27 August - Day 9

By Sil:
(sung to "I´ve been working on the railroad")

"We are walking el Camino,
all the live long day.
We are walking el camino
along the ancient ways.
When we get to Santiago,
we will hug St James.
And we'll get a Compostela,
to prove we've walked the way."
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I left Villamayor del MonJardin, went the wrong way, could not find my little yellow arrows and headed back. Found my Camino. I went through so many vineyards. All lined up so nicely, clusters of grapes hanging from them. I was told that if you eat them these little red dots will show up on your leg. Well, damn, I got the little dots. A rash actually, a bit itchy. I got some cream for it. Must have been the grapes that Jose (Brazil) gave me yesterday. I am starting to see less trees. I drank my water and was given more by these 4 Spaniards that were resting in what little shade they found. I moved on. I got to Los Arcos and walked in with my new Spanish friends. We had lunch together in this pretty town.


So get this... I tell them the story of the Patxaran and the girl pulls out a camera and shows me a picture of my French buddies and several others including my Spanish friends here toasting with my Patxaran!! I loved it...we got a good laugh out of it. See? This magic thing ... my story of the patxaran had an ending! I saw a bus full of turigrinos, a name given to those that go from town to town by bus and rest in albergues. Some albergue owners will not allow them to stay there, stating that they are for pilgrims on foot only. No problem. As I was leaving I saw Niall (from Ireland - was in the same albergue in Lorca and Villamayor) who was alone at a bench, taking care of his feet. This is very imortant on the Camino. The feet!! I said goodbye to the Spanish group and hung with Niall. We walked together and chatted very much. It is much hotter now, the ground is dry. Before the next village we stopped, took off our socks and cooled our feet off in a little river. There was a breeze and it helped cut that hot moment.


We got to Torres del Rio and at the albergue all they had left were floor mats on the terrace. We took them.



Nowhere to eat here, so we went to a small shop and we got soup mix, carrots, a potato. I found an onion and a zucchini, little tomatoes and made a great soup. Niall sliced some tomatoes, drizzled with olive oil and put sliced Manchego on top. He brought some sangria and we had a fab dinner.


The 4 Spaniards were there and they shared their melon with us. We gave the rest of our soup to a couple of German girls. To bed..others came and there were 5 of us on the terrace. I had a hard time sleeping. My toes touched Niall´s and he jumped and I thought,ohoh. But then he came over and got me to come to the terrace wall and look for Mars. It is supposed to be very close to earth and well visible. Hard to tell though. It was warm enough so I pulled my mattress out all the way to the outside and layed there. The full moon was very bright, it was like a beam shining on my face. We slept under the sky. The church bells rang every 15 minutes all night.


WTF?? So, not much sleep.... but oh, what a beautiful night!