Advertisement
Published: October 7th 2009
It´s been a while now after spending a couple of days traveling with Linda and it´s been quite an adventure! Let me start at the beginning, or where I left you last time...in Villa Tuerta (which I was calling Villa Tortilla).
There are a couple of things that I really haven´t been sharing so far because I´ve either forgotten or I´ve just been in such a state of joy and bliss most of the time, that I haven´t thought of sharing it.
Soon after I got off the internet last time, I went out to the terrace where the dog was (remember the big black great dane, Torre?) I started patting him and all of a sudden he just snapped at me! He didn´t get me cuz I jumped back just in time, but if he would have bit me, it would have been nasty, I´m sure!
Anyway during that time, I was freezing and I kept shivering, probably because of the massage releasing stuff, I thought. Then, I started crying and crying and crying...The Camino does this....helps to bring up and clear emotional baggage. I don´t know why I was crying. I went and lay down for
a while and started thinking about why I was crying. I realized that the woman I hooked up with, Linda, reminded me a lot of Estelle, so much so that I kept wanting to call her Estelle. (Those of you who know the story will understand but I can´t explain it to the rest of you...sorry.) I didn´t realize how much hurt I was holding back about that whole thing.
Anyway, the other thing that was coming up was that we were headed towards a town called Estella the next day and I was dreading it! The Camino works in mysterious ways! So the rest of that day, I pretty much kept to myself reading and crying...haha. It was good!
The other thing I haven´t mentioned are my dreams...I have been having really crazy dreams!! And I haven´t been sleeping well in between. So I am getting tired. But all in all, I do feel joy even in the down times.
The next morning, I woke up with a cold!! I was very upset about this. My leg felt better tho. Linda and I decided to travel together again that day. We decided to take a route that
would by-pass the city of Estella of which I was glad...I just couldn´t bear the thought of going there...silly I know, but I felt raw for some reason. So we walked along in the rain with our ponchos on and one time, she had to pee. On the Camino, you pee where you can. I guarded her while she peed on the side of the road beside a bridge and I noticed that she peed with her back pack on! I was impressed and said that I would try that next time I had to pee!
We walked along a beautiful path alongside more vineyards, olive groves and horse ranches. Also in some woods that had a warning sign about Beware of Wild Boars!! That was a bit scary! The rain started to dissipate a bit. We were on our way to Irache where they have a wine fountain. We were bound and determined to get there! At one point, tho, we took a wrong turn and ended up on the far side of the monastary of where the fountain was. As we were kind of looking around and looking lost, I´m sure, this nice older gentleman came up
to us and told us that we had taken the ¨bad¨path and that he would drive us to the fountain. We hopped in the car with him (thank goodness cuz we were pretty far away!) and he drove us right up to the fountain! There were a bunch of peregrinos (pilgrims) there who all looked surprised and commented on how lucky we were to get a ride...haha. One of the guys had seen Linda before and said something to her about seeing her again. We thanked the man graciously and went and drank the wine from the fountain out of my Coquille St. Jacques (the pilgrim´s shell that everyone carries).
After we were done and on our way, Linda realized that she had forgotten her hat and gloves in the man,s car. I told her we should wait and that he would probably be back, but she wanted to continue so we did. After a bit, I needed to pee, so I went on the side of the road, behind some bushes. I kept my back pack on and when I tried to stand up, I had a very hard time because my pack is very heavy. I had
to push myself up from the ground to get up. I came out and told Linda and we laughed about it and walked on.
We walked alongside more grapes, pear trees, fig trees, almond trees...everything so ripe and full!! After we went through a couple of very nice towns, I had to pee again. I went around a corner in a hay field and in behind some bushes. Linda waited at the corner to guard for me. Again, I didn´t remove my back pack. As soon as I finished peeing, I heard a man say ¨Buen Camino¨to her so I tried to stand up right away! Well, instead of standing up, I fell backwards into the ditch filled with brambles!!! I lay there with my head down, my pants around my ankles and my bare ass up in the air!! At the same time, the guy I heard and 2 women reached Linda and asked her if she was alone. Just as they did, they all heard me say ¨Help!¨ They all started to laugh and the guy came around the corner to help Linda to get me out of the ditch. He was french and said,¨I won´t look.
