Wednesday August 9, 5.4km/3.4mi

Estany Primer (553.1km/2250m) (Andorra) to El Serrat Hotel (558.4km/1580m) (Andorra) +0.1km to hotel

When I woke up, the other HRP hiker was already packing up to leave. I quickly did the same, and hiked down the valley toward the village of El Serrat.

When I passed by one of the trail junctions, I noticed that the signs here in Andorra have the HRP on them.

I walked along a stream, and when I passed under the ski resort road, I had to walk through this narrow tunnel.

It was a relaxing 2 hours of hiking, mostly next to the rushing stream.

By 10am I was in el Serrat, a little Mountain village with houses, hotels, and a couple restaurants.

I had to walk along the road for a minute.

It was too early to check into the hotel, but I dropped my bag off with the front desk.

Since I didn’t have a working phone in Andorra, the only way I could get information was to ask in Spanish. It took a bit of effort, but eventually I figured out the bus schedule, prices, and bus stops. I walked a couple minutes to the closest bus stop, and waited for the bus that comes every 30 minutes. I rode 15 minutes down to the town of Ordino, which had a couple groceries stores and many more restaurants.

Their tourism game is strong, and they had information boards everywhere and even free Wi-Fi.

Going to a grocery store while hungry is always a bad idea, so I went and had lunch first. Half a roast chicken!

When I finished lunch, I walked around the little town and saw the historic buildings and sites. Apparently in the 1800s it used to be a mining town for iron.

I went to the supermarket, which was one of the best ones I’ve seen on this entire trail. They had tortillas, tuna, hot sauce, breakfast bars, and even M&Ms.

I rode the bus back up to the hotel and checked in at 3:30, and it was a surprisingly nice room for the price.

I love that most of the bathrooms here have a dual purpose radiator and towel warmer in the bathrooms.

I had a minor hassle of dealing with my credit card company, Capital one. They decided to suddenly cancel my card (found a fraudulent charge)… I told them to wait until I was back home in a few weeks, but they wouldn’t listen. It seemed like a classic combination of poor customer service, and employees who are not allowed to think for themselves. I figured out a workaround to the problem using GooglePay and PayPal…technology to the rescue. I made some dinner in the microwave, and relaxed and watched some TV.

Check-out tomorrow is at noon, so I should have a full morning of relaxing before I hike again.