We started off a little earlier this morning because our hostel didn’t offer breakfast. We grabbed a prepackaged muffin and headed out. We crossed the river on this misty morning just as the sun was rising. It was another lovely walk, this time with frequent stops available for our morning coffee and lunch breaks. We ran into the three American women we met the previous day at our first café. These three women went to high school together and reconnected many years later through Facebook. We love meeting up again with people we’ve met along the way. We also walked a while with two new friends, Maggie and Madeleine, from Portugal. Maggie was suffering from very bad blisters. Madeleine has walked the Camino several times. She always brings one friend with her. Although Evan and I love to walk alone, I cherish these moments when we meet others along the way.
At times we walk out in the open, in the sunshine and along roads, but then the path takes us back into shaded forests where we walk along running streams.
About ¾ of the way we see a side trip. A kilometer off the path will take us to the Barosa Waterfalls, reputed to be quite beautiful. We first heard about the park from the woman playing bagpipes in the forest the previous day. It’s in a pleasant park with a café and a beautiful view of the waterfalls. So what’s another kilometer or so for a beautiful view and a coffee break? So we left the path.
In the end, we were one for two. The waterfall was beautiful, but there was no open cafe. Oh well! I guess we would have been even more disappointed if there were no waterfall. So we enjoyed the view, Sara took her pictures, and you can get a taste of what we saw. It was worth the extra steps.
We arrived in Caldas de Reis at 2pm so we enjoyed an “end of walk” afternoon beer next to the bridge as we watched other Pilgrims walking into town. Caldas de Reis is not a large town, and like so many others, it too sits on a river. It’s famous for its hot baths, so Sara splurged a bit. Our hotel sits right next to the bridge, and the room rental included a 30 minute session in the hotel’s hydro massage thermal baths. After our thermal bath, we enjoyed the outdoor thermal hot tub and swimming pool, one quite warm with the thermal water, and the second a very cold contrast. Next we had only to walk across the bridge to enjoy a fine meal at a restaurant, outdoors, right along the river, looking back toward our hotel.
Tonight we just enjoyed the hotel and restaurant, saving exploration for the trip out in the morning.
