CoodeIndigo

Seen about 30 kilometers from Santiago: Amazingly enough, we have found ourselves in Pedrouzo, which is about 20 kilometers from Santiago. Apparently this crazy adventure -- the dirt, sweat, sore feet, limited personal items, shared living space, beautiful views, long uninterrupted time for reflection -- will be over soon. Judy to Gina, about an hour ago: "What have we even done? I can't even remember what we DID." Gina: "The first couple of days, I was like, 'Three weeks of this? Are you kidding?'" Camino thoughts: Day one: OK, this will be fine. This is interesting. This is different.   Day four: What the hell have I done. WHEN WILL THIS BE OVER? Day seven: Seriously, how can these people be smoking? Does every European smoke? Day 10: Whose stupid idea was this? Are my feet broken? DO I HAVE STRESS FRACTURES? Day 13: I wonder if I will ever wear truly clean clothes again. Day 20: My God this will never end. I will share a ba...

This statue of a pilgrim at Alto de San Roque looms over the Camino way up in the mountains. We've made it to Sarria, which is a little more than 100 kilometers from Santiago. To receive a final compostela at the cathedral at the end of the pilgrimage -- a certificate with your name in Latin, suitable for framing -- you have to walk those 100k and get at least two stamps a day in your pilgrim passport. (Don't ask me what the rule is about biking into Santiago because I can't remember.) The number of pilgrims on the Camino jumps at this point. We've noticed the newbies -- Gina wants to call them greenies -- and we expect the trails to be a bit more crowded for these last five days. Five days! This morning, Saturday, after we left Triacastela (great albergue, by the way: Aitzenea, run by Manu, who gave me a foot massage Friday evening AND he even hugged us goodbye. He now ranks far above all other albergue hosts), we stopped at a little hole-in-the-wall hippie s...

"This stage represents one of the steepest of the whole pilgrimage but the climb is rewarded with stunning views along the Valcarce valley that will keep spirits high." John Brierley, A Pilgrim's Guide to the Camino de Santiago. Today's view: It's a well-deserved (for Gina and Ellie) rest day in O Cebreiro, an old village (pop. 50) which sits at the top of this mountain. Spirits high, hah. I'm not sure our spirits were exactly high when first arriving but even in exhaustion we could still appreciate beauty. We've just had breakfast and now will search for laundry services, and the rest of the day will be spent lounging. We'll start walking again tomorrow (Friday, June 22) and if everything goes OK, we'll walk into Santiago on Thursday, June 28. It is simply gorgeous up here. Everywhere you turn is another amazing view, green and lush. Tiny towns appear every once in a while; the primary industry seems to be the Camino. Generations...

Happy birthday to Kari Verhulst, and happy Father's Day to those who celebrate it. Special shout out to those who are missing their fathers today -- I see y'all, fellow children of loving fathers who we wish were still around. Here's the altar at the Astorga cathedral where I lit a candle for all of us: So, as the great philosopher Kenny Rogers tells us, you gotta know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em. (OK, maybe that was songwriter Don Schlitz.) As I limped into Villar Mazarife on Friday afternoon, I told myself that it was time to take a break. Gina, Ellie and I stayed at the charming Tio Pepe albergue on Friday evening, along with an Italian guy who we've run into before but none of us can remember where. Tio Pepe has a patio out back where you can hand wash your clothes or just sit in the sun, or, if you're as lucky as we are, your Camino friends Margaret and Annette (who were staying at the Albergue San Antonio a few streets over) will pop ...

