Camino Pilgrim

Today I woke up early as usual but was the last one to leave at 8. The reason was because I love to take pictures of the mountains.

I quickly caught up with many people from the group and joined Itsuki and Naoki on their light morning walk. Both guys are from Tokyo and study politics on a 4-year program. We had some deep conversations about modern Japanese culture and ate breakfast in the village of Agés. I am really starting to like the Spanish version of omelet with potatoes inside (tortilla de patatas).

I left the Japanese guys behind when they finished hiking for today and continued on my own for the last 9km. The sun really started burning. A site of old archeological findings caught my eye and I still wanted to walk around there a little.

Later on, there was another hill to cross. This one had a military zone with barbed wire on the ground right next to the pilgrim road. It was quite spooky to walk next to what might be a minefield. On top of that hill was a massive wooden cross and a circular praying ground with stones. Locals held hands in the center of the circle, looked down on the ground and were saying prayers for their group.

Talking about groups, ours lost two members yesterday but gained three new people. We are around ten people now and still going strong from village to village.

I saw a magical bus on the side of the road with the name of the place we planned to stay at for tonight. Once I read “swimming pool” written on the side, I just started running in the scorching sun. I got to first place in the group, which was strange since I never really saw most of them on the road. Anywho, the swimming pool was real and it felt amazing to dip my feet in clear ice-cold water after hiking.

The sun got me really tired, so I had to take a powernap before doing work for the office that was waiting. I can honestly say that there never was a dull moment all day.

Looking forward to the rest of the Camino.