June 13, 2012

From Hontanas to Itero de la Vegas (20 km)

I am on the road at 6:30 this morning, nice and early.  It is very cold today but there is no wind, at least not in the early morning as the sun rises over the hills. Soon the wind picks up and it is relentless for the rest of the day.  I walk alone to the first town, 9 km away.  I have decided that the best coffee for the day is in the first open restaurant.  You never know when you will find another restaurant.  So I stop and enjoy a coffee and a tortilla which is my favourite Spanish tapa, a egg and potato mixture that is cooked into the shape of a pie.  I meet Chris in the coffee shop and we decide to walk the next 11 km together.  This is the first time we walk together on the Camino.

Chris walks quite slowly, but he is steady.  I walk much more quickly but I stop a lot more frequently, to put on a jacket, to take off a jacket, to rebandage my feet, to have a coffee, to write in my journal.  Really any excuse to take a little break.  But this morning we walk at Chris´ pace, slow and steady.  I am still barefoot in my sandals and I am feeling the strain on my feet.  Even the bones are starting to hurt.  I decide to try my hiking shoes for the last hour and I am surprised that I can get my feet into my shoes and that my feet actually feel better.  At least they are warm and dry.

For the most part, the Camino was flat today except for this one big hill.

As we enter the next town, storm clouds have collected and the winds have picked up.  We decide that we will stop here for the day even though we have only walked 20 km and it is just noon.  We have had a good talk on the Camino and have cleared the air from yesterday.  We are thrilled to find a private room with a double bed and two singles.  For 21 Euro we can have the whole room for ourselves.  Sold!  What a treat to have some space to spread out and to have some security too.  Of course, the pleasure that comes with privacy goes without saying 🙂

We go through our usual routines – shower, laundry, beer and food.  We get all our clothes washed in a washing machine for just 3 Euros.  By the time they are washed, the storm as blown over and the sun has come out.  They dry very quickly on the line in the backyard.  There is a computer in this Albergue with internet and it only costs 1 Euro per usage, unlimited time.  I only manage to write one blog entry because the computer is so slow I just give up.

Erin and Cameron, a young Irish couple arrive later in the afternoon.  Chris and I both know them individually, and now we visit with them as a couple.  It must be strange for people.  We all have dinner together at the Albergue; the Pilgrim´s Menu is a bargain at 8 Euro.  The food is quite good but the wine is undrinkable.  I have been bumping into Cameron and Erin for a few days now and each time I see them, I get to know them a little better.  Erin is a lovely girl, just 22, very pretty, smart and articulate.  She has been plagued with all kinds of issues on the Camino – allergic reaction to mosquito bites, bed bugs, sun burn (she is very fair), and a cold.  She has had more than her fair share of pain.  I learn that she has just finished journalism school and has a job writing a weekly column for a local paper.  I think her biggest challenge right now, and perhaps this is the reason why she is walking the Camino, is to come to terms with her hearing loss.  She reminds me of Tricia who we met on our Antarctica Cruise who also lost her hearing as a young girl.  Tricia proved that it is possible to live a full life even with a hearing impairment.  I hope Erin finds peace and acceptance with her hearing loss, and finds a way to live life to the fullest.

Erin tells me the story of the stolen walking sticks.  Her friend, Leah had parked her sticks outside a restaurant door which is the custom on the Camino.  When she left the restaurant, her sticks were gone.  She was upset because these were good sticks.  But the next day, Erin and Natasha (another Camino friend) spotted Leah´s sticks in the Albergue and together with Leah they confront the woman who is now holding them.  This older, Spanish speaking woman claims she can´t understand them and tries to pay them no attention, I guess hoping they will go away.  But they persist.  They pull out their phones and show pictures of Leah with her walking sticks, the very sticks the woman is holding.  It is very obvious that they have caught the thief red handed yet the woman defiantly takes the sticks and puts them in the bottom of her pack.  The girls are angry at the nerve of this woman. As tempers begin to flare, a tall, dark and very handsome Italian man (I think this is the same guy the Irish girls were swooning over in Narana) intervened on their behalf, talking to the woman in Spanish.  After a rather heated discussion, the woman reluctantly relinquishes the sticks back the Leah, the rightful owner.  I take this story to heart and I am even more determined than ever to guard my high quality walking sticks.  Good walking sticks are a hot commodity on the Camino!

