After the Camino

We took 43 days to hike approximately 575 miles. Every where we went in Spain, we walked. We walked to Spain!

We only have had 4 days off from hiking in the last 6 weeks. Even the average American worker would have had 12 days off during that period. Now imagine how I feel because I would have only worked 18-20 days during that same period. I’m tired.

We didn’t swim in the ocean at Fisterra, but we did wade in at Muxia. I’m ok with that because it’s not going to be any warmer than it was at Muxia and it was dam cold there. Pam’s biggest regret is that I didn’t burn my shirt at Fisterra. We were just too tired to head down to the beach to do it (burn my shirt, I mean).

Friday morning, we had to be out of the albergue by 9. We made it with 1 minute to spare although at a cost–we didn’t get to shower. We said our goodbyes to Katherine and then headed down to catch the bus back to Santiago after we had some breakfast. I was looking out for Pete along the way.

We had an unexpected surprise when we got to the bus stop–there was an earlier bus than we had on our schedule. But even better, we ran into two college girls from Boulder, CO–Kate and Annie–that wanted to make the noon mass at the Cathedral. They asked us to split a taxi with them. We agreed. We got back to Santiago before 11 when we didn’t think we’d make it until almost 4–it was like having an extra day to play.

Kate and Annie have already done a lot of traveling at only 19. They’ve been to Europe twice, the second time hiking the entire Camino Frances. One of them took a year off from college to go to Australia. They agreed with Shaun’s assessment that everything in Australia wants to kill you.

We went to the pension where we had made reservations. The woman that owns the place told us the room wouldn’t be ready for a while but let us drop our bags. She showed us where to get my hair cut and told us where we could do laundry. My highest priority was to get this dam beard off. Every night I felt like bugs were crawling on my face. This was my first and last beard. Pam didn’t want me to even have this one.

Clean shaven with short hair, we headed shopping. Pam had her list of must haves from the pharmacy so that was first stop. Next came grocery shopping for our first week on the GR10. Last was food. Then we went and got the key to our room and did a very Spanish act that we will miss greatly–siesta (I don’t think it’s an accident that it rhymes with fiesta).

We have a couple days to get ready for the next hike. It’s not very likely that we’re going to know anyone in town this weekend since almost everyone we knew finished a week ago. We were walking back from a Mexican restaurant (not like we had hoped, more like a pilgrim meal chopped up and served in a tortilla but different is good) when we were running down the people we hadn’t seen that we would have liked to. Top of the list was Mike, Pam, and Rachael. Just as we said their names, we rounded a corner and there they were. It was very much a Beetlejuice moment.

They didn’t get to finish the Camino because of all the plagues that attacked Rachael. She had bad feet early on. Then she had the same mysterious vomiting and diarrhea that I had. The clincher was the sun poisoning. She still had sores all over her from where the blisters had exploded. They decided it was best to stop BEFORE the locust came after her. She was definitely getting signs that this was not the time for her to do the Camino. We talked with them for a little bit until they had to catch the bus to the airport–they are headed home.

On the way back, we found an outfitter that had a nice selection of boots and jet boil stoves. They were closed but open up at 10 in the morning so we would be able to get Pam a new pair of boots and a new stove for us. The alcohol in Europe doesn’t burn as hot as what we can get back home. We’ll be all set for France now.

Sunday afternoon as we were leaving our pension to go grab some grub, we walked right by some familiar faces we hadn’t been expecting. Sherry and Janicke were sitting right outside our pension. Janicke’ husband, Bjorn, had flown into Santiago last weekend and walked with her to Finesterre. This was their last night in town (as well as ours). Sherry is flying to Iceland in the morning for 6 weeks while Janicke and Bjorn are returning to Norway (our dream destination). We got all caught up with each other over a bottle of wine.

They had plans to meet up with Andrea and Caroline later for supper so we planned on joining them for drinks at the very least. We were too hungry to wait until later to eat because we hadn’t eaten since early morning and it was already 6p. We all met at the horse fountain outside of the Cathedral.

Andrea’s daughter had flown in to spend some time with her this weekend. They will do some traveling together before returning to Australia to sell Andrea’s house. This was one of the things we discussed the first day we met Andrea outside of Pamplona–whether to sell at a loss and be free or stay chained to a place with limited potential. We have a new member of the homeless crowd in our midst. Sherry sold hers before this trip. Pam and Mike are going home to move their stuff into storage. And we’ve sold all our stuff (except for what George made us keep in his basement). It’s very freeing.

Saddest story of all is Caroline. She has to leave at 3:30 in the morning to catch a plane back to Belgium. She has to be at work tomorrow. On the bright side, she’s a teacher so they will begin their two month summer break in one week so she will get to readjust then.

This is the completion of our second trail of the 6 that were planned (but I think we are adding a 7th in England). So far, we have hiked over 750 miles of a planned 1600 miles this year. We did more miles on the Camino that we originally planned because of the addition of Muxia near the end, but it was well worth it. I wish we had spent an extra night there on the northern coast of Spain.

Would we do the Camino Frances again? Let’s put it this way, if we do, that will be the second required miracle which should qualify me for canonization in the church. We are glad we did the Camino for so many reasons–it’s one of, if not the, most popular hikes in the world, it is not expensive to stay in Albergues with showers every night (I hope we haven’t gotten too lazy), food in Spain is ridiculously inexpensive, and the most important reason to hike the Camino–the incredible people you meet from all over the world. Of the 30-40 members of our Camino family, only 5 were Americans. We now have friends in Australia, Switzerland, Norway, Canada, Argentina, Spain, France, Germany, Sweden, Russia, Taiwan, England, Wales, Holland, Denmark, Belgium, and New Zealand.

Do we have any regrets? As my feet heal from all the road hiking and the pain lessens each day, absolutely no regrets. This has been an amazing experience and we want to thank everyone we have met, talked to, and hiked with along the way. The individual connections are what make the Camino the great experience that it has been for centuries and will be for centuries to come.

Buen Camino