Day 7: Halfway!!!

Today marked our halfway point - we have walked 100 miles and have 100 miles left to Santiago!

As we may have said before we took two 30 kilometer days and made them 3 days. Luckily  many of our friends that we were walking with chose to do the same thing! So that was nice. Last night we lost a bunch of them but we all decided to stay on top of the mountain today so we met up.

We stopped early on for breakfast with Nadine and Artjom which consisted of toasted bread with butter and jelly and some coffee. We also each had an orange - not the best breakfast when you are preparing to climb a mountain but at 6:30am you eat wherever you can find that is open! We met Carolina from Brazil and enjoyed chatting with her - and we ended up being bunk bed mates that night! The beginning of the day was pretty flat with some small hills/inclines. We met up with a friend who told us a terrible story about some bed bugs she encountered in an albuergue a few nights before after the one we were staying in was full :( Terrible experience but the next albuergues she went to really knew how to handle it and got her all cleaned up!! 

Then we hit the mountain and we hit it hard! Taylor was leading today and he was zooming up the hill! So dad an I were huffing and puffing to keep up! The climb was tough but the views were GORGEOUS! Unfortunately, the camera cannot capture the beauty but we tried :) We reached the top, O Cebriero, by 10:45! So that was exciting to have our day done so early. The albuergue didn't open until 1 so we checked out the town and had some drinks (yep wine before noon!) and lunch. The wine was so local and fresh it was served in an unlabeled bottle! Crazy. We waited in line for our room for about an hour and got a good spot with our friends in the room. Dad was happy to have a corner as he needs to lay everythingg out when he unpacks his bag! This was the first place without shower curtains so that was interesting and a surprise! But overall it's a nice clean albuergue.

This afternoon we rested, did laundry, hung the laundry on the line with an amazing view, had drinks, shopped, and listened to bag pipes! Great afternoon and we love the downtime on the mountain. Good for our bodies too to have the time to rest. Dad's back has been sore post-hiking so he is in search of a massage once we find a big enough city!

This evening we ha birthday dinner for two of our new friends, Lucy and Marieke, who both had birthdays today! We sang happy birthday in German and English and had Santiago cake for dessert. Santiago is the name of the city we will end it but also an almond cake with powdered sugar on top. Yum!

Lights out is at 10 most nights - since we don't hike as long today I'm not sure I'll sleep as well... But it's bedtime now! The view out the window next to my bunk bed is amazing!! I'll try to add that soon!