Day 5~Barcelos, Portugal

I finally have internet access!!!  It`s not as available as I thought it would be, but I will post whenever I get a chance.  We have been having a wonderful trip.  There is so much to write, I don't know where to begin.  I can't post pictures here on this computer, so my few words will have to suffice. 

We are doing well, overall.  I arrived in Porto, and the next morning was expecting Mom to arrive later in the day, when suddlenly I turned around, and she walked in the hotel lounge!  I was so relieved and happy, I nearly cried!  Since then we have been walking each day (today is a day off).We have walked now 4 days and are doing well and haven`t lost each other!!  My mom is very tough.  She took a taxi for part of the first day, but since then has walked every step herself.  We have the typical aches, pains, and tiredness of the pilgrim, but are surviving well. We got rid of a TON of stuff so that I could carry mostly everything and she can carry water, money, passport, and phone in her backpack. Portugal is gorgeous: very green and very hot and sunny.  There are fields of vibrantly green corn, bordered by grape vines.  Beautiful houses and churches with the signature Portuguese tiles decorating their exteriors.  Beautiful flowers: roses, hydrangeas, larkspur, sunflowers, etc...  Dogs, cats, chickens and roosters, sheep and goats along our way.  We walk mostly on uneven cobblestones, which is a challenge for Mom, but she is up to the challenge and just takes her time, putting one foot in front of the other.  We have already met some wonderful people; both fellow pilgrims and hosts.  We met two brothers from Australia that recited a seven minute poem from memory to us.  Another pilgrim sang a song to us to bless our way, in the middle of a country lane.  This is truly a wonderful experience. 

I have lately been reading 'The Pilgrimage' by Paolo Coehlo, 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' and 'Leaves of Grass' by Walt Whitman.  I'll leave you with some words to reflect upon.  We will reflect on them as we walk our Camino together!

'I would like, instead to be concerned with the question 'What is best?' a question which cuts deeply rather than broadly, a question whose answers tend to move the silt downstream. (...) Now the stream of our common consciousness seems to be obliterating its own banks, losing its central direction and purpose, flooding the lowlands, disconnecting and isolating the highlands and to no particular purpose other than wasteful fulfillment of its own internal momentum. Some channel deepening seems called for.' ~Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.