We headed out of Laredo and walked the length of the 5 kilometers beach. It was raining lightly off and on and we saw a beautiful rainbow, which I considered a good omen. At the end of the beach we knew we had to find the boat that ferries pilgrims across the estuary. We followed the arrows to the beach but did not see a dock of any kind. Eventually other pilgrims joined us and soon we saw a small boat coming from the other side. I wasn’t sure if we would have to go in the water to get on but they put ramp down to the beach. A few minutes later we were off to Santana, the city across the water. Santana was smaller than Laredo but seems much more prosperous .
Santana is a lovely town and if I do the camino Norte again; I would choose to stay there instead of Laredo. Outside of town we walked and walked and walked around the El Dueso Prison -one of the largest in Spain with a perimeter of 300,000 square meters and 336 cells. Santons has several beaches and we walked by them as well. There are surfing schools everywhere and there were surfers in the water and on the beach – all wearing wetsuits as it was only in the 60s.
After passing several surfing beaches the trail headed up a steep incline. We were heading over a mountain peninsula that separated several beaches. The climb was steep and difficult as it was wet from the rain earlier that morning. But the cliffside trail had unbelievable views the higher we climbed.
Near the top, Stephanie from Austria and the two Germain girls we met on the boat caught up with us. We all stopped to get our hiking poles out of our packs for the slippery steep walk down. We made it down and started hiking across the very long beaches. Apparently northern Spain has some of the longest sandy beaches in Europe.
We finally made it across the beaches teaming with young surfers attending numerous surfing schools and into the city of Noja where we stopped for a well deserved hamburguesa and fries. There were hundreds of people everywhere, spending the Easter holidays with their families.
After lunch we still had 16 k to go so we trudged on. As we were walking across a field we heard someone yelling to us and it was our old friends (by now) Karls and Mike from Germany. We enjoyed talking with them for a few k but they were stopping at San Miguel for the night. They apparently didn’t sleep well the night before and had also walked 40k the day before. Not to stereotype, but every German we have met have been intense hikers. We had reservation at a Pensión in Guemes 8 more k and trudged on. Soon we started talking to a family from Brussels who were doing 10 days on the Camino. We walked with them off an on until arriving in Güemes were they also were spending the night. One of the nice things about the Camino is talking to others while hiking as it makes the miles or kilometers fly by. Of course our current political situation was a topic of discussion.
Güemes is a very small town with a Pensión and an albergue with two cafes. We had a nice dinner at our Pensión and a great conversation with a couple from France who were basketball fans and knew about Newport, Maine because it is home of Cooper Flagg. The husband told us he attended Olympics in Barcelona in 1992 and saw the Dream Team with Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson etc play. John was happy to talk sports with him. Altogether today we walked 33.6 k or 21 miles. Tomorrow will be a shorter day to Santander.