Last night I had dinner with Tom at my hotel early and dinner was done early. I had a 5am alarm and was out the door a few minutes after 6. Walking out of town a Korean guy I had talked to once or twice caught me. We walked together for a km or two and talked about the Halloween disaster in Seoul, Elon Musk, Twitter and Tesla.
It was dark for almost two hours and I just walked in the pouring rain. It rained until almost noon. I passed closed cafe after closed cafe. Finally about 9am I found an open one and had a coffee and a Napalitano. I was encountering very few pilgrims. The rain made it easy to focus on walking. I sometimes ducked for cover when a bad downpour happened. An Australian cyclist and I had a brief chat under an awning while a girl that was at the cafe I stopped at ducked under a tree nearby. Later I passed her and declared, "It's a beautiful day!". She laughed at that.
I walked paying very little attention to anything other than my feet. One for in front of the other. Just before noon after walking 6 hours in the rain, the sun poked out. What a boost.
I stopped at a bar and got a tuna empanada, coffee and coke. I sat in the sunshine drying out and chatting with people at other tables. I actually started to dry out a bit. For some reason walking in the rain makes your clothes really, really stink. Must be steaming in a jacket or under the pancho.
As I left I realized I had no stamps for the day - you need two a day on the last 100km. I got a stamp and realized this bar was called the 15km Bar. I was on the last 15!
At that point I put on some music and just walked. I didn't care what my feet complained about. I was good with finishing on bloody stumps. It was a countdown where I tried not to look at the markers.
Coming into Santiago I was listening to music and getting a bit emotional. Coming into town I saw a few people I knew. The Mexican couple that passed me every day since day 1 when I got out before them, we congratulated each other. I saw Laurel, the American girl who had been in town for two days. I finally reached the Cathedral square and it was done. I took some selfies. Then I congratulated the Brazilian couple I passed every day since day 1.
Then I headed over to the pilgrim office and got my Compestela. It was over. Leaving the office I saw Tom and waited for him since he owed me a beer which we had. He said meetup at 7 in the Cathedral square and we headed to our hotels.
Did I mention things really stink in the rain? My jacket was unwearable but I needed it for the chill here in Santiago on Halloween. I had to give it a quick wash. I had a nice hot bath. I can't remember the last time I had a bath. It was nice.
At 7 a small group gathered and we went to a restaurant and the group became bigger. There was Thomas from Germany, Boti, Fergus, Ilene - who I tried to interest in one of my 3 sons, some French I don't rember their names, Sabastion from Switzerland sort of, ... It ended up being 17 at our table and there were some other tables.
After dinner we broke up into smaller groups looking for good bars. I ended up in an Irish bar with Boti, Thomas and Fergus. After two beers standing my bed started calling. This is the latest I've stayed up in a month. Time for bed.
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