I forgot to mention another important conversation from the night before. One girl was concerned about having to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. The bathroom was in a separate building and we were sleeping in bunks on the second floor of a building. To make matters worse, there weren’t any lights in the albergue, the stairs were covered with sweaty socks and shirts drying, the we had to walk through a room where people were already upset at us for walking through during the evening as they went to bed early (even early for the camino). So, what were we to do? We began to brainstorm. We could try to go out the window? But, as one girl demonstrated, it was quite difficult sticking your butt out the window, and the risk of falling was too high. We could use a water bottle? But, no one was willing to sacrifice their bottle. We could use a pot from the kitchen? No cooking supplies to be found. We use a trash can? Finally, a trash can was found. But, would the tinkling noise wake others? The moonlight would shine on your own “moon”…and the room was co-ed. So, we decided the best option was to risk the wrath of the pilgrims downstairs. A small laser pointer was put at the foot of the stairs with a roll of toilet paper. (I got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, and it all went swimmingly. I was, however, relieved when our next albergue had a bathroom in the same room and the same level).
Morning arrived all too quickly and before I knew it I was on the road walking again. At least I wasn’t any more sore/hurting than the day before. My blister from the day before had drained well, thanks to Alfonso, our guide’s, mastery in foot care.
More walking. More cows. More pain. BUT….More beautiful countryside. More friendly peregrinos. More perfect weather. More hilarious discussions. More sense of accomplishment.
I caught up with Aina, the Spanish girl who I had met the night before and we walked together for a good hour, hour and a half. She was super friendly and very complementary about my Spanish. She enjoyed practicing her English too. Maybe I’ll get a chance to visit her in her home town before I leave Spain? We’re Facebook friends now, so at least we have the chance to stay in touch. Gotta love Facebook.
Later on we came across a dog that was lying on the side of the road. There was a car stopped in the road and a crowd of people. We thought that the dog had been hit by a car, but apparently not. It was having seizures. When someone went to the neighbors to use the phone to call a vet or hospital, they said that this wasn’t the first time and that the dog was epileptic. It was hard watching the dog suffer. Someone had called for a vet and help was on the way, but there was still some discussion among the group as to whether or not someone should end its misery. It was at this point that I came to a very important realization. I realized that no matter how much I wanted to kill my dog Hannah at home, I would never be able to do it. Here was a dog, begging for mercy, waiting for his life to end, and I couldn’t even think about helping it get there. Oh well, at least knew I wouldn’t have to be so worried about my own self constraint back at home. I’m not a dog killer. (See, no worries Kimberly. Those early years of my childhood, crab crushing and slug roasting, didn’t have a lasting impact on me).
Today it was easier to walk through the discomfort because I knew that by tomorrow I would be in Santiago! It was interesting to see how we began to disperse as a group each day while walking. The first day we were more or less a herd, always able to see someone in front or behind us, and usually in walking in groups of 3 of more. The next days the groups got more spread out and more people began walking in pairs. By today, everyone was walking at their own pace, whether or not it matched someone else’s or not. By this point, we were all aching enough that stopping to rest would probably only have made things worse. (It’s always hard to start again once you stop and cramp up). For this reason, no one wanted to stop, even for a minute, while a friend took pictures or went to the bathroom. I’m pretty sure almost everyone was walking on their own by now. Around 2pm I met up with two girls close to the mile marker we were supposed to stop at for the day. One of the girls, Charlotte, had already been there for about an hour and hadn’t seen the three people of our group who were ahead of her. We didn’t want to walk further to meet up with them, however, because we didn’t want to walk further than necessary. We also didn’t want to stop and rest, get cramped up, and then have to walk a couple kilometers further. After there were about 5 of us, however, we decided to stop at outside a gas station where we could see the camino trail and wait for our guides while sipping drinks and eating snacks.
Almost an hour later the guides hadn’t arrived yet and we were getting a little antsy…and hungry, of course. But, a few moments later, they showed up and told us that we had indeed stopped at the correct spot, yeah! We called one of the other 3’s cell phones and found out they were about a km ahead. So, they walked back and we all met up at our albergue for the night in Arca. Then, we walked to lunch. It’s funny how we all complained about the distance to the restaurant (about 3 blocks) after walking 13 miles. But once you’ve walked this long, you don’t want to walk any further than necessary.
Lunch consisted of a salad for my first course and fish for my second. (Yes, so far I had ordered salad every day except the first and fish every day). But, the other options were meaty or fried, and I had lots of luck fish so far. And, when you’re really hungry, you aren’t as willing to try new things. No one wants to fill themselves up on a plate of food they don’t like.
After lunch I grabbed my book and sat in the front yard of the hostel. Soon others joined me, so I really didn’t do much reading. It was more fun bonding over our blistered feet anyways. My blister had grown back from the day before, but I was far from making it to the top of the list. Charlotte had a huge blister underneath her big toenail that had caused the nail to rise up. It was pretty filthy! She also had two bruised toenails. (Update: she has since then lost all 3 toenails). Sylvie had a blister between her two toes that looked pretty painful. First prize went to Alberto, however. His feet were so bad he had to get driven to Santiago to get his feet treated at the hospital. We met him the next day in Santiago and his feet were all bandaged up. Although you couldn’t see the damage, his facial expressions were enough my make me cringe.
I tried taking a half hour nap but couldn’t get comfortable in my bed. Every position seemed to put pressure on a sore part of my body and making adjustments was painful and futile. So, I took a shower instead.
For dinner we had the option of going to a pizzeria or eating a picnic style dinner in the albergue of food from the supermercado. Since pizza isn’t my favorite, I went for the picnic dinner. At lunch, 8 people had raised their hand for the picnic, but only 5 of us showed up to eat, so we had an entire Tarta de Santiago (almond cake) to ourselves! And it was really good! I actually had a second slice if you can believe it : ) We still only made it through half of the cake. The other peregrinos were happy to help us out though.
After dinner we sat in our bunks for a bit talking. Three teenagers from Mallorca (an island off the coast of Spain) came up to talk to us. Actually, they kind of stampeded us. One of the guys was chasing a girl around the room with his smelly sock and she chose to hide in one of our lower bunks that were unoccupied. The other guy had spent a couple months in Minnesota studying in high school and spoke fairly good English. We asked him what he missed about the states and he said the American breakfast (this seems to be a reoccurring theme on the camino). His eyes lit up when we started talking about pancakes and maple syrup.
Then we dozed off to sleep. Fortunately I was able to get more comfortable in my bed than the afternoon…probably a result of the ibuprofen…and slept fairly well.
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