Mondoñedo

This morning we started out around 8am, waiting for the sun to light the way and hiked about 5 miles before the route split at Mondonedo. I have been seeing signs about the cathedral there for the last couple days so I imagined it was a nice one. It WAS. From the outside it was massive, even dizzying as you approached and looked up at it. The door was open so we went in for a stamp. Another cathedral stamp! You had to pay to tour it and I definitely would have, but we had a long way to go and didn’t have the time. At Mondoneda we had 2 choices. We could go 3.5 miles more, pass through villages (cafe/coffee stops), not climb too much, but would be walking on more pavement…OR..we could hike steeply uphill for almost 4 miles, downhill another 4 miles, and still have about 5 miles to our destination, no cafe stops, huge views, and hike on dirt paths, total climbing in that 4 miles was a 2231 feet. Very challenging, but we both agreed to the mountain route. As we were about 1/4 way up (maybe not even that far) this lady caught up to us and asked Holly if she considered this difficult. Holly was huffing and puffing and quickly answered yes, that it was very steep and very difficult. The lady replied that she thought it was EASY. I thought to myself, what a mean thing to say. Who says that to someone who is obviously breathing heavily and appears to find it difficult? She passed by Holly and my competitive nature kicked in. She passed me, and as she did, stepped right in front of me. No you don’t. There were 2 sides to the path. She had passed me thinking she could overtake me easily and then dilly dally with her hat. I stepped to the right to pass her, which I shouldn’t have to do, stay right, Pokey. I didn’t say a word to her (probably a good thing) as my legs kicked in and left her in the dust. In doing so though, I left Holly behind too until I reached the top and waited for her. We all have our strengths and weaknesses, uphills are my strength. Before long I couldn’t even hear Pokey’s feet behind me. Usually in passing someone we say ‘Buen Camino’, I’ll admit, I didn’t say it, I was afraid something else would come out of my mouth. Holly, being as sweet as she is, didn’t even realize she was being condescending with her comment. I, on the other hand knew exactly what she was doing and in Hollys defense, grew wings and flew by her, it felt like I was like flipping her the bird, but better. Yes, it felt real good! Holly has been absolutely killing it every day, out hiking people half her age, staying positive, nice, and supportive, despite being completely exhausted at the end of the day. That’s classy. That’s strength. That’s my friend. I’m so fricking proud of her. It’s her first Camino and she picked the hardest one to do. It took me 10 years of doing different Caminos to have the courage to hike this route. I was told you need to be super fit to make it and not to attempt it without months of training. I work, so having time to hike more than 5 miles a day is not possible for me. Before we left for this trip we would meet at 6:30am with a couple other amazing ladies (miss you Phoebe and Whitney!!) about 4-5 times a week and hike 5 miles with our packs. 3 months of training is all we had under our belt when we embarked on this. We are doing it and we are going to walk across that finish line in 7 days, God willing.
Holly and I stopped for a lunch break with the stuff we bought from the store yesterday. It was really nice and much needed. The bend in my foot/leg was really bothering me again. I took my shoes off, put more Voltaren gel on it, and took more Ibuprofen. The gel didn’t even make it feel better at this point. It was too far gone. I drank down an Aquarius (electrolyte drink) and tried to get more water in me. It was painful to the touch. We took about a half hour break, looked at our guide books, and thought we had another 4-5 miles. Much to our surprise after about a half hour we could see the village we were to be stopping at. I pulled out my phone, looked at the app, and realized we had made it. I love it when I overestimate and all of a sudden it’s done for the day. We arrived at the albergue and were greeted by the nicest proprietor. I’ve got to say, it just makes you smile when you are greeted with kindness, and find the place clean, and beautiful. He told us about the 2 restaurants in town and opening hours, that we could bag up our laundry when we were done with our showers and he’d wash/dry it. He showed us the very nice shared kitchen we could use and that he’d have breakfast set out in the morning and it was included in the price ($29 each for this room!). The room is modern, clean, and this place has everything we could ever want and more. What a blessing. I couldn’t stop smiling and thinking how grateful I was to have this waiting for me at the end of this painful and challenging day. It was my turn for the shower first and I told Holly to go first. THATS how happy I was hahaha! The shower is the ticket to feeling human again after a long day. I was feeling much better the second I walked through this door! We are going to check out the small village now and find something to eat in a couple hours. Ultreia! ❤️👣🙏🏻Read more