I don't know if it was because breakfast was included and did not start till six..people 'slept in' a little, so I was woken at five thirty not before by rustling etc... I got packed quickly.. I really seem to have this portion stream lined now! Luckily with last afternoons siesta nap and seven hours of sleep this night, and with minimal wake ups, I had almost good sleep...Even with a room full of men, mercifully not another nigh mare snorer. For breakfast, I had some dry crackers with margarine that I found somewhat unsatisfying to eat, but surprisingly good strong coffee... I had somehow missed the rush for, with in minutes of my arrival in the kitchen their were now long lines for coffee and no spaces left to sit and eat.. I felt I had been pretty luck so far on the Camino...i left just after six...In a way, i dont know what I am doing up so early, when it is still dark out and walking...but apparently this is how one does pilgrimage in Spain... very different from my oh, eleven o'clock starts in italy... but now it was no longer spring..and in the afternoon when the heat kicks in it is not fun... A woman who I knew could speak german, walked by my side, she also spoke english, she was originally from Jamaica and had ended up doing a masters program in germany twenty years ago..eventually she married a german and now has a life there... we chatted for the first hour...she was wanted to walk fast before the heat got going so we said our farewells and I walked my usual measured pace... as I mentioned before despite my slow speed, somehow I dont find I have tons of people pass me...one finds one's pocket on the path...and seems to keep seeing the same people... the walk today was not quite as pain free and easy as the last two days my feet started complaining earlier... but I now take my shoes and socks off on breaks...this allows my feet to cool and shrink a bit and makes walking after easier... Somehow getting going this early I feel like I am walking a bit faster, I am surprised how quickly towns come up... I stopped for second coffee and a chocolate donut in one town... but that and the gummie bears in my bag was all I ate all day...i dont feel hunger much during the day..
I arrived in Los Arcos at noon, it seemed too early to stop although the next destination with auberges was over 8kms away and it meant walking a bit in the afternoon heat I decided to do it... Arcos had this little rest station with soda machines at the beginning of town for us pilgrims..i just randomly chatted with some german guy who had a slightly more detailed guide book than I, as far as over night stays options... my book just mentioned the two auberges in Torres del Rio were closed at the writing of the book... I wanted to make sure I had someplace to stay if I would do this march..his book sounded reassuring..so with not much of a break I kept going...
Although by my reckoning I walked fairly fast, it still started getting hot and it was twoish when I approached the next town with lodging... There was a town just before it, I was unsure if I had arrived or not.., but then I realized I had to walk through... and I had to walk on tarmac and now I really can tell the difference ...my feet feel tired and if they are getting too hot even when I walk on it for only minutes.....
but I did arrive in front of the 'private' auberge, which means instead of six euro it was ten and it meant that usually the rooms had less beds in them and sometimes are a little better and newer...the young mother running the front desk was completely unenthusiastic about her lot in life, meaning this job, but she did manage to assign me a bed and tell me where the showers were.... I ran into the jamaican german woman again..she had been told less so I told her about the downstairs showers...apparently the little kid here, smacked her and gave her the finger upon her arrival.. I did quick shower and laundry.. I was able to hang laundry from our windows and in the sun... the clothes pins I had bought in italy are becoming more indispensable so it seemed... I then lay down to nap...of course people kept arriving and rustling...i had a simple conversation with two italian women..they kept praising me for having started in Assisi... then a S Korean man showed up..there are quite a few Korean Catholics that I see walking on the Camino... and he had all sorts of weird and cool gadgets that he had to rustle to set up..including a special bed bug repellent I just had to ask him about... he did not know the ingredients but apparently it is not harmful to beings who's body temperature is even, like mammals and us humans but it is harmful to things like insects...i never heard of repellent that targeted uneven body temperature... or a cure for bed bugs...other than massive fumigation..but it seems each country has it's miracle cures... he also slept on something like a space age foil mat.. I forgot to ask him about that one..cuz I had to nap.... just as I was about to role over and get a bit more sleep.. the three people from yesterday, that I love to loath showed up from, I had really hoped I had some how out run them... again they immediately took over the room with noise, loud talking, and pacing..they did not seem the least bit disturbed that me and this italian woman in the bunk beneath me had been resting and were both clearly showing signs of agitation now that they had arrived... I gave up on sleep and dinked on my lap top...it started getting hot in the room so I went down in the common area...the young woman running the place...was lounging sadly in a chair watching soaps absentmindedly while her kid... periodically screamed for her and gave the finger to a few more people... I found they had wifi, so again more dinking on lap top... I saw two young women pilgrims also with a lap top.. I am not the only one! Eventually my new friend, the Jamaican german woman, swung by and we decided to go find dinner together...she had not eaten any real meals since she had started pilgrimage...also because of the heat and diet change of too much bread that bothered her... we sat down in a restaurant with incredibly friendly charming service ,it was such a huge contrast to most of the pilgrim businesses we'd run across... but it took over an hour to get food... we lost track of time blabbing so it was okay... we spoke about Jamaica and Rastafarianism, she was Christian and not Rasta but is starting to grow dreads... she told me in more detail her journey to Europe, and how she also did part of grad work in Ghana and how much she had loved it there and west Africa in general... her husband who is the German is currently working in Tunisia and she will join him there in December... they had adopted a child, and she talked about how hard it is to adopt girls in Germany...boys were so much easier because they have higher juvenile delinquency issues as adoptive kids and therefore less desirable... also the mother of the child kept wavering about giving her up... the child has two forms of attention deficit disorder, my friend talked about how she struggled with patience and a child who could not complete tasks without constant supervision...there was clearly love and frustration there.. she also was concerned about moving her young teenage daughter to a different culture and taking her away from all her friends... but she loved Africa, so she was going to see it through... she also talked about having to walk with a very light pack only 7kg which seems so light to me..but she has problems with her feet, so it is actually a surprise that she can do this at all..but she seems like a strong walker... she has some health issues too with high blood pressure, she is totally fit, so also a surprise, since you could not tell by looking at her...but she said that she finds doing pilgrimage is very calming ...her body hurts but her mind is at peace... she is doing pilgrimage for many of the same reasons that I am...she wanted to clear cobwebs out of her mind...and try walking instead of time in monastery in retreat... (she had checked out some Christian monasteries in Germany for retreat) she wanted to see who she would become on the journey and what would come up for her... and to learn from others.... she was in her fifties and looked much younger... her energy was really open and despite all her experiences she was clearly a student still of life....our food was not amazing..but they included a lot of drink with the special 'pilgrim price menu'... and I had a bit of chocolate cake which I pretended was my birthday cake from yesterday since that had not been much of a celebration...oh one nice thing about having had access to internet that day was to read all the birthday wishes from the day before which was awesome... we arrived back at the auberge a little after ten...it had not registered in my mind that we actually have a curfew..but yes, the young women was trying to herd in straggler pilgrims like us for the night... when I got back into the room everyone was already asleep even the now labeled 'compulsive talkers' … I slept okay...not fantastic..we did have middle strength snorer in our room...
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