21.3 km – 13.2 miles

6:40am to 12:45pm walking time

300 meters – 984 feet elevation gain

I’m sitting at a bar in a small plaza just off the main drag of the Camino to write today’s blog. This is a nice spot since all pilgrims will be walking by here if they haven’t already. There are albergues both directions from here and it’s not far from the main cathedral here.

This has been the easiest day of the Camino yet. A relatively short distance and only a few small sections of elevation gain. The weather was warm toward the end, but bearable. There were more places to take a break and get a beverage today as well. Had I not stopped as much as I did, as well as stopped to find a geocache, I would have gotten into Santo Domingo closer to noon.

I walked part of the day with Kara from New Mexico and Ruben from Barcelona. It’s been fun getting to know them along the way. I also walked a bit with a couple ladies that had recently started walking together from Montana and New Zealand. The Montana lady swims in the big Long Bridge Swim in my hometown every year. The lady from New Zealand was excited to hear that I studied abroad down there and had seen a fair bit of the country.

I decided to splurge on a hotel again tonight. I actually got a great night’s sleep in my albergue last night – especially after I negotiated to not have the window fully closed in my albergue room. The operator of the albergue came around to all the rooms and closed the windows around 9:45pm. The guys in the next room tried to get her to keep theirs open but she said “mucho frio” so they just accepted that it would get too cold as she said. When she got to my room, I told her “mucho caliente.” She replied with “mucho frio” again and I said “no no, mucho caliente.” She left the window partially open. 😃 Fresh air and not sleeping in a sauna for the win! I’m not sure how the albergue hosts don’t seem to understand that many bodies in a room make it very hot and very stuffy. Oh well.

Back to my hotel. I’m staying at the Parador. As fellow pilgrims know, the Parador hotels on the Camino are quite fancy and unique older hotels. The one next to the cathedral in Santiago, being the famous one on the Camino, has cost about $300-400 a night when I’ve looked. Since that could be another flight somewhere for me, I’ve never stayed there. But the one in Santo Domingo was surprisingly very affordable for tonight so I decided this was my chance. The bathtub alone made it worth it.

Santo Domingo is another one of my favorites along the Camino. Glad it was a shorter day so my legs don’t mind the walking I’ll be doing around the town.

Found the post walk beverages, now just need to find the food.