Esposende to Darque (campsite) & Dinner with New Friends!

I loved our hostel last night, Hostel Eleven. They had a nice breakfast with a chocolate cake and urged us to take a slice. We did not know that the sweet lady making sure we were relaxed for our walk was married to the owner we met last night until we were leaving. She said,”my husband came home last night and said two beautiful young girls arrived last night”. She was so nice, they had a little cabinet with Camino souvenirs in it and I bought the girls two beautiful Camino shell necklaces at a very reasonable price. I liked that they had a few items for sale, pasta and wine for minimal markup if any. It’s nice to arrive at a hostel where you can purchase inexpensive items to make food. 

We hit the road, walked into a church nearby that was open (seems unheard of) and there was a pretty Camino stamp for our pilgrim passports. As we got out on the road, a man approached us heading towards us on the boardwalk.  He looked familiar... it was the hostel owner with one of our bowls that we store food in! We had tucked some cheese, meat and piece of chocolate cake in there and would have been devastated if we lost one of our bowls. That was so nice of him!!!! 

There are a few routes out of town and we had stopped in the church (and oddly a gorgeous jewelry store), so this possibly was a big inconvenience for him to find us. What great, thoughtful people and great place to stay!

We walked as much of the coastal route as we could until it appeared we had to go inland. We had a nice little stop for coffee and orange juice. We are always excited to get a place that serves fresh squeezed orange juice! And this stop did!!!!


We stopped about forty five minutes from tonight’s marketed stage. We like getting bungalows, and Orbitor Camp ground in Darque had a special for pilgrims. I got one with a kitchen so we could cook. Instantly, upon turning on the stove we blew a fuse, and this repeated itself a few times. :-(

Amazing coincidence though... as we were huffing and puffing to our bungalow and two beautiful German ladies were sitting out on the small deck of theirs enjoying wine. They had huge smiles and were so sweet and welcoming.  They were not doing this Camino but have done the Camino before. We would find out these two gals are experienced hikers with amazing accomplished hikes. They actually met hiking several years ago. Their names are, Christina and Barbara, who invited us for the best dinner serving fresh vegetables and vino! It was so yummy!!! We took our tortilla over there (Spanish tortilla) to serve since our stove didn’t work. Awesome conversation and I hope friends I will meet again! Aynsleigh without prompting grabbed dishes to wash and we were appreciative as it was nice to share conversation with like minded ladies. 

Thank you friends!!! We loved our evening with you!!!