Monday And Tuesday

Hi Family and friends,
I will attempt to remember yesterday and today.  After arriving in Ancora yesterday I was feeling chilled, had a sore muscle in my back and the Internet was intermittent! So blogging was out.
Leaving Ancora about 9 am choosing to walk the coastal route. There are actually two routes you can take, one right on the beach and the other more inland. The beach route is partly on the sand (difficult) and also on boardwalk. It is glorious to be near the sea as the breeze is so welcome after some stifling hot and hilly days.  While we were still in the town of Ancora we noticed a large white ship docked at the shore, closer inspection revealed it was/is a hospital ship. It was called the St David and went out to sea to support injured fishermen and sailed waters as far away as Greenland and Newfoundland.  The day was cobblestones, sand, boardwalk, a walk through a grove of Eucalyptus trees. We also had a spot of rain and met up with quite a few other pilgrims, many from the west coast of North America, Edmonton, (almost west coast!)  Penticton, Oregon, Seattle, and others from South Africa, Australia , Brazil.  Interestingly we would say most hikers are women, there are very few men, although we do see more groups of men doing the route by bicycle.
So far we are all doing quite well in the foot department, Jan has a couple of minor blisters which are under control, Joanie had the misfortune of breaking a tooth!
When we arrived in Ancora we did what all self respecting pilgrims do and rewarded ourselves with cold beers in the town square. Sandy then noticed a dental office not more than 10 yds away.....Joanie went in and two lovely young women, the dentist and her hygienist soon had her tooth back in temporarily till she returns home. Now she can smile for the rest of the trip!
We made our way to our hotel and a nice dinner and bed.
Tuesday, today we left Ancora for a 20 km walk and decided again on the coastal route.  The tide was out, it was very misty and a little bit chilly. We saw people collecting something in plastic bags all along the beach on and occasionally under  rocks, and decided it might be cockles or snails.
We stopped in the town of Carminha as we wanted a cash machine in a bank that was open just in case the bank machine decided to keep a debit card! All went well. Next up was a farmacia for foot aid. We sat in square for a coffee and a custard tart, traditional for Portugal.
This was our last Portuguese coffee as we were now taking a ferry to Spain. The ferry wasn't till 2:30 and so we hired a water taxi for 5 euros each.  The boat which was more like a Boston whaler had no life jackets and could take 5 at a time, took 10 minutes to get to Spain. We walked the seaside route the rest of the way, partly on trails, partly on the beach boardwalk again. We all feel very fortunate to be on this journey, especially together❤️.
Coming into  Guarda we consult our directions, which are actually quite detailed to direct us to our hotel.....up past the church, turn, left, turn right, walk 10 meters etc. But in the square we sit for the big beer to finish the day.
Dinner tonight we will walk downhill to the restaurant.