Leon, Spain, Thursday night, June 14; we're ready to start walking tomorrow. Ellie has arrived! Gina and I have found these lovely refreshing lemon beers here in Spain, and we happily introduced them to Ellie this evening. Yesterday Gina and I walked about 11 or 12 kilometers from Orbaneja to Burgos and arrived around 11 am. Burgos' population is about 180,000; walking into such a large metropolitan area was a bit of a shock to the system. Much of the Camino was along a wide multi-lane road, lined with wholesale shops, a Bridgestone factory, and car lots, with big trucks zooming past. Burgos is beautiful and well worth a visit. We had time to see the UNESCO World Heritage site cathedral (the audio tour wore us out) and to visit the museum of human evolution, which was a treat. Also, we must have seen or ran into at least eight people who we've met so far, so Burgos felt like a small town. We wondered who we would bump into every time we turned a corner. We ...

Here we are, two wild and crazy chicas, ready for bed by 9 pm at our lovely little albergue in the tiny Spanish town of Orbaneja. We walked about 14 kilometers today from San Juan de Ortega, and now we're resting before walking about 11k tomorrow to Burgos. Days without injury: Who knows. I hope I can finish this blog post before the wifi drops again. Yesterday (Monday, June 11) we started in Belorado and made it together to Villafranca de Montes de Oca. We had a nice break for cafe con leche where we observed that Winnie Cooper, who we've been tracking for a couple of days now, was having coffee in the same shop. "That Winnie Cooper, she's flying," I said. "Winnie Cooper is the bomb," Gina responded. Soon after our coffee break in Villafranca de Montes de Oca, I threw in the towel and decided to take a taxi to our final stop, San Juan de Ortega. Gina plowed on by herself, in what proved to be about 2.5 hours trudging in mud, mud, mud. As she t...

Y'all, spare a prayer for my feet. They are super unhappy. Days without injury: 7. But does this count when I'd just as soon cut off my feet? No post yesterday because the wifi at the Cistercian sisters' albergue was pretty weak. Yesterday we started off in Azofra and zipped through to Santo Domingo, arriving right before the albergue opened at noon. It is an interesting spot, serving as a pilgrim hostel since the 1700s ... And it has retained much of the original decor: wooden beams, plaster walls, and uneven floors. After we checked in, Gina wandered a bit while I rested, then I managed to rouse myself enough to walk around with her. We visited the cathedral (age: super old) where a rooster and hen live full-time. Long story. Pope Clement VI allowed it in 1350, and the church has kept up the tradition since then. We sat outside and had beer, patatas fritas, calamari and queso, then went to vespers with the cloistered Cistercian community. Not like h...

One Camino bit of wisdom learned in the last 24 hours: Sleeping on the floor is OK, but sleeping in a room elbow to elbow with 10 strangers is not. Nothing went wrong, it's not that, but it really throws me off my game negotiating my morning routine when someone whose name I do not know is six inches away from me. Days without injury: 5 So we've had the experience of sleeping on the floor of a parish, and now we're in a big municipal albergue in Azofra, which we did not expect to do this morning. We walked to Logrono, an easy six-ish kilometers -- Gina continues to outpace me and then has to wait 10-20 minutes for me to catch up -- and thought we'd get a bite to eat and then keep walking to Navarrete. I wasn't exactly thrilled because unfortunately I've developed little blisters on my toes in addition to my screamingly painful plantar fasciitis, but I figured I could plow through. However, as we ate our snack, a bit of rain started, and that was it for m...

So now we've walked all the way to Viana -- well, mostly walked. We did take a taxi yesterday from Monjardin to Los Arcos because I would have died if I walked one more kilometer. Days without injury: 4 However, please note: We did walk 12 kilometers yesterday anyway, even with the taxi ride. And note: During the taxi ride (which lasted about 15 minutes), the driver chatted with us about the Camino. His advice? "Start slow, don't do more than 10 kilometers the first days." Ha, well, nice to know, now that we did 56 kilometers the first three days. (Sorry, within hours of starting on the Camino, you become obsessed with mileage.) Ugh, my feet hate me. Today we've walked from Los Arcos to Viana, 18.4 kilometers according to Gina's guidebook, "Hiking the Camino de Santiago," which has slight variations from MY guidebook, "A Pilgrim's Guide to the Camino de Santiago," by John Brierley. Every day we compare the notes and directions...