We woke up and were both surprised that we finally had slept through the night. We collected our drying clothes from around the room and found that most were still not dry. It was nice to get to lay in bed a little longer and wait to put on warm clothes. It was another foggy day but the sun was taunting us all morning. We walked by way too many cats to count and I was moving slow trying to pet every one (cat petting success: 0).
We arrived at a town with an ancient church fixated right in the middle and stopped for some coffee and chips (lunch of extreme athletes). By the time we left the cafe the sun had beaten off the fog and the heat settled in. Back on trail, we ran into our first pilgrims from America and relished in chatting with people who could understand us. The trail traversed meadows filled with the smell of fermenting apples reminiscent of the asturian cider. At one point we saw a large dog in a field with a cow and her calf. We watched as the dog creeped behind the huge cow and were fearful that this would not end well for the dog. The cow didn't mind at all, letting the dog snuggle in next to her. We both audibly 'awed' at the site.
Things got even cuter when the calf came and laid down on the other side of the dog. I think hearts started coming out of our eyes. We made it to the smallest town with a place to stay we'd experienced yet. Castro sat atop a huge valley and was a collection of about five buildings.
One was a church that sat next to the youth hostel and my Mom thought it was so cute I almost got her to sleep in a bunk room for the night. Instead we went to a bed and breakfast where we were given the purple room. The only thing not purple in the room, was us.
We grabbed some lunch overlooking the views when a praying mantis landed on my ankle and stuck around for a while. I hoped it was a good omen.
We showered and rested for a while before emerging from the purple room to watch the sunset. It was spectacular. The entire valley became bright purples and oranges that spread across the sky. We enjoyed chatting with other pilgrims as the sun finally disappeared behind the hills. Something rustled in the leaves next to us and we looked down to see a bull frog, hunting for dinner. We watched intently as he caught large ants and grasshoppers. He noticed our presence and got bashful so we left him to hunt and cuddled up in bed.
Stats:
Steps:17977
Cats: 24
Bullfrog's dinner success: 3