This morning started ouT with a jolt. The German man in the bed next to mine had his alarm set for 6am and it went off loudly. It startled me out of a sound sleep. I gave up noisy alarms many years ago and got a zen alarm that just goes "ding."if you don't turn it off it does that again after ten minutes, again after eight and so on. I sways wake up on the first ding. So this loud noise startled me. I guess it startled him to, because he banged around on the chair it was sitting on and knocked on the floor and then made a whole lot of ruckus trying to find it on the floor. I finally turned my phone on so he would have some light to see it.
Well after all of that I was awake. I usually can't go back to sleep once I wake up. The killer is HE did go back to sleep for another hour and a half. I resisted the urge to strangle him, or at least continue to wake him up until he couldn't go to sleep again. I didn't do this out of kindness, compassion or goodness of spirit. I wanted to give him a good whacking, but there were other people in the room and I didn't want his screams to wake them up. The guy had snored all night too, which I got to sleep and slept through. So I was not little miss sunshine this morning.
But then, I had corn flakes for breakfast! They had them on the breakfast set up. I also had tostada con mermelada. They only had instant coffee, you can't have everything. I also had a pleasant chat with Paul at breakfast. He's going to try and get to Zafra today so he can see a doctor about his knee tomorrow.
After breakfast I packed up and headed out. I was one of the last ones out of the albergue. I headed out according to the map, but at one point I stooped to ponder which way to go. I had barely stopped and a man walking two dogs starting waving his hands indicating a direction. I actually remembered to take my head phones off so I could hear him. And he said siga derecho al fin y luego gorse a la izquierda ( go straight to the end and turn left.) when I put my headphones back on and the Lucinda Williams was singing, did an angel whisper in your ear?" I thought, "No, but a Spanish man with two dogs waived his hands and shouted directions." Almost the same thing, right?
As I reached the place to turn left I sucked on my water and nothing happened. I'm like damn. My back pack didn't feel wet, so I didn't think it leaked two liters of water out. So I take off the pack, haul most of the stuff out and find out that after filled it I didn't connect the tube, that carries the water to my mouth, tight enough. So by now it is 9am and I head off for the day.
I won't bore you with the astonishing beauty of the grasses, oaks and wild flowers, same old stuff. lol That was all still there, and the animals. I guess today was about tiredness. I think I'm at that stage where you are dog tired, but not yet to the point where your endurance starts to increase. The point at which you just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other. I sat down after a few hours and drank a box of juice I had left over from breakfast. I didn't want to get up again, but I thought it might get a bit chilly sleeping the night there. It was a day without highways or even roads, I was on trails the whole day. And at times I would look around and not only were there no other human beings, there was no evidence that any people lived or passed through here, other than the old road/trail I was walking on.
At one point the trail dead ended into another road/trail. There was no yellow arrow, no sign, no rocks, nothing. So I go right and hike up the trail for a while. I notice there are no boot prints on the trail and I just get a feeling this is not the right way. There is nobody around anywhere. So I take out phone to see if there is a signal so I can see if google maps can help me. Many times between pueblos I don't have a signal. But luck is with me. So I punch in the name of the pueblo I headed to and, much to my surprise, google maps knows where the pueblo is and where I am. If I'm reading it right, I'm going the wrong way. So I turn around and start going the other way. I'm still not sure I was reading google maps correctly. Uncertainty. Then as if in a fairy tale, down the trail coming towards me is a beautiful chestnut horse with a very good looking man, I mean a hunk, riding the horse. The horse is regal and the man aristocratic looking. If this were a fairy tale he would be the Prince. On this day, he was my knight in shining armor, because I asked him if I was going the right way, and he said I was and that Fuente de Cantos is about ten kilometers away. And he rode off. Be still my heart. :) I was much relieved to know I was going the right way. So I continued wandering.
Note to Stephanie: I am wearing the necklace you gave me that has one of my favorite sayings, "All who wander are not lost." But I think maybe I should take it off because I'm giving those who wander a bad name, getting lost all the time. Hehehe
Now Fuente de Cantos is one of those pueblos you can see for along time before you get to it. In this case I saw it about an hour before I got to it. That is very frustrating when you are very tired and just want to sit down and I need to pee. I'm no longer in an area where I can just squat, but at one point I consider if. So I finally get to town and follow the arrows to where I think the Municipal Albergue is and I find the building, but there is no albergue. I start wandering blindly trying to find some yellow arrows. It's Sunday in Spain. Everything is closed. Nobody is walking around going to or from the store or farmacía. I finally see a guy and ask him about the Municipal Albergue and he tells me it is closed. So I ask him if there is another albergue and show him the page in my guide book. He tells me that not only is it Sunday, but it is a Feast day and so the whole pueblo is at a fiesta. Great!
But from my book he gives me the directions to another place. Go past the farmacía, turn left and go to number 40. Muy bien. I turn around and go past the farmacía and turn left. I'm looking for number 40. The numbers increase very slowly. I finally get to twenty and think I'm halfway there. Then these two men coming down the street tell me I am going the wrong way. They start herding me back down the street telling me there is no place to stay on that street, everything is closed because there is a fiesta. They are speaking a form of Spanish I don't understand and they are clearly not understanding what I am saying, which is that I need a place to sleep tonight. They keep saying something about mañana, and I keep saying I need a place to sleep tonight.
We finally get to the end of the town and they point out where the Camino continues to the next pueblo, which, by the way, is 13 miles away. There is noway I can walk another 13 miles. It's 3:30pm. It took me 6.5 hours to do the last 13 miles and I'm beat. Even if I did it in the same amount of time which would happen, I wouldn't be in until 10pm. I thank them and tell them I need a place for this night in this pueblo. They don't know any thing about that.
So I walk back through town ready to cry, wondering what it would be like to sleep on a door step or park bench sober. I don't even know where the center is, where I might find a hotel or a taxi to take me to the next town. As I walking a car pulls up and asks me if I am looking for an albergue. I say yes. He has a bunch of flyers on the passenger's seat. I say yes and he says just go past the farmacía and turn left on Calle de Llorena and go to number 40. Does that sound familiar? It should, it's where I was headed before. He drives off and come back. He asks if I want a ride. I almost jump for joy. It turns out he and/or his son own/run this place. It is very nice. I have a regular bed that is not a bunk bed for 12€. I would have taken anything for any price. It has a patio with a fountain, a swimming pool (little cold for that right now) a kitchen and even a bar restaurante that will be open for breakfast tomorrow. There is a fridge with soda, wine, beer, and juice to buy on the honor system. The place looks like it used to be an old two story Spanish house. The kind with the patio on the inside and living quarters around the patio. They are restoring it and I am in a room that still in the process of being restored. But I have shelter and the owner point me to the one bar in town that is open. I go in and order a jamon y queso bocadilla and a café con leche. I have shelter, I have a full stomach. I got some ice for my knee. Life is good.
I'm sharing my room with a German guy who came into the room stating he did 40 meters today. I think they want you to me impressed. I gave my usual response, "Why?" He looked at me puzzled. I asked, "Are you in a hurry?" There may be time constraints. He doesn't speak enough English to understand the question. Oh well.
Hope you all had a great day.
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