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Published: October 19th 2009
Last time I wrote was a week ago, on Monday night, sitting in the living area of the beautiful hostel in Fonfría. I have not been able to use a proper computer for some time! So much has happened....
Very early Tuesday morning I was woken by an interesting situation. I was sharing a room with my new friend Deborah, and I had bandaged my foot too tight so woke up around 2.30am with throbbing toes. I sat up and took off the bandage, then noticed an itch on my shoulder. I rubbed it in the dark, feeling a small soft ball rubbing under my fingertips. A bit of fluff I thought. Then I had another itch, and another ball under my fingertips. So I went to our bathroom, turned on the light and took off my shirt.... to see two black bugs crawling on me! One was about 5 times the size of the other; full of my blood and ready to pop, which it did when I squashed it. I squealed and woke Deborah, saying that there were bed bugs (chin che's in Spanish) and that I was going to have a shower. I looked at my bed and sure enough, about 15 of the suckers were crawling around. Deborah was fairly unconcerned until she also saw one fat one on her pillow! Then she was up like a light, saying that we had to get out and get out now. I showered, using all of my shampoo to wash every part of my body, then we packed up everything, putting all suspicous items into plastic bags and took everything into that lovely living area I previously wrote about. We then decided that we didn't want to try to sleep in the lounge area in case there were more bugs so we got our things organised and set off walking to the next town. We stopped briefly on the way out to write the following in the guest book:
Deborah "BED BUGS ROOM 4!!!!"
Luci "Otherwise very nice hostel"
Deborah "Thanks ever so much"
So we let ourselves out and started the 2.5 hour decent in the dark, headtorches and stars our only lights, down to Triacastella. All the way down I felt like I had bugs in my underwear! We found the way down easily, although it was steep and quite rocky. Coming into Triacastella there were a number of loud barking dogs, obviously wondering who these people were passing their territory at 5.30am in the morning. One dog was not tied up so I gave Debbie one of my walking poles for defense if needed! The dog didn't look vicious but it sure looked scary as its eyes gleamed back green in reflection of our head torches. We passed it by without any trouble as it was well trained. We arrived in Triacastela at 6am, 1 hour before a bar opened, so we waited, getting colder and colder. We put all of our clothes on but still I felt my hands would freeze off! Finally at 7.10am a bar opened and we were able to go inside and get warm with a big cup of tea. After about an hour we called a taxi to take us 22km to Sarria, the next big town. There we checked into a lovely hotel where I immediately took another shower, taking off all of my clothes and soaking them in the shower water. And I couldn't believe it, a bug came out of my underwear.
Shortly after we went out and I bought a whole new outfit, and then we asked the hotel staff to wash and de-bed bug all of our clothes, my sleeping bag and anything else that could potentially house the bugs. It was costly, but well worth it as they were very thourough so their hotel didn't end up with any infestation!
Follwing the drama, we browsed around town and met some friends for lunch before I went back to have a nap (forgetting to pay as I was so tired and it is the custom to pay just before leaving in Spain). At that point I had decided that I was going to give up my Camino. Nothing was worth the feeling of having bugs in my place of sleep, and the stories I had heard of people having huge allergic reactions the day after, requiring cortisone injections and hospitalisation, had me really concerned about how I would react. But after my nap I went out to find some dinner and came across a french woman, who (because of the language barrier she was not very diplomatic) said "you would be stupid to give up now. You have come 700km and now will not do the last 100km because of the chin che's? You would be so STUPID!!!". That was enough to make me consider walking again the next day.
I felt a lot better on Wednesday morning after a wonderful 9 hours undisturbes sleep sharing the lovely hotel room with Deborah. We got up slowly, bed bug free and happy to note that any bites I did get I couldn't notice! I think we actually got out just in time, before they really got started. We headed downstairs late for a buffet breakfast and it was so wonderful to feel the contrast of this morning against yesterday! Here we were; warm with coffee, croissants, cakes, fruit, cereals, cheese, meats and more, in a wonderful hotel and well rested, compared with freezing cold, hungry, in the dark and so tired. After a BIG breakfast we went for a walk around town and stumbled across a hairdresser where we decided to both go in for a treat hair cut! I had a fantastic wash, cut and blow dry by a lady named Lucia. After that we met some friends and all went for dinner, and around 9pm Angi arrived with a sore foot so we had a bed bought into our room and I helped her settle in for the night. We had a late night, not getting to sleep until midnight!
On Thursday we woke up around 8am, got ready and went downstairs for another buffet breakfast. Angi and I took our time getting ready and left late, long after Deborah had left, around midday. We walked up the steep hill out of Sarria, seeing great views of the city, then along a steep decent and into some enchanted wooded forests, where the paths were like tunnels in the trees. We saw some impressive trees, all twisted and ancient, and passed the 100km marker (actually we had 109km to go at that point according to my book). We then chanced across a remote hostel, which had beautiful gardens and views over the green hills, where Debbie, Hans, a Finnish mother and daughter Maria and Marialena were playing the guitar and flute in the sunshine! An old friendly face Ralf was also there and it was so nice to hear music in the sun in that beautiful setting. After a long catch up, Angi, Debbie and I continued into Portomarin for the night, where Debbie and I stayed in a hotel and Angi went to the albergue. After a quick shower I went for a quick dinner (Pizza, what a luxury) with another pilgrim, Gib, who was staying in our hotel as Debbie was tired. Then it was off to bed, after a good check of the bed for any sign of bugs!
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Patricia Hueneke
non-member comment
Bed Bugs
Hi Luci...I suppose that't why they say "Good night, don't let the bed bugs bite..."Love Mum