From Burgos to Hontanas (29.5 km)

I wake up late this morning after a really good, long sleep.  I am amazed at how good my feet feel this morning.  I only feel one pain point this morning so I decide to keep walking and not stick around to buy running shoes.  I wonder if I´ll regret this decision.    I am on the Camino at 7:30.  It is a dreary Sunday morning and within a few moments it starts to rain.  I put on my plastic poncho with the help of a passing pilgrim – it is definitely a two girl job to get this poncho organized around my pack.  It covers my pack nicely and comes down to my knees in the front.  I think it is going to be ok.  It is cold today and I must keep walking fast to stay warm.  It is such a dull day, the kind of day you would love to just curl up on the couch with a good book and cup of tea or hot chocolate.  It reminds me of the many Sunday morning runs I have done with my sister Sonja.  We have run in all kinds of weather – storms, blizzards, biting cold, searing heat.  Nothing stops us on our Sunday morning runs.  I´ll never forget the first time it was raining when I first started running with her.  I had the nerve to call her up early in the morning to see if we were still running.  Of course, she told me perhaps a little tersly, you´re not going to melt in the rain you know.  So I imagine this morning is just like one of my Sunday morning runs and I even have a conversation with my sister (in my head of course).  There is just so much to talk about!

I spend some time thinking about how I am inclined to put the needs of others ahead of mine.  And I try to take care of other people´s feelings. On the surface this seems like noble behaviour, but when I keep putting my own needs to the side, then anger and resentment can easily take hold.  I see I need to work at being more balanced, taking care of my needs and the needs of others.  It does not need to be mutually exclusive.  Lots of thoughts are going through my mind after meeting up with Chris yesterday in Burgos.  We didn´t leave on the best of terms, and I feel unsettled by this.

For the most part, I walk alone today, but for an 8 km stretch I walk with Dave, an American from Virginia.  He is walking with this 22 year old daughter Julie but today she is walking with her new Camino friends and he has gone ahead to give her some space.  When I ask him how he is doing, he proceeds to unleash a long list of things he is stressing about.  I will call him ¨stressed out Dave¨from now on. He is a commercial airline pilot who has been doing his dream job since he was young.  Not too many people can claim that these days.  Dave seems to like to keep things on the surface and is even a little aloof, but we pass the time telling each other funny stories.

I walk alone the rest of the day.  It rains on and off all day and it is really windy and cold.  My poor poncho is not holding up well as the wind is ripping it to shreds.  I guess you get what you pay for!  Finally, I take the poncho off as it is just useless at this point and I rejig it into a backpack cover, quite effective too.

My cheap poncho seemed fine at the outset.

It´s a long day of walking and the weather isn´t all that great but I still am in pretty good spirits.  My feet are holding up pretty well, although they are cold – still barefoot in my sandals.  I enter Hontanas at around 3:30 pm ready to call it a day.  As I get myself checked into an Albergue, Chris walks in with some of his friends.  He had arrived about an hour earlier and was staying in the Municipal Albergue down the street.  It´s a little awkward bumping into him again when we just saw each other yesterday.  It seems everyone I know already knows Chris and vice versa.  We get news about each other through these mutual friends.

We are staying at different Albergues and we eat dinner in different restaurants and hang out with different people.  It is rather weird since it is a very small village, I can see Chris down the street eating his dinner with his friends.  But I enjoy having some space and appreciate that he has respected my need for space even though he doesn´t really like it or understand it.  And so ends another day on the Camino.