CURRENT LOCATION: SANTO DOMINGO, SPAIN
DAYS WALKED: 6
DISTANCE COVERED:142.9 km
The Camino is strikingly beautiful at times. This just outside of Los Arcos.
Leaving on Day 2 over the bridge in Puenta La Reina
Our second day walking was filled with a variety of landscapes and people. We easily woke to people packing their bags at 5:30am, and followed them out the door at 6. We retraced our steps from the day before through the old town of Puenta la Reina, down the Calle Mayor, and exited the village over the famous 11th century stone bridge over the Arga River. We followed a dirt track for an hour during the cool pre-dawn moments of morning, then climbed a steep hill to meet the N111, which is the regional highway running through the area. It is an interesting contrast for many reasons: the ancinet dirt path juxtaposed with the modern super highway, and the speed at which the vehicles zoomed passed as opposed to the steady crawl of the backpack toting pilgrims. We didn´t slow as we reached the 6k mark for the day, instead pushing on to the most pleasant stretch of the trail to this point. To our left, endless hills of wheat and distant farms, glowing yellow in the morning light. To our right, perfect rows of vines. And in front, a fast approaching medieval hilltop village named Cirauqi rising up from the horizon. This moment alone made the entire trip worth it.
Approaching Cirauqui...
In addition, the number of pilgrims on this point of the trail swelled with familiar faces - Aleh, a friendly blond Belorussian journalist who now resides in Spain, an older man from Quebec, a young German girl traveling alone, and a quartet of loud Italians - 2 of which were Sicdilian! Suddenly a jovial Ital-German-Frensh-English conversation broke out, juggling topics ranging from favorite granita flavors to the intracacies of the Tyrolean dialect to summers in Montreal. Within an hour we were in the heart of the ancient village, breaking for pan de chocolate and Sunny Delight (yes, Sunny D!) The Italians smoked while Camino cyclists whizzed past. It was at this moment that made me think about how big and small the world is at the same time, and how funny it is that growing up, I only thought God spoke English! It is amazing how this path crosses all cultures, religions, and types of people.
Timing is everything, and today ours was just a hair off - but that didn´t stop us from having an interesting day. We decided to sleep in until 7 - ridiculously late during the "rat race of August" on the Camino - so that we could catch the morning BULL RUNNING in the town of Estrella. Apparently this is fiesta season in the region of Navarra, and thus a week-long festival that included a slightly tamed down version of what goes down in Pamplona. We leisurely ate breakfast, but didn´t walk out of the hostel until 7:55am, just as a cannon went off! We raced into the center of town, only to find the streets completely packed with drunk teenagers who had been partying from the night before. It was as if we had awoken to Mardi Gras. We tried to locate the bulls, but were led astray by directions, missing them by less than 2 minutes! We were frustrated, but the encouraging cheers of passersby shouting "Andale Peregrino!" picked us up. We found the Way about 10 minutes later and worked our way out of town.
Sarah the French WalkerToday we were a foursome. Christie and myself, Aleh, and Sarah, a French girl with a shaved head. She had staggered into the hostel at about 9pm the night before, and first we didn´t know what to make of her. But she had asked us if she could walk with us today, and after a few questions I learned her fascinating story: she had already been walking for 24 days from her home town of Montpelier, France, where she had sold all of her belongings and set off to start a new life. She is using this trip to mark a new period in her life (hence cutting off her hair) and will finish in Santiago... before heading north to the Spanish coast and finishing in PARIS! Yes, she will walk for 4 complete months, and at the end will find a place to live and start her new job. And I thought we were roughing it!
After 45 minutes, we came to a famous landmark on the Camino - the Bodegas Irache Winery - and its "fuente del Vino." Yes, this watering hole has two spouts... one for water and one for WINE! Unfortunately, again we were too early for wine, as it doesn´t begin dispensing until 9am. (Which judging by the festival we just passed, is probably a good idea.) Sadly we pushed on with no bulls and no wine.
The rest of the day was a photographers dream, passing through beautiful countryside, small villages, and changing colors. The signs began to blend together, from Azqueta to Villamayor de Montejardin and finally through 3 hours of golden hills to Los Arcos. We stopped for lunch under a shady tree, and there were many moments where the blue sky stretched as far as the eye could see. If it sounds idyllic, it was. Only that after a while, your feet and legs do begin to ache. Our stopping point at the night was fittingly the Hostel of Austria, which we found conforting.
