My Camino Journey

A shower and Siesta do wonders!

Wow! I feel so much better. Amazing how much a shower and siesta can make you feel like a new person. For several evenings now there have been guys snoring quite loudly. As I was walking today I saw the guy I wrote about that was the disturbance both at siesta time and during the night. My one thought was, whatever I do just make sure he isn’t staying at the same place! Hopefully tonight I will get lucky and have a little quiet. 🙂

Last night I stayed at a municipal albergue, which is donation only. You give what you can. It was so busy that many people ended up sleeping on mats on the floor. When I arrived I really needed to elevate my leg and could barely walk. Immediately a really nice Italian guy came over to my bed to offer me ice. He had some problems with his foot and had bought plenty. The kindness of people is always amazing me. Sometimes, even with the language barriers it just feels like a big family.

After the evening meal there was a special prayer for the pilgrims in the adjoing church. It was raining out so they opened the secret passage that goes underground to the church. I wished I hadn’t left my phone charging so I could take some pictures. It was very narrow and had many passages that we were told would be easy to get lost in. The prayer and blessing was really nice and was translated from Spanish to Italian, dutch, English,and two others I forgot. Out of the fourty or so people there was only like one other person speaking English.

I have been meeting so many new people it is awesome. Everyone has a story and a reason for walking the Camino. This morning a lady started talking to me as I was walking. She seemed so sad. I could tell she wanted to share her story so I asked her reason for the Camino. Betrayal. Her husband of 25 years left her for a Romanian woman that had made friends with her while sleeping with her husband. For 4 years they carried on before her husband left. She had no career as she had three children she raised. I could tell she was deeply hurting. It was a bit hard to see her in so much pain. I really hope her walk allows her to find her path and to release the negativity she feels.