May in Portugal is perfect for walking. It is not too hot. This year, it is even is a little cold. It is rainy and cloudy. In April I didn’t take my rain coat for the Fishermen’s trail but this month, it was good to have it because it rained very hard the first part of May. Last year we always ate outside, and until mid May, we always ate inside with the pilgrims and we even had the heating on sometimes. Then in one time the sun came out and it was hot in whole Europe.
Over 30 Degrees
The 20 of May it started to warm up and after 5 days it was above 30 degrees two days. This is horrible to walk the caminho in. I went to walk a trail in the Algarve and I even brought my rain coat. For nothing. It was so hot that two people on the trail got ill, I am guessing that it was a heat stroke and they were transported to the hospital. And from Lisbon to Casa da Lima, one lady had problems too, she was so sad that she booked a flight back home to America, and one runner from Hong Kong, got a heat stroke and didn’t make it to our home anymore. With only 2 liters of water he runs the caminho. He arrived and stayed in Ansiao around 20:00. The next day he said hello to us when he passed our house, and ran further to Coimbra. He was feeling better again, luckily.
Dutch Night
A Dutch couple called late afternoon to reserve a two beds for the night. There was already one lady and it was a surprise that she was Dutch too! Even a bigger surprise that we prepared Dutch food. We already had this coincidence a few times; that we prepared Japanese food, and a Japanese came, we had American spare ribs with Kansas barbeque sauce, and a Memphis rub and that day an American stayed the night, we also made typical Dutch/German food and a German came. Luckily they all loved it.
The Dutch couple made their own yoghurt and jams too. They live on a farm and owned a Bed & Breakfast. It was already 17:00 and I had to make a new yoghurt quickly because it failed a few times before, and I was out of yoghurt… I just managed to deliver a fresh and good yoghurt at 7:30 the next morning for them.
Memories of Casa da Lima Yoghurt
An English man stopped by to rest here. He had some yoghurt. He immediately took a photo and sent it to another pilgrim that was walking ahead of him. He walked with the lady before and she wanted to eat yoghurt everyday. Well, this one she missed. He was asking himself how you could have missed it…
Some things on the caminho you would remember; Casa da Lima is one of them, the English man said. Great to hear that.
Young Fysiotherapist
A 25 year-old French guy choose our place. He was a happy hansom guy, Cinta was fond of him immediately. He was quite red by the sun, but had his aloe vera with him next to a big Aleppo soap bar. This was new to me, it smelled good. He washed his hair, body with it, and his clothes too!
An organic soap bar from Syria, made of olive oil and some other natural things. He lives in Paris, so there, you can buy everything, even soap from Aleppo.
He saw that I taped my ankle, and he asked about it. He is a physiotherapist and loved his job. He was healthy himself and knew more than normal people about food and health. When we had dinner, he really ate for 2 or even 3 people. I ate something else, so he really could finish all, which he did. We had nice food, but we made a lot too. And then he showed his belly: nothing, just an 8-pack. Very unusual. His secret: he eats a lot only during the meal time. During the caminho he only drank water. I think this Maxime is one of a kind, and he told us his father says that is better to see him on a photo than to have him at your dinner table. So it is not something that runs in the family. We enjoyed his company at our dinner table. He is a healthy young sportive guy who eats a lot, and when that is pototoes, salad, fruit, vegetables, the healthy things, it doesn’t matter!
Filipino Pilgrim
Roldan came to our place, a Filipino man. The first. He had some blisters already after two days walk. He walked from Fatima to Tomar and from Tomar to Alvaiazere, and then to us. Those are heavy 3 days for sure. He found out that his schedule of 30 km a day was too much and he tried to shorten them. That is why he came to us! He couldn’t take the 3 km extra to Rabaçal where he initially wanted to stay. We had a nice European meal, soup, baked potatoes from the oven, lots of vegetables, a salad, and some fruit and waffle after. He enjoyed. I hope he has the energy to finish his caminho!
I asked him how his country is and if it is interesting for us to go there once. He gave an answer, which was weird, and I never heard it. He said: “Better not, the food is not good, everything is fried and not healthy”. Well, if you don’t know it by now, food and health is quite important for us.
The breakfast choice was easy, he said: “we don’t eat yoghurt that much in the Filippines, so bread and cheese is good”. Then I thought of the rice porridge that Jaap-Willem makes for breakfast of Cinta. They have it the Filippines too. So he got rice porridge and ate this before his journey towards Coimbra.
