Getting to ponferrada was a beautiful 37 kilometer day in the scorching heat but that wasn’t the highlight of the day. It was the walk to the cruz de ferro that made the day great. We had started at this beautiful paradise town, which had lawn chairs everywhere. They had palm trees and even a pool that you could take a dip. Me and Luca started our day walking with this strange English man who was a vegan and had done the Camino 3 times before. He was a nice man who had a 50 pound pack to carry his weeks worth of vegan food. As we started our walk we started to see these beautiful snow covered mountains in the distance and for some reason I felt we were going to have to climb them. I started the quick incline up the mountain with gorgeous views of Spain. I was excited to get to the cruz de ferro because I was going to place two rocks for two special people in my life who recently passed in September, my grandmother and my uncle. When I finally got to the top and saw it I just thought to myself that my uncle and grandmother could hear my prayers that I was leaving for them. After doing what I needed to do we started our decent down which was a little more steeper than I thought. But it was a nice walk down being able to see ponferrada from the decline. I walked as fast as I could because it was getting late and I needed a bed, so I sprinted down to the city in intense heat but I made it. As I got to the albergue I was greeted by very nice hospitalaros which helped me buy bus tickets to switch up to the Norte to walk with Fern, than after I fell asleep for that long hot beautiful walk.