I look up to the sky¨ The both came grabbed both my hands. He said une deux trois and they hoised me out of the ditch. Meanwhile, my ass got completely scratched up from the brambles! OMG, we laughed so hard! The guy and the 2 women took off down the road, laughing. Linda and I cleaned up all the blood from my torn up butt and then started off down the road after them. We were laughing and laughing so much!!
A few minutes later, we came upon an ancient Roman fountain where all the peregrinos that we had seen at the wine fountain were. One of them told Linda that the guy who had given us a ride to the wine fountain had been here looking for us and he had just left! Linda told him it was probably because she had forgotten her stuff in the car and the guy said, "Oh, that´s too bad...I thought maybe he had fallen in love with you and was chasing you trying to find you to confess his undying love." Then he started telling us about a guy who had just been there and just left who had to
help a woman, with her pants down, out of the ditch! We started laughing and told him it was me. He laughed really hard and said, "The guy said that he turned the corner and there was a little white bloom sticking out of the bushes!" Of course we all laughed even harder!
Linda and I went on up to Villa Mayor Monjardins and the guy who saved me was walking down from the Albergue. I said "There´s my knight in shining armour! What´s your name?" He says "Paul Newman...do you need some cream for your cuts? I could rub some on for you. ;o)" We all laughed again and he went on his way. He did look a lot like Paul Newman. We were telling each other that we were going to put the story on our respective blogs. ha ha!
After we got settled into the Albergue we took a walk up the mountain to see the Castillo Monjardins. Beautiful view...see pics.
That night, we had a very nice dinner with everyone who was staying at the Albergue. I met a lot of great people, including Mariella from Denmark. Her and I have crossed paths
a few times since. I also met a nice couple of women from the states and a couple of women from Ireland too. There are a lot of very strong women walking this Camino...seems more women then men.
Next morning, Linda and I decided that we wanted to walk alone so I went on my merry way. I walked along mowed hay fields and beside woods, stopping every once in a while to air my feet and have a snack.
**********************************************************************************
Ok, it´s been a few weeks since I wrote the above and a lot of what comes next is a bit of a blur.
I went on to a place called Torres Del Rio. This town was about 800 metres from a town that you had to walk thru to get to, called SanSol. Sansol is up on the hill and Torres Del Rio is down a very steep ravine in a valley. It turns out that SanSol and Torres Del Rio are in a long standing feud. They even throw rocks at each other!! Anyway, every single town has a church and most churches ring their bells every 15 minutes. 1 bell for the
1/4 hour, 2 bells for the 1/2 hour, 3 bells for the 3/4 hour and 4 bells for the hour PLUS the amount of the hour. Now because these two towns were so close, they actually had duelling church bells...needless to say at midnight we heard 4 bells for the hour plus 12 for being midnight from one church, then 4 bells plus 12 from the other about 30 seconds later...so at midnight, we heard no less than 32 bells!!! I stayed at an Albergue there called Casa Maria. I was pretty tired and beat up (my leg was still hurting quite a bit AND I had this horrible cold!) when I got there. It was a nice enough place but not one person that was staying there spoke English. It was teh first time I felt out of sorts with the whole thing. I was lying in my bunk thinking..."Why am I doing this??? I´ve got this fat German man in the bed beside me who is napping and snoring up a storm. His wife keeps spraying some really foul smelling perfume in the air so I can hardly breathe and they keep shutting the window that I keep
opening because I can´t breathe!! Aaarrghhh!!"
I ended up having dinner with an Italian guy and a Spanish guy. We all spoke a bit of French so ended up communicating a bit, but it was a bit hard. After dinner, I did feel a bit better ( I always do after a couple of glasses of Spanish wine).
After the duelling church bells at midnight, I got up and stood out on the terrace. I looked up to the sky and was amazed by the sight! I could clearly see millions of stars in the sky. I´ve never seen a sky like that before. There was no light pollution to hide any of it. And of course the Camino is on the milky way so the sight just blew me away. I stood there looking for about an hour and then went back to bed and realized that following the stars is one of the reasons people do this pilgrimmage.
Next morning, I got up and left just at first light. The sunrise, again, was one of the most beautiful sights I´ve ever seen....again, one of the reasons people keep going in spite of the pain.
