Debbie and I were the first ones out the Albergue this morning! That never happens! I mean, we are never last, but most certainly not first. We left a little earlier for us and headed out towards Santo Domingo.

Overall, the day was pretty uneventful into Santo Domingo. Beautiful sights and a couple decent hills.

We got into Santo Domingo, got our room and showered. While I was showering, Debbie met and talked to Emma, an Irish girl in the bed next to ours. Eventually I joined them and they were both so excited because it turns out that Emma did a scholarship abroad which landed her in the exact city Debbie’s brother live(s)(d)(?) in Montana. The city is very near and dear to both of them and it was sweet they had each other to reminisce of it’s wonders with. Emma and her father are walking the Camino together. She has done it in parts and is now doing the whole thing with her dad.

Eventually, we headed into town to find food. I told Debbie she had to decide which way we go because both of us are indecisive and she’s been making me make a majority of the decisions which is ABSOLUTE TORTURE. haha.. maybe that’s dramatic. But I made her choose! Which worked out well because after many a turns, we found a DELICIOUS place to eat. I had beans with chorizo, grilled (not fried!! 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼) Chicken with grilled peppers that was soooo good! Debbie had spaghetti with tomato sauce and a spinach stew. We both thuroughly enjoyed our meals. Which came with an entire bottle of wine, huge bottle of water, bread and ice cream! We were both so happy. We talked to a lovely couple from London for a while who we both loved.

After, we went looking for an ATM. Where I had to remind Debbie that the green enter button is universal (she’s going to hate me for adding this because I give her such a hard time- I’m only teasing!) on ATMs even if she can’t read the language of the word continue or enter.

On our way back we ran into two other girls we have seen on the trail and in albergues often, Valentina and Rachel and talked to them for a while. Valentina we met back in Pamplona and have seen Rachel since Estella. Valentina we knew was from Mexico City and works for Calvin Klein. But tonight we learned that Rachel has been living in Tanzania, working on a vegetable farm and volunteering with a family and absolutely loves it. She’s from Canada but has been in Tanzania for the last two years, picking up some solid Swahili! We all decided to walk to the market together. Rachel and I talked about Africa and Valentina and Debbie walked together and talked. We got some snacks and headed back to the albergue. We left Valentina and Rachel at the farmacy, there was something up with Valentina’s foot.

Back at the Albergue I sat downstairs and wrote, the ended up playing cards with a guy named Joshua from Argentina who asked if he could join me. He said he didn’t know many card games but if I had patience, he would learn. We started to play when low and behold who walks in but none other than New York. I decide to teach Joshua Go Fish, thinking that would be easy to teach him and New York would know too. Except he didn’t. Neither of them had ever played Go Fish. I don’t know about card games abroad, so as far as I’m concerned, Joshua gets a pass. But New York!? I feel like Go Fish is an American childhood staple! So that was pretty surprising and funny to find out. We played a round, Joshua won, and then everyone left. New York went to go find his friend (there’s a second New York!) And Joshua was going to scope out the mass. I was going to play solitaire by myself but could not for the life of me remember the set up! I seriously couldn’t remember how to set up solitaire for myself. It’s been that long since I have played it, apparently. Who knew I could forget that. My grandmother would be ashamed. Karma I suppose, for being so surprised about New York and Go Fish.

Eventually, I headed up for bed.

Day mileage: 13.8
Total mileage: 144.3
Personal mileage: 16.8