Doctor’s Orders

When, as a pilgrim, you get sent to the doctor’s office what do you do? You have him stamp your passport.

We deliberately started “late” today at 7:30 since it was a short walk to León. It still amazes me that I consider 12 miles a short walk. Kathy was willing to wait for the first town for coffee. I, on the other hand, took the sure thing and stopped in the open cafe practically outside our door, so we split up immediately. It’s been getting up to 80 degrees again, but the mornings are delightfully cool.

Annette, who’d started from a town behind us, caught up to me around mile three, then we caught up with Mim and Kathy, and, as usual, we all ended up in the same coffee spot. Yvonne and Tom had stayed for a second cup of coffee with someone they knew or they’d have been gone when we got there, but things seem to work out on the Camino.

That place has an amazing bakery on one side and coffee/regular food on the other. The bakery line was shorter, so a few people would get a pastry first before ordering coffee. What we didn’t realize was that when you ordered coffee they threw in a free baked good or small sandwich. You couldn’t choose what kind of sweet, and I think they may have been the day old ones, but the apple muffin I had was delicious. Apparently throwing something in when you order a drink is not uncommon in León. I had orange juice at our second stop (my third) and was offered something there as well.

The scenery is starting to change as we move out of the Meseta. More trees, more animals, more variety of farms. It’s not necessarily more interesting, except that just by virtue of being different it is interesting. Today we saw so many storks! The first time I saw one a few days ago I knew it was a stork only because someone with me said it was. Without a baby hanging out of its beak how was I to know?

Annette had gone ahead, but the rest of us stuck together to León. Kathy and Mim are not taking a rest day, while Tom and Yvonne are. My plan was to leave tomorrow but do a super short day. We’ll all be on the same schedule again in a few days. Since we couldn’t check in to our hotels yet, we decided to make lunch our big meal of the day before we scattered to do laundry, find new shoes, visit the pharmacy, and all the other things you do on a rest day and/or when in a big town. The food was amazing, and the large beers were actually large.

That was supposed to be our farewell for a few days, but Mim texted later about a great churros and chocolate place fairly central to all of us. I had just gone to the pharmacy for blister advice and supplies. They tried to sell me compeed, a common blister fix here. On Camino message boards there are strictly divided opinions — compeed is either salvation or the devil. Even I know, though, that you don’t put it on an open blister, which is what I have, so I whipped off my sandals to show the guy. Then the woman. Then the other woman who’d come out from the back. After much back and forth while looking at it, they insisted I should go to a doctor and told me where to find a clinic.

I texted no churros for me, expecting a long wait at the clinic. After a Google Translate conversation with the receptionist as to why I was there and that yes, I would pay (private clinic), she took me right back to a doctor’s office. There were other people waiting, so I don’t think he was really meant to be seeing patients just then. Either they took pity on me or just wanted the crazy non-Spanish speaking woman out of there sooner rather than later.

He was very nice. He looked at my foot and essentially told me in Spanish, broken English, and sign language, that I need to let it heal for ten days.

“Peregrina,” I said, spreading out my arms. Translation: I’m a pilgrim. Ain’t happening.

He laughed, pawed around his cabinets, and gave me a stack of gauze, a bottle of betadine, and a roll of tape. Along with a stern lecture about using cotton socks, not wool (that was surprising) and letting it dry as much as possible, plus the optimal pain management plan. This was done using a lot of Google Translate since charades was getting us only so far in a medical setting. He called someone for advice after sending her a picture of my foot, and he prescribed a covering of some sort I need to get from the pharmacy. He also told me not to tell the pharmacy that he’d given me the samples. I thanked him for being so kind, and told him his English is much better than my Spanish.

The churros place was right around the corner, and the crew was still there when I stopped in. I’m not staying off it for ten days, but I’d also already decided to do a full rest day in León tomorrow. They had been talking and pointed out that if I stay here, then bus forward to Astorga the next day and take a rest day there when Mim and Kathy do that I’ll have four days of non hiking to help it heal. That means missing only two stages and puts me in a much better position when we head back to the mountains after Astorga.

Because that is a very reasonable plan you’d think my stubbornness would cause me to reject it outright, but I don’t want to potentially screw up the final stages by being stupid right now, so I am going to take that advice. I am also going to visit the outdoor store tomorrow to look at new shoes. I like my Merrill’s, but they don’t seem to like me. Plus, of course, I need to buy cotton socks.

Also on tomorrow’s agenda is my sports massage, so maybe I can get everything fixed here in León.Læs mere