Both Feeling Sick Now in Los Arcos

They say the Camino offers us lessons, and our job is to learn them. Our lesson right now is in humility and acceptance. There’s not much you can really do to show a virus who’s boss; clearly the virus is! 🦠 David had two feverish nights in a row and congestion and cough. But he does seem to be improving so he suggested we walk a bit today and then taxi the rest of the way. It was all fun and games until my joints started to ache and my tummy got upset, sure signs of a fever in my body. We walked about half of the way to Los Arcos and then we got a soda at one of the bars and asked them if they could call a taxi for us. We are very happy to be in our little apartment in Los Arcos. They even have one of those little under counter washer dryer units. We are very excited! We are hoping to wash laundry tonight in the machine!!!

Today we passed Irache, a little town that has a free wine fountain. Like they put 10 liters of wine in it every morning and people can just serve themselves. They say you should pour wine into your pilgrim’s scallop shell. I don’t know how well that works since most people have their shell tied firmly onto their backpack. We had a late start today because we spent some time at the Pharmacy which doesn’t open until 9:00 am. So we missed the big clump of early departure pilgrims. But we kept passing and falling behind a Spanish couple. At Irache the wife opened her mouth under the wine fountain and drank enough that she was pretty drunk, singing at the top of her lungs along the trail. Her husband was getting really annoyed with her. Maybe the wine fountain should come with a warning label!! We didn’t try the wine ourselves but like every single pilgrim, we had to check it out and take pictures of it!!

Today was the first day that was kind of emotionally rough. We’ve had plenty of hard physical days! They say the repeated physical challenges is what makes the Camino a spiritual experience, I guess kind of like what fasting is supposed to do in a lot of spiritual traditions. For me today had some revelations about acceptance. Of course I know in my head that David’s cognitive state is in decline, and that I need to accept that some of our dreams for the future just aren’t going to be. And I know I’m my mind that I need to really take care of my own physical, mental, and spiritual health so I can be there for him. But something about being sick myself and worried about being physically unable to be Super Woman really drove it home today and I was feeling all teary. It sounds weird but I think actually accepting our reality emotionally is quite a positive change. Anyway, not to be all woo woo and over sharing, but I think it’s all part of being here.

Coming up on the town where we agreed we’d call a taxi was so great today! When we saw the tower on the church in town and then found a bar with cold drinks it was about as good as anything can ever get! It’s in the mid-80°s with little shade and hotter than one might think.Read more