To Pola de Lena

I am now lighting candles for eight people. I am not religious, but there is something very centering about lighting candles and then sitting there quietly thinking and sending good thoughts. Yesterday I was in a (much reformed) Romanesque church. Wide open (unusual) and with real candles instead of electric lights (very unusual). I felt very connected, and I remembered that when my mom was dying, three of my camino amigas who were walking all lit candles for her along the way. It meant so much to me.

Today’s 27 km were much harder than I expected. My pal Ender had given me some new tracks for this stage, a few changes here and there, and he asked that I try them out. Well where I thought the changes were, the route seemed familiar, and then on a long downhill road walk that I remembered well, I saw his tracks take me off the road. After making such a big point of never turning down the opportunity to go off road, I was sort of already committed. Well, it turns out that Ender sent me the wrong tracks. The 5 or 6 km that deviated from the road were very pretty, but there were sections that required every ounce of concentration and care to make sure I got one foot in front of the other. Horrible ascents, and the descents were just as bad. Ender didn’t mean to give me those tracks, because it’s a path he hasn’t yet navigated himself. I can’t imagine making this the official camino route without a lot of work on the surface.

The extra hours spent on those Kilometers meant that I arrived after closing of the beautiful ninth century Santa Cristina church. I could have waited for 2 1/2 hours for it to open up again, but I was still 5 km from my destination, and I decided the best idea was to walk on.

I am in a very nice family run pension, the Payareta. Private room, bath, and breakfast just 20 €. Once again, after a shower, I feel totally refreshed and ready to walk around town .Read more