if charming. I have morphed into a new creature though… a functioning human more courageous, loving, outreaching and open to the breadth of experience that is the world. Pretty good! I’ll be blogging on and still travelling for the next few weeks. I have much more to write and post about the walk. Stay tuned. Much love to all.

late into town, but made a friend from Boston that happened to be fluent in Spanish and showed us the best spots around town.

Walked around Porto, saw the city from a tower, got fish swung at me, and played mini golf. Eventful day.

Walked a long distance, had an amazing day!