Hospital de Órbigo

3 Rest days were good!

I set off to walk out of Leon early~ish in the morning.

It was nice. The Camino trail ran through the historic part of the city past some beautiful buildings. It was nice seeing Pilgrim’s and familiar faces heading out for the day.

Wishing them all well with a “Buen Camino”

I stopped at the bridge on the way out and saw large trout swiming up stream!

The city of Leon transitions from historic, to working class then industrial. After the historic part it’s like walking through garden city, pooler and president street in Savannah. For my California peeps. It’s like walking through Long Beach, Hawthorne, Wilmington and San Pedro in the ports.

There is nothing inspiring. A reminder of modern life with busy city busses and working class walking around with big trucks driving by. Smells that are particularly present and not knowing their source. Pew!

“They paved paradise and put up a parking lot”

Have you ever tried to walk around an Amazon Warehouse? Uninspiring!

Walking around these parts reminded me of when I was younger and we would travel through the industrial area and working class immigrant areas often as a kid.

As I turned down a street with large warehouses. I realized I had to go pee. There was no place to go pee and believe me I can go anywhere anytime.

As I walked down the street I saw a warehouse and a pop up tent. A man had a pop up pilgrim services stop. His wharehouse was open with bathroom use. He offered me coffee and an orange and a place to sit. He had a box that said Donativo/Donation.

Not everyone has money for a donation. Seeing the box reminded me of a stop way back on the trail where a pilgrim pop up was on the side of the road and a Pilgrim helped himself to the offerings of the donativo pop up. The man that was running the donativo tent got mad at the pilgrim for taking items and not paying for them. The man screamed and belittled the Pilgrim for eating the food. I offered to pay. The pilgrim said it’s donativo. (Pay what you can and I gave him 10 cents) The pop up tent man said you don’t take without paying! That was a lot to process.

Back to this post. I sat drank my instant coffee. Thinking about that previous situation. Observed all the items this man had on display for his Pilgrim Donativo tent. He had a big Baird with all the different languages to say hello. It was an industrial where house “it’s a small world after all”. Moment. He was very kind and asked if I needed anything.

While resting a woman came and sat with me and we decided to walk together for a little while. She told me her and her friend were supposed to walk the Camino but her friend broke her clavicle and so she was solo. Her name was Maureen and she had just started today as her first day walking. She is from Canada and asked me where were the mountains and the landscapes. I told her she is still in the Meseta = Insane -uh!!🤪

I explained this is the section people avoid. It’s too uncomfortable. It doesn’t offer a lot of visual stimulation. Happy first day! 🤣
Buen Camino! We both laughed. It was HOT!

We walked together for a couple hours. It was probably 45 minutes in reality. The heat was uncomfortable and with nothing to look at we were running out of casual conversation. It was a soulless walk. She opted to get rest and stop. I forged ahead.

I find these walks to be as fascinating and rewarding as any other whether it’s realized on that day or further down the line.

What is past pleasure, instant gratification, enjoyment, Spotify playlist and podcast, complaining and so on and what’s past that and what’s past that?

So many things to think and play with when walking in the Meseta.

Oh I hear foot steps behind me!! I turn and it the guy from Uruguay that we had dinner with a few stages back! I hug him and ask how he is and take a selfie! He briskly marches on.

I never saw anyone else for the rest of the day walking. It’s the volunteer road less traveled for sure. I’m not sure if everyone is supposed to travel it. I asked myself do I belong here walking this road?
I definitely questioned wtf am I doing here?
It’s there if you want to give it a go.

I made it to my albergue. It was a quiet - ghost town. It was like staying at one of those old motels on Hwy 17. There was Nada in this town.

I sat outside on the porch and a few Camino friends walking by spotted me and screamed my name!

What a relief! Someone knew me and I knew them. Before I knew it. We had about 5 of us. We added a few more new Camino friends who were from Italy. We all had some beers chatted about our day. Everyone agreed “that was a shit walk” 🤪

We had our pilgrim dinner. Which was pasta & garden salad, chicken paella and non alcohol after dinner shot. It was like doing a shot of shnapps with no alcohol.

After dinner I sat out in near the Chicken coop talking to chickens.

I prayed that the trail tomorrow would be brighter visually inspiring and then I prayed I would see it that way.

Lights out! 💡 😴 🛌Les mer