Day 6: Padron to Santiago de Compostela (15.8 mi)

Ok, we did it. Yes completed it officially and even have the paperwork to prove our distance. Today went by faster than anticipated – maybe a case of “get there-itis” but we made it nonetheless. The city is very large compared to the other towns we have been in – so that’s a bit different. Tomorrow we will check out the church and do a tourist day before taking the bus back to Porto for our 6 am flight on Saturday morning. Today actually turned out to be great weather for this long walk – last week it was 80F, today 68F(ish), would be sort of sunny, then a quick drizzle of rain – grab your coat and cover the pack, keep walking, then sun again, take off your coat, etc. and back and forth almost all day – but gives you something to do!

Day 5: Caldras de Reis to Padron (11.5 mi)

Well it was raining a lot during this hike on Wednesday and we really didn’t take many pictures. The evening was pretty slow, dinner was pre-ordained for us and not so great, but afterwards we went and ordered hot chocolate – which came out like chocolate soup! Cindy was excited at first, but then with all chocolate soup you cannot eat as much as you think.

Day 4: Pontevedra to Caldas de Reis (13.1 Mi)

Well today was pretty easy as expected and sunny all day – high of only 75F so not so bad – last week I think it was 85F so a pretty good change. We’ve now pivoted onto the main Portuguese Way route so there are many more people on the journey. This morning we were able to get up early and get moving with the goal of not spending so much time in the heat of the day. Regardless you end up walking a lot and I’d like to officially claim that my feet hurt. Tomorrow is only 11.2 miles so less than the last two days and I’ll welcome a bit shorter as the final day is 15.6 miles. The weather isn’t supposed to be too hot (nor cold) so we caught it perfectly. (the image of Cindy standing at the 60KM mark- 60KM’s until we hit our destination).

Day 3: Redondela to Pontevedra (13 mi)

Well today was fun, started out in the rain, was pouring at 8 am when we were having breakfast, but by 9:30 when we started was just a drizzle and not so bad. Of course walking into breakfast and seeing all the cheese, meat, etc. sort of has you eyeing other items, but it’s great when I compare it with hotels I’ve had to stay at in the United States and their ‘complimentary breakfast’.

Day 2: Raining our Way from Vigo to Redondela (11 mi)

Well today was actually pretty great, rained pretty hard our last hour or two, but this morning we left around 9 am and it was nice until about noon – but we finally got to use our rain gear and it worked great— having grown up in the Pacific Northwest I didn’t have any worries about our rain gear decisions 🙂

Day 1: Baiona to Vigo (16.5 Miles)

Well yesterday we left Porto and took a taxi about 2 hours north to Baiona Spain to begin our walk. Very nice drive, reminds me of driving the Oregon coast a bit – not much traffic and very scenic. Once we arrived in Baiona we inspected our hotel for proper “air flow” or air that flows across the bed so Cindy can sleep at night. Unfortunately we’re now in the land of the bed made out of rocks and little to no airflow – so we countered the lack of airflow with red wine at dinner. At this point, starting your day eating fresh cheese and then having the cheese plate, bread and olives at dinner is really becoming taxing. We both said after this a.m. breakfast – “probably will skip cheese tonight…” so we’ve probably over done that part of the trip so far.

Porto Portugal: Free day! – huh?

Well today we got up, had breakfast, packed our bags, did the triple room sweep to check that we had everything in order. “Ready to go…” mentally prepping myself to be hiking tomorrow after a 2 hour car drive up north. We go downstairs, start the checkout process, handing in our keys, say our goodbyes and then sit in the lobby to wait for our car to take us on our next leg of the journey…

Porto Portugal | Days 2, 3 and 16,700 Steps

I was realizing last night at 3 am that I still wasn’t 100% converted to Portugal time and was probably mid-Atlantic ocean somewhere in my struggle to be fully converted to the Europe timezone. Cindy and I are able to be here sans Hayden & Gavin and boy is it a change. I also realized that when we started this blog we were in South America, the boys were eight years younger (as were we) – now they are both in college and Hayden just had his 21st birthday. How time flies…

Tanzania Safaris: Tarangire Park, Ngorogoro Crater

So we are now back in Nairobi after crossing the border from Tanzania, but have spent the last three days on a safari trek to two different parks to see various animals. By far, Tanzania was the most touristy spot we visited with 20-30 safari trucks waiting at entrances to parks and driving around in front of you. We did not see so much of this in Kenya – maybe because the distances are greater. Our first drive was about 2 hours, then another 2 hours to the hotel, then in the morning another 1.5 hours to the Ngorogoro crater. Ngorogoro is like Yellowstone national park – a sunken hole in the earth – miles across – where animals live – none really leave. Mostly wilderbeast, antelope, and zebra. Rumored is rhino’s although we didn’t officially see one up close. On the second day we think Hayden had a stomach bug, so he suffered through a couple of hours of 4×4 (very bumpy) roads – which completely sucks when you’re also feeling motion sick – but he made it through it.

Gorilla Trekking in Uganda/Rwanda

So haven’t been keeping up on the blog post – largely due to non-existent internet. We are now in a nice hotel that has great internet, food, and showers! (Hot). About a week ago we left Nairobi and flew to Rwanda. We stayed at the Mille Collines Hotel (from the movie hotel Rwanda). An unbelievable place, with very nice food, great rooms and lovely staff. We stayed there one night, then the next day went back to “Africa Scout Camp” traveling to the Uganda border then about 20KM into the park for the next day of Gorilla Trekking.