My Camino Journey

An afternoon at the Albergue Maribel

Well I had to post some more as the afternoon has been extraordinarily interesting.  Before I mentioned that the lady running the albergue was attending people’s feet, well she really does amazing things.  I watched her attend to a lady that had some of the most severe blisters I have ever seen.  She used a syringe to drain the blisters and carefully cleaned and tended each one with iodine.  She the wrapped the blisters in bandages.  Next she re-laced the shoes using a technique to help keep your foot in place.  But the coup de gras was her pulling out the insoles and lining it with ultra thin maxi pads .. with wings “american magic” to help wick away the moisture from the socks.  What an amazingly generous thing to do for the pilgrims.  She must have tended at least fifteen peoples feet.  She also wouldn’t accept anything for it.

The next thing that happened that really made me feel good was a conversation with a fellow pilgrim about the walk tomorrow.  The next section of the road has a rather large steep portion and I was a bit concerned after hearing that the journey down was not only steep but had lots of loose rocks.  The lady running the auberge said there was a pack service at no cost.  Problem being it would put my pack too far ahead of me going at the pace I am going.   I was thinking that would be the way to go but was still not sure.  She came over and told me, “give yourself permission”.  So I am giving myself permission to fast forward over the hill.  Now I just need to find transport.  I love how those things seem to happen so organically.