Day 3 - Friday, January 7

We stayed last night at a Posada which was also the home of Patricia and her two children that were very young. We ate at the only restaurants which was a pizzeria and it was good so we were very happy with the way the day ended in spite of all the challenges which were mostly as a result of all the rain. Today it doesn’t look like we will get any respite from it. As we left the town, a number street dogs surrounded us some lazy, some aggressive and and one affectionate. An elderly gentleman was standing in front of his little house on the street and I asked him who’s dogs are all of these? He told me they are street dogs and I asked how old he said he didn’t know but maybe the Lucky look alike was one year old and the other may be five. This dog that looks like a fox decided to follow us out of the village and onto the trail. My heart is torn because he is leaving everything he knows to take a chance on strangers and the next Village is more than 16 miles away.Nonetheless, it lifts our spirits to have another soul companion with us for part of our journey and we will see what develops.

We are 20 km into our day and we formally have a new addition to our party - his name is Foxy. He is the affectionate sweet dog that followed us from our starting Village. He is a medium dog and he is extremely protective of Amy and I. He will attack dogs on the Camino that come close to us and attack cars that are slowly coming by. I don’t know if this is a behavior of his that he has always had but if so, I don’t think he would be alive because the last car just hit him and I thought that was the end of him. As he bit the fender, the car accelerated and spun him on his back wheel, foxy got shot out of the back rolled a few times and lay on the ground still. He jumped up and he realized he couldn’t walk so fell back down, then we noticed he couldn’t stand on one of his left leg when he tried to stand up. Then he laid back down and we thought this is it he’s not making it out of here. Miraculously, five minutes later he was up again and limping with us and then 15 minutes later running with us again.

I have learned that most of the dogs are desperate for food and when offered you have to be careful because they will bite your hand as happened to me last night with three street dogs whom I gave some leftovers. Foxy does not do this, he gently waits for it just like Lucky did. He is also very attentive to us almost on the same wavelength, if you say something he will look right in your eyes

Amy and I are on the trail and just passed a dead bird. Foxy walks up to the dead bird smells it and eats it. Amy and I are horrified but realize this is how they must survive on their own.

We learned that when I am walking or running ahead of Amy, foxy will stay at my side. But if Amy goes ahead of me he ran up halfway between us and started barking at her to stop. Interesting.

There has been torrential downpour as we approach our first checkpoints in the city of etymology. We have decided that we will try to help this dog since he is in a new town First m, The guys found someone to wash him for the first time and we ran straight to his little shop and dropped him off with a man named Richard. At the cost of 40$ reais or roughly 6 dollars he will groom and bathe him four times which is what he said would be required to remove a lifetime of living in the dirt. Afterwords there’s a vet next door so we the guys take him off and learn he is 15kg where he should be 25kg, he under 2 years old, has tick disease and amazingly the vet personally owns a blue heeler and he told us that Foxy is a red heeler. The vet was able to give his first vaccine and in six days he was able to get a rabies vaccine and we will fix him in Campos.

while the guys tended to foxy, Amy and I survived more rain more mud and real cold temperatures as we were up at 4000 feet with wind and all the elements. Yeah we finally arrived in town at 7:30 PM showered quickly and made it to the square where we found a number of restaurants around the plaza. Nothing like ending every night with great food ice cold beers and great friends.

Two friends that introduced themselves to us as we left our Posada

Luckys cousin?

One of them decides to follow us out of the city

We are averaging 4000 feet of climbing per day so the views are spectacular

This dog has an affinity for cattle

We thought a dog and fox must’ve been his parents, yes the Camino family has a new addition whose name is Foxy.

It was raining so hard for a period that the rivers were flowing through the streets and there were waves crashing up against the sidewalks

We met David at our lunch buffet restaurant and he was very excited to meet Americans because he is studying English

Luck was on our side as we entered the city and after the rain there was a dog groomer on the Camino. And for six dollars he groomed and bathed Foxy.

Amy checking into her prison cell

But every night ends with good food ice cold beer and great friends