Living La Vida Loca

 

 

It was a rough first night for us both. We both had trouble falling asleep and I had both a terrible nightmare and bloody nose. 

While we stayed in a fine simple place we were sleeping in close quarters so I felt terrible that my snores and mishaps at night woke Ruth.  I trust that our next nights will be better.  

 

As we headed out on our second day we gathered during the morning through passing pilgrims a jovial group that stayed together for the entire day.  Haiku and Hilmar from Germany, Chad and his mom from SoCal outside LA, and two amazing women from Brazil.  As I’d always imagined, each pair had a different story of how they came to be walking the Camino. 

 

Haiku and Hilmar met in their small town outside Munich, both became engineers, both had to convince their “womens” that this was a good outing for their partners to do – that took a while – and so here they were.  Hilmar is the more outgoing of the two with greater mastery of English and a good sense of humor… Haiku a bit quieter, working on his English (I kept saying his English was way better than my German), and really thrilled to get to make this journey with his good buddy.  Unfortunately by end of day his knee that was injured their first day (they had started in France) was feeling very bad so I’m not sure if they will rest a day or go on.  

 

Our two Brazilian ladies were awesome to be with.  Childhood friends from the São Paulo area, both a bit younger than I – both very warm and motherly!  One was very athletic and runs 10k three times a week with the nickname Rabbit.  The other, Marlu, takes a slower pace and is coined Turtle.  I apologize for being so horrific with remembering names.  They sometimes walk together and sometimes apart and they always seem to meet up at the next juncture. Ruthie really took to them and vice versa and now has invitation to visit Brazil!

 

Chad is 14 and in jr high and his Mom is between jobs at Albertsons and a new market opening in their area.  Chad is smart as a whip, wants to study engineering and appeared to be loving all the company and new experiences.  Mom is a chatty and nurturing kind – she and I both were supplying Haiku with pain meds, she a knee brace she wasn’t using, and lots of sagely advice.  This is their first trip overseas I think and certainly of this kind.  

 

We walked more than 20 miles.  Not km…miles.  Probably could not have done this without the comeraderie of the gang we walked with. About midway, after walking through wooded areas, some next-to-highways strips (these had to have followed the Camino, not the other way around),  and walking over an amazing Romanesque bridge with a standing jousting ring adjacent, we stopped for lunch all together at a cafe in the center of a small town.  We’d been seeing signs by the road, signs painted on the pavement, hand painted signs for kms pointing us to this place and the sunny personality of the owner was worth it all.  Plastic tables and chairs in the sun, inexpensive and hearty road food, and gathering blister care advice filled the rest time, and I felt proud to be the Spanish speaking facilitator for our German and US non speakers.  Ruthie had accumulated some nasty blisters so she cared for those, we bandaged them up, and head back out for the long but beautiful second leg of the day.  

 

Ruthie found the perfect spot to hang her portable hammock between two trees in a quiet glade.  Our crew enjoyed a mellow break and some laughs – we designated bushes to the right as the men’s room and the left the ladies…you could tell we were a bit punchy by then.  

 

We made it to Astorga, a lovely town and the last stop before heading into Galicia’s mountains.

 

This was an emotional night for some very personal family reasons, and because of this I now understand why I am on this Camino.  I will share what I can of the journey Ruth and I are on practically, but my spiritual and emotional journey has added a dimension I need to process on my own.