OIA, Spain — When I woke up for our fifth straight day of walking after doing 60 miles in four days, I was not happy.Â
Everything hurt, pretty much, except for my lower back — the thing I was most concerned would keep me from doing this trip. My left ankle, in particular, was throbbing. After I showered, I bathed myself in Biofreeze and took an anti-inflammatory. Needless to say, I was not in the greatest of moods. I was grumpy.
 As we made our way from the room to the trail, I told my son that nobody was going to get a “Bom dia†or a “good day†from me today.Â
Of course that's when a little old man started walking beside me and talking to me. Through my limited Spanish and some sign language and the fact that Portuguese is a little similar to Spanish, we were able to communicate. He couldn't believe that my son walking ahead of us was my son because of how tall he is.
He started cracking up and said there must be something about the milk in America!Â
We chatted for a bit and I offered him one of my cookies, and he declined politely and said that he only eats an orange and a pear until midday.Â
Less than a quarter mile after our paths intersected, we met a man named Joaquin on his bicycle. He stopped us and basically interviewed us. He wanted to know where we were from, our likes, dislikes and hobbies.
We learned he was a retired primary school teacher who loves learning about others. He even had us sign a book he carries. He wanted me to include the URL for floridatoday.com. Â
Arrival in Spain
The next day, we finally made it to Spain, in a very sketchy fashion. We paid a man six euros each to ferry us across the bay from Portugal. We did not realize he was skirting the law until he told us to jump from the boat onto the sand quickly because the police might come.Â
Unfortunately, the first thing we saw in Spain was a spray painted swastika alongside anti-American and anti-Israel slogans, a grim sort of reminder that the world and its problems and politics go on no matter what.Â
But so far the people of Spain have been very kind and the food, at least for us, is a huge upgrade over Portugal.
We rented a room with a washing machine. We're pretty excited to clean our clothes.
One thing I have definitely learned on this trip is how small we are in the grand scheme of things.
My email has been flooded with well wishes and I promise to read them all once I return and I will try to respond as well. Thank you for taking the time to do that.
Engagement Editor John A. Torres is walking the Camino de Santiago with his son and daughter-in-law and writing about his experiences.
Contact Torres at jtorres@floridatoday.com. You can follow him on X @johnalbertorresÂ
Support local journalism and become a subscriber. Visit floridatoday.com/subscribe
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