Buenos Dias (bg)

Yesterday we took a water taxi from Caminha, Portugal across a body of water to A Guarda, Spain. One side looked just like the other but for two immediate events told us things have changed. Our phones immediately jumped ahead an hour, and upon enthusiastically greeting our first villager with a hearty “Bom Dia”, we received a rather stern “Buenos DIAS” reply. Noted. Embarrassing American Moment #4.

As Michelle has already written yesterday was a soggy trek. But our welcoming greeting by Carmen, our innkeeper at the incredibly lovely Casa Puertas in Oia (that was the photo at the top of the blog) started to warm us up almost instantly. But the real prize of the visit was Carmen’s advice about today’s travel plans. “Don’t follow the Camino path!”, she insisted. Instead she recommended a route that kept us on the shoreline instead of the Camino trail through the hills.

She could not have been more correct. The rain had cleared through and we spent almost seven hours of walking with the ocean directly to our left. It was just gorgeous. Gracias Carmen!!

Tranquil running streams down the mountain to the ocean

beautiful vistas (and yeah I get it - it’s impossible to replicate the vastness of the beauty with a camera but you’ll just have to take my word for it )

Local residents

And as we entered our lunch stop in Baiona, we were instructed in no uncertain terms by King Alfonso XI, where to drop our bags and sit!