I woke up about 10p because the lights were on and the AC was off. The coolness quickly dissipated and the windows wouldn’t open. I was melting once again. Once I get woken up after a bit of sleep, I have a hard time falling back to sleep. I tried getting caught up on Candy Crush (I’ll never forgive Martha Johnson for getting me hooked on this game). I eventually fell back asleep about 12:30.
Here’s something that is going to be a surprise to Pam and Katherine–at 12:45 the electricity went off and the fire alarm sounded with flashing lights. This went on for about 10 minutes, but no one moved. I figured I would go down with the ship and turned towards the wall. No one died, but I did hear some people considered murder.
The intended victim was moi. It seems like I managed to fall into a very deep sleep after the alarm. I never felt any of the earthquakes (aka Pam shaking the bed), but I was startled when the towel landed on my face. Thankfully, Pam opted to not hold it in place until my legs stopped spasming but merely threw it on my head in the hopes of getting me to roll over.
When Pam’s alarm went off at 6:15, Katherine was already up in a panic because someone had stolen her shorts in the night. Pam’s got a $1,000 camera, I’ve got an iPad and a wallet with a couple hundred Euros sitting on the floor, but the target of the thief was Katherine’s shorts–they are very precise on their choice of clothing. The shorts were eventually found sitting on top of my pack. I was NOT the thief; Pam brought in all the laundry and was confused as to who’s clothes were who’s (or whose, whom, who’s–this has always been a rough spot of the English language for me).
After Katherine’s panic attack, she wanted the lights turned on–everyone was already up so why not turn on the lights. I tried to not point out that everyone was awake because her and Pam had been talking and that there were still 2 sleeping French men–Is the Camino helping me to grow? Perhaps, if I had not mentioned it now. The lights came on and the French men beat us out of the Albergue. They gave me dirty looks on the way out. I’m not sure if it was my association with Pam and Katherine or my alleged snoring in the night (which I’m pretty sure was Pam’s echoing off the walls).
As usual, we had a plan. As usual, the plan didn’t work. As usual, I said let’s not plan any more because the plans always fail. As usual, I was told that I’m pessimistic and I should be more positive. As usual, I shut up and walked by myself. As usual, I was right and got no credit for being right.
The plan was to walk 4 miles to the first cafe before we ate breakfast. The sheets and maps were wrong and the first cafe was almost 7 miles away. When we got there, all edible food was gone so I got a coffee, an OJ, a banana, and some chips. They both opted for chicken abortions suspending ham in it. I topped off my breakfast with some Oreos I forgot I had been carrying.
The bright side of the plan was that we were going to start hiking by 6:30 which we almost pulled off. We had begun at 6:45. It was only Madagascar hot at this point. I am so looking forward to the GR10 and altitude to cool things off. The trail continued to be nice and not crowded.
The breakfast disappointment was our only stop today. We plowed on through trying to beat the progression to Africa hot and came darn close, but not quite. We made it to Maronas where we thought the Albergue was by 12:30 which would have been great if it were actually there, which it wasn’t (more plan failures). After backtracking, convinced that we had missed it, we met a cow farmer that understood Casa Pepa enough to tell us to hit the road for another mile.
You might think an Albergue in a rural area that isn’t a recommended stop might try a little harder to get people to stop. They might be friendly to arriving patrons. They might even act like they see you when you walk in. The Albergue is not bad, but the people running it are confusing. They seem to be a little on edge with the guests and have a tendency to yell quite a bit at each other (and possibly us; my Spanish is not good). We might go check out the other Albergue in town for supper.
An added benefit of the plan failing is that we walked an extra mile or two that we hadn’t planned on today, so the “plan” for tomorrow might be to walk only 13 miles with 12 the day after to get into Muxia. That’s the plan for now, but I wouldn’t bet on it. I’ve got to finish my beer and go check out the other Albergue–there’s a lot of yelling in the kitchen right now.
As usual, the Albergue signs lie about how far they are. The nearest one said 1/2 mile so we knew we could count on a 2 mile round trip, but for a good dinner, not a problem. When we got there, it didn’t have a kitchen. The next one (only 100 meters away) didn’t have anything either. We stopped at a cafe between the two, but the flies and heat were somewhat of a put off so we decided to head back to our place. We grabbed an ice cream bar for the road (George would be proud of us–ice cream before, or possibly in place of dinner). The meal was surprisingly good at our place. They still haven’t collected our 12 Euros for the night, but I don’t feel too bad about skipping out on this one with the bad service and disorganization (plus the 60 Euros we’ve spent on food, beer, and snacks.
An added bonus of this Albergue is the cow barn adjacent to our open window. Pam and I grab bunks by windows to have temperature control of the room whenever possible. I’ve got the windows full open and Pam is very conflicted about the cow poop smell. She needs to learn to appreciate where her food comes from–the windows are staying open; I have the bottom bunk.