Happy Party Shirt Friday!
Another great walk with the Giraffe Brothers. We had a little chuckle in that Portomarin is technically off route--you cross the river and climb up a big ass hill into the city, only to turn right back around, descend a big ass hill, and cross another bridge to continue on the Camino.
It was a foggy morning--we climbed out of the clouds into a forested area with beautiful dappled light. After Sarria, the trail gets way, WAY more crowded. We felt like we spent the first half of this walk dodging other peregrinos. The Ragnar race series refers to passing people as "kills." For obvious reasons, I don't like that, so we changed the concept from "kills" to "buen caminos," and if you pass someone in your own group, it's a "buen camino, amigo/a." From lunch to the end of the walk, we had 90 buen caminos. Buen camino is the standard trail greeting between pilgrims. It's also a less aggressive way of saying "excuse me," as you're trying to pass.
Relatively uneventful walk (although great conversation), but a major trail highlight was getting to see a 3-day old pony. Jeff notes in his social media post that he's carried cheese in his pack older than the pony.
We arrived at Hotel Calixtino (a few miles out of Palas del Rei) and some students gave an excellent presentation on sustainability and responsible tourism of the camino.
Among the questions and curiosities raised during their presentation, we learned that there were more than 530,000 peregrinos that completed at least 100K of the camino in 2025; the number is actually probably much higher because not every peregrino finishes in Santiago de Compostella or receives their credential.
The group brainstormed different ways to disperse overcrowding on the trail, which could include increasing the required trail minimum from 100 to 150km to further disperse pilgrims along the trail or incentivize peregrinos (or albergue owners or cafe owners) to take more interest in routes other than the Camino Frances. Also, trekking poll rubber tips--get 'em.
Shoutouts to Elena's Mom and Sophia's family--thanks for reading.
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