She Follows Shells: Day 70 Aviles to El Pito

It stormed last night! My bed was right near a side door that had a tin roof and the rain can down very heavy. Some auberges kick you out pretty early, but our little pilgrim community that stayed up past midnight (which is unheard of for the most part when on Camino) all agreed we'd sleep in a bit. This comes to you a week late, so I can't remember the exact time, but it might have been as late as nine...

We were in rush. Jordi said he'd be interested in walking with us today and Jean- Francois is actually walking in the opposite direction and wants to stay an extra day in Aviles. How fortunate we were when he offered to walk with us to the edge of town.

Thankfully, we did take our time because we woke to a downpour. But by the time we got out there, the rain was off and on all day. We literally danced with our umbrellas up and down, up and down.... This is my first Camino with umbrellas, and hands down it is my best investment (second to the kids awesome backpacks which are ULA Circuits, the bag of choice for the hikers on the AT from what I can tell.

On my previous Camino, I had to put on the rain jacket and take off the rain jacket a million times a day and this involves removing the backpack. I prefer the umbrella so much more, they can go hands-free and prevent the sauna feel that raincoats give you. We each have raincoats but have not worn them.

I have pictures of the sky showing the fight between rain and sun, dark clouds to fluffy white clouds truly manic weather. Today, we would head to El Pito. A spot I really like because about a kilometer away is Cudillerio and I really like this picturesque spot.

Jordi wanted to make us dinner so we picked the same hotel/auberge I stayed in two years ago. It's a hotel that opened an auberge in the back. Of course it was pouring and the nearest grocery was down in Cudillerio, so we all left the packs in our auberge rooms and walked to the grocery. It was a treat to have Jordi make us dinner. I'm not sure how long he'll stay with us but we certainly do love his company. He is always happy, filled with humor and sings ,"What does the fox say?" at the top of his lungs with the kids and is just a very happy go lucky kind of person. We've been so fortunate to have great people gravitate around us, great personalities for the kids to see.

Dinner was awesome! I think we were told we could stay till 10am and we took full advantage of that. The rain just keeps on coming! When we pull up the weather it shows rain for seven days. We can't really complain as we've had it pretty good, but seven days....

Pictures from the day....

Jean-Francois even signs his books with gorgeous flair, these are books at most auberges where we get to leave notes...

The other figure in this picture is Valentine, our hospitelerio who showed up later...nice guy!

Thank goodness we had a late start, had we left minutes earlier it was a downpour!

Saying bye to Jean-Francois! Jordi would share that Jean-Francois wrote a lot about family on his Facebook page, I don't have Facebook but he showed me the post it was sweet...

I'm not certain why I stopped in my tracks over getting this image, maybe the red colors against the browns.

We ate lunch on the porch of this small church...

The horses love Reichen...

Rain more on than off...

Got to love it when we have a path...

Gave up on our Hokas and loving their Keen sandals, Karsh has worn his sandals every step of the Camino since their arrival in St. Jean, that includes on the mountainous GR10.

Yikes! Jordi actually caught the fall as it was happening...

This "guard dog" ran into its doggie house to bring Reichen this toy to play tug...

A yellow way marker guiding us in the rain in our last minutes to El Pito...

This picture is proof of our manic weather, even the sky couldn't decide if it should be dark or blue...

After a pretty long walk to the grocery store and back, in the rain, Jordi made dinner while allowing us to hit the showers and get warm. A great dinner and a super day!