Seconds

Well, day 2 was the longest walk of our six day pilgrimage and we woke up with a spring in our step. All three of us felt relatively pain free and seemed to have rested reasonably. 

And we set off. It was still dark and the headlamp helped. We climbed down the steep steps and started walking. I used the Camino app diligently  but also noticed that there were pilgrims ahead of us and behind us all the time. No way we were getting lost in that crush. We literally has to get out of people's way sometimes.  We walked at our own pace. So we mostly had people overtaking us. We didn't mind. We were on our journey and they were on theirs.

And for the first time we had some acknowledgement from fellow walkers. Three young kids, all from Madrid were walking along and stopped to talk to us. They asked us where we were from and we gave them the long version. So they shared stories of their experience visiting the States and how much they loved it.

We kept walking, with breaks for using the restroom, and our newest discovery, freshly squeezed orange juice. We usually had coffee, but filled one of our bottles with OJ and drank it along the way. One of us had also brought rehydration powder that made so much of a difference. We shared a bottle all the time. Ofcourse drinking Indian style!

The kilometers kept coming and we walked , walked past small villages, and bowers of chestnut and oak trees, beautiful houses with lush gardens,tiny chapels that looked abandoned but still had a stamp available. Oh, the stamp thing- we recieve a passport that we need to get stamped at a minimum of two places along the way each day to prove we had  actually walked the way. To get our Camino certificate that was an absolute requirement. We went overboard. Most stores, hotels, hostels, restaurants  had the stamp available amd yoy could do it yourself. Every place we saw a stamp, we stopped and had out passport stamped.  There was a thrill in looking at our passport at the end of the day and reliving the experience. 

We had hit our destination around 3.45 p.m the first day and so we assumed we would get to the second place, Palas De Rei a little later, because we had 2 more kilometers to walk. But we made it at almost the same time and it hit us that our detour on day 1 had actually tacked on atleast 2 more kilometers to our original 22 kilometers.

We limped  into Palas de Rei and checked into our hotel. By now we were truly tired. Our feet were killing us and we could barely stand. We managed to slow walk to a nearby hotel and have a good lunch/dinner. That food, what do I say? Good everywhere.  Mildly spiced and a preponderance of seafood but fresh and sweet. The shrimp and squid and tuna ...our vegetarian friend found surprisingly interesting things to eat too. 

We sat outside the church for a few minutes and then I attended the pilgrim mass. It was in Spanish, but I followed along as best as I could and it thrilled me that that I could participate in something that was the same the world over irrespective of the language.  God is one, no?

We hit the hay as soon as we could. Some painkillers creams helped assuage the pain, and we went off to bed. Knowing that we only had 14 kilometers to walk the next day felt comforting and we decided that we wouldn't hurry much. 

God waits, he waits for us patiently.