It was the second to last day and it was time to get up. Somehow I managed to convince my friend Tom to piggyback me out of my bunk and I started the day like a queen.

A quick glance out of the window made it clear that water gear would be necessary for today’s hike.

We waterproofed ourselves and our packs and escaped the weird smelly albergue.

We headed next door for caffeine and then it was time to hit the Camino de Santiago for what would be one of the last times.

I, of course, forgot my hiking pole as every morning and feeling quite attached to it after carrying it across so much of the Camino went back for it knowing that my friends would probably end up way ahead of me.

So it was another day of solo time.

Of course that also meant meeting a lot of wonderful people on the way and on this day that included two lovely Argentinian girls walking the Camino with their dog and the Camino friends Jose and Janna who had started the Camino de Santiago as from the same city but total strangers. A mutual friend back in their home in Texas had told them both about the other and after many weeks they finally found each other on the way.

I had the chance to spend a lot of time talking and walking with Jose and we entered the town of O Pedrouzo together that afternoon after some long afternoon life chats.

O Pedrouzo was 20km away from Santiago.

I met James and Bill at our very clean and serene alburgue for the night. And after chilling out with meditational music in the background Tom finally joined us and we all headed out for our final pilgrim dinner before Santiago.

The town was buzzing. People from all over the world enjoyed the last night of their pilgrimages before the final stretch. There was a sense of excitement all around and it was hard not to be infected by so much happiness.

Tom, Bill, James and I had dinner surrounded by many friendly faces that we had encountered throughout the past few weeks.

The next day our pilgrimages would be coming to their ends.