The camino bites back on day 3...

After a phenomenal day on the camino yesterday, I settled in to the albergue as I usually do: shower, laundry, grab something to refuel my weary body, and recount the day in my journal. I treated myself to dinner at a restaurant in plaza mayor (a large, open public square surrounded by beautiful buildings and restaurants) in Astorga, which even included TVs outside on the terrace so patrons could watch the futbol game. While I was there, I met another pilgrim named Ignacio from Barcelona, who was quite patient with me as I practiced my Spanish with him. 

Much to my surprise, when I returned to the albergue, Ignacio was there talking with another gentleman from Finland named Sven whom I had befriended earlier in the day. The three of us made quite the group as we hung out on the back porch of the albergue drinking wine, trying to communicate in a silly mix of English and Spanish, and laughing boisterously. We decided to head back to plaza mayor to watch the Spain versus Chile world cup match at 8:30 instead of going to bed like the rest of our peregrino counterparts. It was so much fun to watch the game amongst the incredibly passionate Spainish fans wrapped in flags and cursing at the screen :)

This morning was a little rough; it took my body about a mile or two to accept that 1) yes, this pack is damn heavy 2) it's not coming off for several hours, and 3) yes, it is going to have to keep moving despite the pain and heat. Once it accepted all of these inevitables, the pain subsided and I felt fine. 

Until around mile 12, that is. I could feel the blisters cropping up (between my big and second toe...sort of a strange spot) so I attempted to fashion some preventative padding, which allowed me to make it to Rabenal del Camino. But it sure wasn't pretty when I had to drain those things with a knife. I'm in good company though; every pilgrim's feet are quite battered, masked by elaborate bandaging. We'll all be on the camino by 7:00 am tomorrow to begin the accent to La Cruz de Ferro, which is at an altitude of 4,940 ft. Several other people are complaining about it and worried about how difficult it will be, but it seems pretty tame compared to Mount Si and countless other Northwest hikes. Hopefully I'm not getting ahead of myself in saying that...

I'm really enjoying the "pilgrim" life, it's very tranquil. The terrain in this part of the country reminds me of Grand Canyon National Park: red, rocky earth, rugged shrubbery, and short conifers that smell like Christmas-time in the heat. The way the landscape changes as I move toward the coast is pretty amazing.  

There are some really fun Irish guys who are my age at the albergue I'm stating in tonight, which will make this evening entertaining. One of the aspects of the camino I'm enjoying most are the relationships that are formed with fellow travelers. There are several of us who move at a similar pace, so we often see each other at the albergue in the town we've set our sights on. Interestingly enough though, most of the time while I'm hiking I can't see another soul ahead or behind me. Very curious...

I'm off to socialize before it's time to turn in for the night. I hear thunder outside (which today I learned is "tormenta" in Spanish...how cool is that?!), but here's hoping for decent hiking weather in the morning!!!

Abrazos,
Kels

P.S. Please forgive the glaringly obvious spelling and gramatical errors in these posts. As most of you know, I am usually a diligent spell-checker/proofreader, but most albergues with free internet have a 15 minute limit. I hope the resulting posts aren't too painful too look at ;)