In Search of the Good Life...: Day 29 (6/9) Pontevedra Beach Day

Man, this beach day felt **very earned** after 26 days on the Camino and more than 360 miles. I’ll do a separate post of “Camino by the Numbers” as well as some advice for future programs, but more on that later.

After a fun day and night in Santiago de Compostela, we took a train to Pontevedra and then boarded a bus to visit a small, secluded beach called Playa de Agueta (locally: Praia de Aguete). We essentially had the beach to ourselves for the first two hours; it was a little chilly in the morning (we left Santiago de Compostela when it was about 60 degrees), but it warmed up to the mid-seventies by the time we’d settled on the beach. The Atlantic is pretty cold most of the time, so while a few folks were brave enough to spend sustained time in the water, most folks sort of did the “get-in-to-hip-level” ocean dips and spent more time walking the beach, playing hackey sack and kicking a ball around, competing in beach foot-races, and enjoying snacks from the beachside restaurant. We ordered delivery pizza and desserts and reveled in what was truly a day of rest and relaxation after physically working very, very hard for nearly a month.

For the record, Cory beat me in the footrace, but I will beat him before I leave this mortal coil.

Huge shoutout to Angela (Spanish TA) for her efforts in coordinating the beach day and meals. It’s behind-the-scenes work that can be incredibly stressful, and Angela did it beautifully and without complaint. Thank you, thank you!

A bit of a bummer that we didn’t get to explore more of Pontevedra proper before we departed, but it was a near-perfect beach day nonetheless.

We returned to Santiago de Compostela just in time for a mad dash to our last official group dinner. It was incredibly difficult to find a place in SdC that could reserve a space for a large group, but El Rincon Asturiano told us they’d open early(ish) at 7, and we could take our chances since most Spaniards don’t eat dinner that early. We rolled in, and in a true Camino miracle, we were able to all get sat; Angela and I put together a fixed menu of a bunch of raciones for the group to have family style, which included:

-tortilla española
-sardines
-olives
-ensaladilla (it’s like a potato salad)
-morcilla (it’s a blood sausage dish that I love, but it’s an acquired taste)
-shishito peppers (or maybe they’re not shishito but very similar)
-croquettas

After dinner, folks went their separate ways to shop, find more food/drink, or listen to music. We enjoyed the musical stylings of a solo violinist and returned for another night of Tuna entertainment.