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Caminho de Santigo, day 5

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September 27th, Saturday: a lighter walking day as we hiked a few kilometers up to Caminha along the coast.  We walked through the beachtown of Praia da Ancora, to the boardwalk.  We see clouds gathering, the wind coming up–rain is on the way.  We walked through a long straight flat woodland trail to the Caminha shoreline and corniche.  Seeking a post office, I realized that they are closed on the weekend! 

We passed up the first touts offering a boat ride across the river, as Father Colin pointed out that they landed at the beach on the Spanish side, far from the pathway, so we walked on and found a roadside salesperson – Popeye the Sailor Man – with a carimbo and 6-euro tickets to ride across the river to the quay at A Pasaxe, Spain!  We sped across the river, over choppy water, rain spritzing, life jackets on, in 5 minutes. 


He let us off at the concrete quay, and we hiked up the hill another 45 minutes in to the port town of A Guarda, known in Spanish (Castellano) as LaGuardia.  We all lodged at Hotel Bruselas, a typical pilgrim hotel, with lots of international pilgrims waiting there.  A Guarda is quite a nice seaside town that shows Spain's wealthier-than-Portugal infrastructure. 

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