I left Triacastela in the dark at 08:00. On the far side of town, there was a fork in the road. One path went toward San Xil and the other toward Samos. Both paths would rejoin before Sarria. I took the first path as it was the primary path according to my guidebook and shorter by 6.5 kilometers. The morning was uneventful as it rained on and off, and the sun was nowhere to be seen. The towns consisted of a few houses and barns. There was nowhere to get lunch until Sarria, which is over 13,500 in population. The pedestrian bridge over the Sarria River was being rebuilt, so I had to take a short detour to cross on the next bridge. I thought about stopping to get lunch, but it was already 13:30 when I got to the top of the hill in Sarria, and I had a long way to go in the afternoon, so I just kept walking with an empty stomach.
I climbed up and down all afternoon through more tiny Galician towns. The past two days it seems cattle production has been the main livelihood of the area. There is cow dung everywhere on the roads and the paths. The Spanish guy who was snoring loudly last night caught up to me and we walked together for awhile. He said he was 77 and was in the Spanish army. He had alot of endurance for an old man. The path made a big drop in elevation into Portomarin. I walked backwards downhill to ease the pressure on my ankles. I crossed the bridge over the Mino River. Below the bridge was an old stone bridge and remnants of the old town before the Mino River was dammed and a reservoir was made. I had made it to Portomarin at 18:30, just before nightfall.
I walked up the steps to Portomarin and went looking for a hotel. No way was I going to let snorers ruin my sleep two nights in a row. I got a private room at Pons Mineo for €30. I then showered quickly and went over to the church. It was supposed to have an evening mass at 19:30, but the church was locked up. I ended up stopping at a bar on my way back to the hotel. Mario happened to be sitting inside, drinking a beer. I drank a few beers, and we caught up on where we had both been since we last met on the walk to Leon.
