Days 71-73: The Tempo of the Camino

The Tempo of the Camino

Travel Days 71 – 73

March 9 – 11

Camino Day 5: Puente la Reina to Ayegui

Daily distance: 23.9 km

Total distance: 115.3 km

Most of today’s morning routine focused on stretching my back.  I was in far too much pain yesterday to want to repeat it, and preventing further pain is better than accepting and enduring it.  It was only day five and I had already given up on my 5:00 AM wake-up.  This routine was possible with my copacetic American college lifestyle, but much more difficult on the Camino.  Even at 6:00 AM, I was still the first one up.  Despite the few gung-ho hikers on day one, it seems that the other pilgrims shared my sentiments now.

 A stone bridge older than the United States.

It was warmer this morning than last.  At about a kilometer outside of town, the road climbed upward, and quite steeply.  I shed all of my warming layers to avoid sweating inside of them.  About halfway up the hill, I spotted a pilgrim in his sixties who was doing the Camino by bicycle.  He carried far too much gear, and was struggling to push it up.  “Hola señor, buen Camino.  Necesitas ayuda?”  He looked back at me, breathing heavily through his mouth.  “Puedo ayudarte.”  He slightly nodded his head.  I positioned myself behind his rear rack and we pushed until we were exhausted, cresting the top of the hill.  Through heavy breaths, I said “Buen Camino!” and waved as I stepped off. 

After a few hours of walking, I came upon a rest area with evenly spaced low-height trees, small wooden benches, and the ambiance of a garden perfect for reading on a cloudy afternoon.  It was overcast, and a breeze created a white noise out of the rustling in the trees.  I stayed there for 45 minutes, much of which was spent doing yoga.  I didn’t have enough time to include it in my morning routine, so this was the perfect opportunity for it, and in a much better setting than the albergue.  Rejuvenated, I continued on the Camino. 

The world needs more random places like this.

I reached the town of Lorca at the top of a hill with plans to keep walking through to the next one.  But at one of the shops, they had a sign out front saying I could have a beer for a Euro.  The scenery surrounding seemed nice enough, and I’m a sucker for a deal, so I made a pit stop.  Sitting in a plastic chair at a plastic table outside drinking my inexpensive beer in the middle of nowhere with foreign music in the background reminded me of my travels in Southeast Asia.  It was the same ambiance and feeling I would get when taking a break from riding. 

At times, it's like being in the middle of nowhere.

There is always a random sign to show the Way.

Camino Day 6: Ayegui to Torres del Rio

Daily distance: 27.0 km

Total distance: 142.3 km

Putting on my boots before stepping off on the Way, I noticed they were fitting a bit tighter now.  I expected my feet to swell a size by the end of the Camino, but I didn’t expect it to happen so early.  The warm morning air was met with a cool morning breeze, and the entire sky was filled with dark clouds.  I looked at them expecting rain today. 

Within my first fifteen minutes, I reached the Bodegas Irache Fuente del Vino, a pilgrim’s fountain ran by a local winery that dispenses both water and wine.  While the angel on my shoulder told me that wine after breakfast is a sin, the devil had a much better idea, and I cracked the seal on the wine fountain.  After five days of this pilgrimage, I deserved a little bit of alcoholism in my diet. 

The fountain at Bodegas Irache serves both water and wine.

For the first time on the Camino, I wasn’t going at a forced pace.  I wasn’t going fast or slow, I was just thinking.  Thinking about the past, thinking about the future, thinking about the woods surrounding me in the present.  And while consumed with all these thoughts about thinking and naught a thought about walking, I found this equilibrium point where pace and posture and breath were no longer concerns, they just happened as they needed to happen.  My body was completely relaxed, yet still moving forward.  This is where I needed to be, and it only took me six days to get here.  The real challenge was going to be maintaining this type of pace, this meditative posture that consumed no thoughts to hold, yet created the circumstances for thoughts to arise. 

Crops often run parallel to the Camino.

Poised on top of a hill was Torres del Rio.  The only place in town open for pilgrims was an albergue that looked more like a bar.  Opening the front door, four locals sitting at the bar turned around, glanced us over a moment, and turned back to their drinks.  The owner guided us to the dormitory, walking past suits of armor, mounted swords and shields, and obscure artwork on the walls.  We entered the attic where the roof’s geometry prevented any more than two bunkbeds from being in there. 

Camino Day 7: Torres del Rio to Viana

Daily distance: 10.5 km

Total distance: 152.8 km

In the morning, there was nowhere to get a hot meal in town.  I stopped by the Tienda and picked up some snacks to eat along the Way.  It was another cool and overcast day.  After thirty minutes, I came to a site that Saint Michael had told me about, a place where rocks are piled, a place where I am supposed to leave a rock that I brought from home.  I reached into my pack and pulled out two rocks I brought from South America.  One was a river rock that I pulled from a creek created by glacial run-off in Patagonia.  The other was a salt vein that I got from Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley) in the Atacama Desert in Chile.  I had planned to keep these rocks, but I really have no use for them.  I would probably just look at them occasionally and get rid of them ten years down the road when I grew bored of looking at them.  It was better that they stayed here.  This was about giving something up that I should have never had in the first place.  I placed them upon the piles of cairns already created and continued to Santiago. 

My stones from South America.  The grey one is a river rock from a creek made
of glacial run-off in Patagonia.  The white one is a salt vein I took from Valle de la
Luna (Lunar Valley) in the Atacama Desert in Chile.

My rocks now rest on a pile with many other rocks. 

Just as I was about to leave the site, Matthew came by.  We started talking about the site, and I asked him if he brought a rock from home.  “Yes, but I’m saving it for the one after Leon.  There, the rock pile is so big that you have to climb up a hill to leave a rock.” 

I was in disbelief.  “You mean I left my rock at the wrong spot?”  I turned to go grab it.

Matthew interrupted my actions: “Well, you can leave your rock anywhere on the Camino.” I stopped myself.  I was already getting attached to the idea of having my rock, and I wasn’t even separated for a whole minute.  I breathed out a sigh and decided to leave it.  This may not be where everyone leaves their rock, but this was the right stop for me to leave mine.  I continued to Viana. 

The ruins in Viana.