Ruitelan

Made it to Ruitelan. 19km have never taken so long.

Well, it was probably longer than 19km in the end - instead of taking the route along the road, the Italian man and a Brazilian girl who had joined us this morning (though she has gone on to O Cebreiro) and I took the scenic route over the mountains.

That is plural on the mountains. Though it was mostly just up one, and then around the sides and up a bit on the others. And down, can´t forget the down - down is harder than up, actually.

Ow that was painful - mostly in my back, it feels like my pack has gotten heavier for some reason, even though there isn´t anything new in it. I even got rid of some things.

Maybe it was because I was carrying a variety of clothes instead of wearing them - today was uncharacteristically warm, compared to the past two weeks. Today I was only wearing three layers as opposed to the usual six.

So far it is only the Italian man and I in the hostel here, but we will more than likely be joined by five French (four women, one man), because three of them send their packs on with a delivery service rather than carrying them, and their packs are here, so they should be as well. Whether the Canadian and American girls and their Italian boys end up here as well probably depends on which road they took - they were still in Villafranca del Bierzo when we left, but if they took the road route, they could be miles ahead of us by now. I guess we´ll see.

Now it is time to go rest and have a little snack. Dinner here in the hostel tonight, so no need to search for a restaurant. Hasta luego!