During the afternoon we had alternated walking silently and talking, learning even more about our new friends. Aleh told the story of how he was beaten by Belorussian police in 2006 for documenting police brutality in the country, and how he fled the dictatorship in secret for a better life in Spain. He is now the editor for a Russian speaking newspaper here in Espana. I can only imagine facing such hardship, and it again makes me feel fortunate about my upbringing in America and being allowed to pursue my own dreams. Oh yeah, and endless nights of Nintendo and Pizza.
LOS ARCOS TO LOGROÑO. 28.7 km / 97.1 total
Yes, while now being able to finally check "sleeping in a church" off my bucket list, the situation did many things to my state of mind: 1) It made me feel like a true pilgrim, 2) made me realize I was being selfish and too focused on my own needs compared to those in real despair, and 3) helped me realize that I´m not ultimately in control here! We found a place in the sanctuary, and then were served a generous 3 course meal (complete with watermelon) by a staff of volunteers. Just their giving hearts made me want to strive to be mroe helpful and appreciative in my own life, and perhaps it is fitting that the church is named after Santiago himself!
We did see an Austrian on a unicycle today! No that takes some... umm... guts!
One of the more interesting aspects of the Camino is the people that you meet along the way. Some are fellow travelers, some are completely random, while others have become a permanent part of the Path. We met one such individual today: El Peregrino Marcelino. Yes, that is a capital "El" as in THE. This is a man who has become an icon of the Camino with his scraggly white hair and long beard. Put it this way: he looks like 830 AD. But he has a heart of gold and meets pilgrims everyday on the shores of Lake La Grange, stamping their passports and offering both nutritional & emotional encouragement. We encountered him at about 9 in the morning, but the meeting was the highlight of the day.
Marcelino was one of the first people to help re-open the Camino in the early 80s as the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), World War II, and the dictatorship of Franco had nearly erased the Way from recent memory. His unique garb (old school robe) gave him an authentic look and notoriety, but it was his behind the scenes work painting yellow arrows and retracing the historical route that contemporary travelers should thank him for. He has completed the Camino himself many times, and as mentioned before, was instrumental in bringing it back to the forefront of people´s minds, especially here in Spain. We chatted with him and moved on, feeling blessed to have met a real "trailblazer."
DAY 6: WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 6, 2009:
AZOFRA TO SANTO DOMINGO DE LA CALZADA. 15.1 km / 142.9 total
Around 1o am we rolled into Santo Domingo (pop. 5,313), which is one of the most historic cities on the entire Camino. It was a much shorter jaunt today - less than 16 km and under 4 hours - after a pair of grueling days before. Christie´s leg has been hurting, and I am in serious need of one small item no man should be without: Gold Bond Medicated Powder. (Women, ask your husbands.) Therefore, we decided to slow our roll, to quote one famous rapper, and more succinctly, to stop and smell the roses. The last thing we wanted to do was roll into Santiago 500 km from here having hated the whole experience. And thus our cafe con leche tasted a little better this morning, as did a leisurely stroll through the city and a lunch of cheese, bagette, and local vino tinto (red wine.) I now have a strange smile on my face, as if this is back to being a holiday and not just another Groundhog´s Day of more vineyards than I care to remember.
The city itself is named after a man who earned his sainthood by helping pilgrims, and banners hang all over the quaint streets advertising the city´s 900th anniversary. I blush at this number knowing that Puyallup, Washington was founded in 1908. The local legend is that a German pilgrim back in the 11th or 12th century was passing through the city with his parents when he caught the eye of one innskeeper´s daughter. The innskeeper obviously wasn´t happy and had him hanged for robbery! The only way he survived was on ol´Santo Domingo´s shoulders, and when all this was reported to the judge, he was quoted as saying, "That boy is no more alive than the roasted chicken on my plate!" As the story goes, at that exact moment his chicken did indeed crow and fly away, thus saving the boy and changing the history of the town forever. To this day there are 2 live chicken in the church (to serve as a reminder), and not a single KFC within a 100 km radius. (Fact to be verified later.)
This story makes me think of the many funny moments on this trip, the best coming from Christie´s growing vault of "Lost in Translation." At dinner a few nights ago, we were discussing her foot ailments with a couple of fellow pilgrims. One, in a thick accent, told her that perhaps she should, ¨Change her shoes." Only, Christie did not here those words but what she thought to be a new home remedy, ¨GINGER SOUP? YOU THINK THAT WILL HELP?" I haven´t laughed that hard in a long time, and that is a good thing when your whole body aches.
-- J. Twice
p.s. This was the sunset this morning...
1 comment:
AWESOME!
Post a Comment