Now I was on my way to Logrono. A big city. I got there just in time for the Municipal Albergue to open (most of them don´t open until sometime in the afternoon. This one opened at 4pm). So I shuffled in with the rest of the pilgrims who I didn´t know. I got in, took my shower, washed my clothes (this is the regular routine with pilgrims). As I was about to leave to walk around a bit, Mariella showed up! I was so happy to see her. So the 2 of us went into the old city and found a place that sold Shawarmas! woohoo! We sat outside and ate and saw a German guy that we both kind of kept running into, Carlo...beautiful spirit. He joined us for a bit then we headed back to the Albergue for bed. BUT, the city was having a fiesta (of course) and we ended up having a band playing right outside our window for hours. When they finally left, we could hear marching bands, people partying and singing all night!!
It´s really hard for a pilgrim to get sleep!! Between, fiestas, snoring, farting, people getting up anywhere after 4am
to start walking...omg!!
After Logrono, as we were walking, we came across a fence along the highway that thousands of pilgrims had put thousands and thousands of crosses on with sticks. As I came across it, I put a cross up, but it didn´t really mean anything...I just put one up to say that I had done it. But as I walked along, I realized that everyone who put one up there, did so for a reason. So I put one up for Mom and Dad...as I was putting it up, I didn´t really feel too much, but I stepped back, took a picture of it and as I walked away, I started to cry...I cried and cried and cried as I realized how much I missed my parents. I think it may have been the first time I cried over my Dad.
Then came Navarette, which was not very far at all. I had to stop there and rest as I was feeling really bad with this cold. I got a bed at a private Albergue, went to the Farmacia, got some good drugs and went to bed. I spent the whole time there either in
bed or in the kitchen watching ¨Monk¨in Spanish (not understanding a word of it) and playing Solitaire. Again, the others that were staying there didn´t speak english. They were a Danish 4some and a bunch of Korean girls, who I ended up becoming pretty chummy with over the next few days. However, when I got up the next day, I was full of energy!
Then came Azofra (I think). Things are getting blurry. I was, again, pretty beat up by the time I got there as I got lost on the way there with 2 of the Korean girls I had met in Navarette. We ended up climbing a mountain that was very steep. I would say 2kms up and then 2 kms down. So in all, I think I walked about 27kms that day....and it was hot!! with hardly any shade. We also had to walk thru Najeira which was very confusing as the way was not marked very well. But I made it thru!
In Azofra, I met up with a bunch of pilgrmins that have become pretty good friends along the way. We sat around and chatted and drank wine for most of the afternoon
once arriving there. There was Bob (Edmonton), Lois (Victoria), Eugene and John from North Ireland, Benita from South Africa and Rebecca and Luna from Spain. The Albergue there was pretty nice. It had separate rooms that had 2 beds in each room! Luxury!! My room mate was a nice girl from Australia named Katy.
Next day, everyone else took the regular route, but I took an alternate route that led to a town called Canas. Canas has a Monastary and church that were built in 1167. They are perfectly in tact and sooo beautiful! Very simple but beautiful. The church is famous for the light that pours into it from the window that are made of agate. Just walking into the town, you could feel the reverence coming from the place! I ended up spending about an hour in the church....just sitting there, crying and crying and crying. I had some sort of a revelation while I was there...I came to terms with the Catholic Religion. Here, I could feel the true essence behind the spirituality of the church. It was so profound for me! I finally had to leave the church as I had run out of tissue
and stolen toilet paper that I had in my pocket from blowing my nose so much! They also have a museum there that holds religious artworks from 1200´s - 1600's. Just amazing!
Leaving there was all highway walking, so very hard, and I had to walk about 6km to get back to the Camino! As I was getting close to the town that would take me back onto the Camino, I was contemplating hitchhiking...as I was contemplating, a truck drove by going the same way as me. The back of the truck had a sign that said, "The best way to see the world is by foot." Swear to God! So the idea of hitch hiking went out the window. ha ha! I walked on to Santo Domingo.
Santo Domingo is a small city with an old quarter. The first Albergue that I stopped at was filthy! It was an old monastary that I don´t think was cleaned in a century! So I put my pack down and walked down the street to the next one which was awesome! So I went back and got my pack and booked into the newer one. Thank god I did because,
I found out later, that anyone who I knew that stayed there ended up getting bedbugs!
