Camino Day 5: Salas to La Espina

Even though we had moved it inside the night before, we awoke to find our laundry still wet. We had to wear some of it anyway.

As we headed out in the rain for a morning coffee and tortilla/bocadilla, we found two yellow Camino arrow pins. We were elated. Pinning them to our chests, we passed through the morning's farmer's market outside the cathedral towards the Bar Luciana, which I had read served a good breakfast, and sat in the shadow of the castle.

<Photo of castle  with arch>

The place was packed full of locals drinking beer (!) and pilgrims donning all manner of rain covers and ponchos. We laughed that we had almost not even opened my umbrella in the light misty rain, let alone put on any rain gear.

After breakfast, the castle office was closed, so Cat had to settle for the much less aesthetically appealing city tourist office stamp. Disappointed, she turned towards castle office one last time, just as a woman was unlocking it! So Cat got her castle stamp after all, and we headed out towards La Espina.

The route was 8km of mostly uphill.

In the misty rain, visibility was poor, but made for a mystical magical ambience. As we tackled hill after hill, we were soon wetter on the inside than on the outside!

Since I had very little extra food that day, I put it all in my pack, rather than caring an extra food bag. However, I soon discovered that I felt strange walking with my hands empty.  I found myself with one thumb on my purse buckle, subconsciously "carrying it."  I had often walked up to 10-15km with things in my hands around town in Vancouver, while running errands. I used it as a psychological trick, convincing my brain that "I'm not walking very far." But I also found it comforting.  I realized I felt strangely "safer" with my hands full. The symbolism was not lost on me.

We passed a plastic covered barn with Reiki symbols on it. I noticed the distortions in the symbols and the Japanese characters for "Reiki," which told that whoever had written these came from an oral Reiki tradition taught by someone who did not write Japanese language (my guess was through Hawao Takata).  I also giggled that they didn't attempt to write the difficult HSZSN symbol (from level 3), despite including the DKM symbol (from level 4), which I have found most Reiki students also try to avoid writing. It prompted a conversation about misinformation and distortions, and the extents and limits of our responsibility to spread truth and accurate information. I could easily see how the topic connected to my career as a university Professor and college Instructor. ;)

After that, I started yawning with every shift and didn't stop for a very long while. At first I thought was due to my insights, but it went on for so long that I asked my friend Nihan whether she was dedicating energy with to me (she was not). Then I looked  at the time, and thought maybe it was my adopted mom Karen, at Florence's funeral.

There were a lot of hills. At one particularly daunting turn, I stopped to rally. Cathleen cried out, "look down!" The path was nearly paved with clear-as-glass quartz crystals.  Of course we had to collect a few small ones, and made our packs even heavier. ;)

I felt one section like I was walking at home. The misty rain, the foliage... as someone said last night: "Sometimes a little bit of home is good." :)

But... it was almost a little TOO foggy...

I saw a yellow package of American Spirit tobacco wedged into a low rock wall, and laughed, "I know who that belong to!!" We picked it up, in hopes we might see Sophie again.

At one point ended on the highway very little shoulder. What shoulder there was, was overhung with dripping wet grasses. I used my umbrella as a shield, parrying my way through. Big trucks screamed by, and frankly, it was pretty scary.

Cat said: "We really need to get off this highway!!" And just then,the path appeared. Great manifesting, Cat!!

Then again, the path was full of mud, so I was not sure in the end it was much better. Lol.

At one point, I ended up scaling a rock wall beside a particularly deep pile of mud. Some of the rocks came off in my hands, so I threw them down as stepping stones.

Bodenaya had a very pretty little albergue, and an equally pretty little sello stamp. I had thought there was a bar there, but a pilgrim sipping coffee waved us onward to La Espina.

Although it was only a couple kilometres, it was slow going due to mud and hills and dodging highway traffic.

Arriving in La Espina, visibility was still nearly nil. We stopped at an ATM, a local  woman asked us if we were frio (cold). We said "no, calor (hot)" and in response to her shocked expression added, "somos de Canada!!" We checked the temperature: 17 degrees. lol. Although, to be honest, the humidity from the misty rain made it feel more like 11-15 degrees.

We arrived a little wet from the mist, eager to check in. The Casa Aurelio didn't keep our reservation, even though I had emailed them again a couple days ago to confirm. Luckily I knew how to ask fora double room, and we were set. BUT... the room was the dirtiest we'd stayed in so far.  I was pretty sure the towels had not been changed, and there was no TP... I checked the bed for signs bedbugs and found none. So I sanitised the toilet seat, found some fresh towels in an unlocked cabinet in the hall, then we asked for TP at the bar, where I could not get decaf coffee or tea, so I had a beer and a cookie. We also found the wifi code and sat in the bar and caught up with family back home.

We went to supermarket for supplies and bought a lot for 9€. We were set for several meals.

Back at the hotel, we realized the wifi in the room was so weak, we sat in the stairs to upload photos.

Back at the room, Cat had a big cry, while I showered.  I thought the faucet looked like a stylized scallop shell. Cathleen then took a shower and told me it was supposed to indicate the knob to activate the shower head. Lol.

We feasted on supermarket food!  We tried to use the blow-drier to dry out clothes.

I felt shut down emotionally. Maybe because walking under 10km today and walking so slowly did not give me therapeutic levels of walking!

Cat offered to give me a houlder massage with lemon grass massage oil, and I finally cried a little. I allowed the support from her, and remembered that at my core, I am soft, not hard, like I had been forced to be to cope these last few years. I told Cathleen, "Thank you so much -- I  am now soft!" She winked and asked, "are you sure you're not just soggy??"