That night, I went to visit the cathedral which is famous because it houses a hen and rooster. Apparently if the rooster crows while you´re there, it´s good luck. Anyway, when I was visiting, it turned out that it was time for mass, so I decided to stay. I sat thru mass and then at the end, the priest held up this cross and everyone lined up to go and kiss it. I decided to do it too. When I got to the priest, I asked him if he spoke english. He said a little, so I asked him for a pilgrim´s blessing, which he gave me. I cried some more then went back to the Albergue and went to bed. Still sniffling...from crying and the cold.
I´ve been blowing my nose across Spain!!
Next day was a long haul. I think I walked 30kms. I didn´t really mean to, but I was going to stay in a town called Belorado, but it looked a bit sketchy to me so I kept walking to a town called Tosantos. It was a
very, very tiny town that had a Parish Albergue. I stopped there. There were a few other pilgrims there already and it looked like a nice place. It had a nice courtyard that people were milling around in. So I went in and the hospitilaro explained how at 5pm, we gather at the front of the Albergue and then go up the hill to see the chapel that is in a cave in the side of the hill, then at 6pm, we all got together in the kitchen to prepare dinner together, then we sit and have dinner at 7, then go up to the attic for prayers and then bedtime. So I signed in. He brought us up to the 2nd floor where I could NOT believe what I saw!! Thin mattress pads on the floor to sleep on!! OMG!! I sat down and almost started to cry. I thought, there is NO way I could stay here!!! Then I realized that there was no way that I could go on to the next town, either, I was so tired!! So I decided to accept and I´m so glad I did! It was one of the nicest experiences I
had had in Albergues! The guy who was going to sleep next to me was an older Spanish gentleman named Angel!! He told me he would be my guardian Angel that night and he was! I also met a Danish girl named Bente (pronounce Binta) and a guy named Magnus, plus 3 younger guys that were hanging out together, Spanish and Korean.
We went up to the church in the cave. Turns out that it was built in 1200 something. It was really cool! and was built for and honours the Virgin Mary. Then we came back down, all made dinner together which was so much fun then ate a wonderful meal. AFter the meal we all sang songs then went up the the attic for the prayers. Because there were a lot of people there from all different countries, we took turns saying a prayer in our language. Then we read outloud some wishes that other pilgrims had written, then we wrote our own wishes for other pilgrims to read aloud when they arrive. It was a really special night. It also turned out that there were a couple of extra mats, so I took 2 and doubled
up mine and Angel´s mats so we were quite comfortable that night.
Next stop, Atapuerca...another long haul. Bente and I ended up walking some of that way together. That town, I met up with a few people that I knew...Paul, Benita, Newla, Angel. Atapuerca is known for finding the bones of a person that has changed what the world knows about human evolution. So while there, we all decided to go to an excursion to the dig site. Well, that was like Spanish torture!! They took us on a bus to this place where, when we got in, they locked the gate so we couldn´t get out. Then they walked this big group of people to a place that showed dirt and talked in Spanish for half an hour, then they brought us all a little way further, showed us more dirt and spoke for another half hour in Spanish and then again, same thing. THEN they brought us down into this dungeon that was about 20 degrees colder than it was outside, which was cool, and tried to show us a movie while we had to stand there a freeze!! I left with Benita and Bente and went
to try to leave to get back on the bus, but alas, we were locked in so had to wait at the gate for everyone else to be finished...ugh...meanwhile we were starving. We ended up, once we got back, at this restaurant that had the slowest service, worst food and worst wine that any of us had had on the Camino so far...but it was all fun and funny! We were all laughing and joking about it all.
OK...I am in Leon right now, but I can´t say anymore as I have to get back to the Albergue... I still have much more to tell you all and will catch up when I can but I´m sure this will be enough for now.
Love you all! I miss everyone so much. Please keep in touch and keep sending emails and comments! They mean so much to me!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.056s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 10; qc: 17; dbt: 0.0298s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Linda Roy-Chambers
non-member comment
so good to hear from you!
Jackie, I love reading of your exploits and happy that you found a Linda to share some of it with there! This is a great website huh? my best wishes for a happy return...whenever you're ready. love, Linda