Pablito and his walking sticks

Hello from Logroño
On Thursday we left Estella for Los Arcos and Carol´s knee felt fine to start with, but after a few miles it flared up again. She was quite slow and we decided that I should go ahead as before and come back to carry her pack and lighten her load on the knee. I took a shortcut for the village of Asqueta. When I arrived I went to the church to see if I could leave my backpack there, but it was closed. Hey, this is Spain, what´s that all about! It´s not NYC or Stockton. Anyway, I asked a man I met where I could leave my pack and he said to go to Pablito´s house and directed me there. When I arrived, he let me leave my pack there and go after Carol. Again, I took the shortcut back and when I arrived at the crossing point, asked some other pilgrims if they had seen her. They said: "The blond?" Well, that was close enough for me, so I said yes. They said she was ahead, and I said that was impossible since I had left her way back, and I had taken the shortcut to and from the village. But I looked down the road, and could see the orange sleeping bag cover, and her tee shirt. It blew my mind that she had traveled so far, so fast, but what do I know? Not much apparently. I walk with her and she has problems, she walks alone and is much better. I´m not liking this picture very much.
We went to Pablito´s house, and it turns out that he is quite famous. He had a copy of Conde Nast traveler with his picture prominently displayed in it and a big write up about him. He is the pilgrim´s friend in the area. He made a poultice of herbs and put it on Carol´s knee and talked to her about carrying too much weight for her knees and other problems of walking the Camino. We asked what the poultice was and he just said that it was Australian plants. After he attended her knee he took her to the back and gave her a walking stick. It is this for which he is most famous. He prepares the simple hazelwood sticks and has dozens of different lengths and thicknesses. After choosing the correct one for carol, he proceeded to give her walking lessons, stamped our Camino passports, and we were off again.
It was a 15 mile walk and she felt great for most of the time, but the swelling had already started before we got to Pablito´s so the pain returned. So I went ahead again and this time didn´t come back for her. I did find an old castle ruin which I climbed and took out my monocular to look for her on the road, and could see she was making progress, slowly, but progress. There were two Italian women there, Daniella and Carla having lunch, so I just waited a while with them and then when Carol came, walked with her for awhile, and then went off ahead to the refugio and Carol arrived about 15 minutes after I got there.
We decided that maybe subconsciously she is trying to adjust to my pace and therefore walking faster than she should. I like that explanation better than the one that she is better off without me. By the end of the walk though, she had blister problems and she decided that she should take a bus today instead of walking. We debated as to whether I should accompany her on the bus, or walk without her and though we went back and forth on the issue, finally decided that I would continue on the Camino and she would come to Logroño on the bus, mail her heavy sleeping bag and whatever else she could discard and try tomorrow.
As it turns out several others had also decided to bus today. It was a long 18 mile section with nothing particular interesting about it, so Carol and two other women took the bus and gave their aches and pains a break. There is an Italian woman who walks until she tires, then hitchhikes. Several others utilize the service which will take their bags to the next refugio and they walk without any bags, others have a sort of caravan which meets and greets them as they cross roads which have auto access. When they get to the spot, lunch, cold drinks, and whatever other support is necessary is provided. there is no bad mouthing or tsk, tsk, tsk, going on. Everybody´s hurting and everybody knows how hard this is. What ever it takes to complete the journey is acceptable.
There is, however, a sort of built in snobbery that occurs with people who join in the Camino late in the game. Since you can get your compestela by walking the last 62 miles, those who do only that part of the Camino are looked down upon if they’re only doing it for the certificate. It´s all right to do it in stages, but for those who only do the last part and say they´ve done the Camino, well, eyeballs roll. The story was running through the refugio the other night that one of Bush´s daughter was going to do the last 60 miles to get her compestela. I said that sounded very much like her father´s military service, buy hell, maybe that´s just my Anti-Bush sentiment finding expression. Certainly was well received here though:-)
Everybody keeps saying: "How do we express the beauty of the Camino when we get home?" It´s just amazing - the country side of Navarra province. The late spring rains have everything totally green. At home the wheat and oat fields are dry and brown; here it looks like they do in March or April.
We walk and walk and see villages far out in the distance coming ever closer with each step. Finally, we´re there, and always sooner than we thought when they seemed so far away. We can look back and see from where we´ve travelled, and say, "Wow! we came a long way."
Tomorrow we´ll pass the one hundred mile mark, and the Camino no longer seems daunting to us. We know we can do it, small glitches will always arise, but if we had given ourselves a little wiggle room on the return airline tickets, We could have taken today as a rest day for Carol but she knows that she´s capable of walking the whole distance, as I do myself. It seemed soooooooo long to start, and still does, but by seeing each day as a mini-journey in itself, then it really breaks the whole trip into little doable sections which add up to bigger ones, and finally we´ll be there.
In the morning, there is a long line of pilgrims which lead out from the refugio. It´s almost impossible to get lost. Signs are everywhere which point the way. Each corner in towns and each fork in the road in the countryside are marked and point you to the proper direction. Then you can see all the pilgrims ahead of you which always reassure you as you start each day. As the day passes, the line thins out. Sometimes you can not see anybody. Then you´ll turn a corner in the road, and with a long straight stretch you can see somebody upon whom you are gaining. Sometimes as you walk you´ll here the sound of shoes behind you as you are being overtaken. "Buen Camino," is always the phrase of encouragement for those passing and those being passed. Everybody has their own speed.
Today was the first town where the refugio filled up before everybody got there. It was a long 18 mile section with the last 7 miles totally in the sun without protection of shade trees or villages to pass through to give relief. For those walking with infirmities, the day got long and hard. The last ones coming in around four in the afternoon after an 8-10 hour day. Tough to walk all that way and find no room at the inn.
Generally the weather has been perfect. The morning was cool, but not cold. Some days I start off in long pants and then unzip the trouser bottoms to make shorts out of them as the day warm. Sometimes I just start off in shorts. As the day warms, the breeze comes up, wafts the wheat fields like waves on the ocean and cools the sweat off our brow and hair. Very refreshing. Then in the mid afternoon, it just starts to get hot, and we´re all glad to be so close the end of the day as we arrive at the refugio.
We are all very thankful that we didn´t started later in the year when the heat really builds in Spain, and since this is a holy year, the Camino will get even more crowded than it is right now. Since it´s a holy year, the general buzz is that as we get closer to Santiago we´ll pick up more and more pilgrims, especially when the Bush girl and her four dozen secret service men start crowding the path. Stop it, Jim! Oh well, what the hell, one more shot. I can´t see a Bush staying at the refugio. Okay that´s enough, at least for now:-)
Tomorrow is a 19 mile section and Carol is looking forward to getting back in the saddle, as it were. She´s got her Pablito walking stick, her poultice, various blister treatments and she´s ready, able, and very willing to get back to it. We´ll just play out the day and see what works out best for her. I missed walking and talking with her today. At one point, I heard a very familiar sound and as I rounded a bend, here came a flock of several hundred sheep led by, and flanked by, herding dogs. The shepherd whistled commands and the dogs reacted as they flooded the road and surrounded me as I filmed and enjoyed the aroma with which only sheep can fill the air. Sure smelled like home to me. I missed Carol´s particular giggle which I know that she would let loose when she saw them, just as she does when she sees all the little things which bring her joy. I can only hope that we get more of that on the trail in the days ahead.
But for now we rest and start off early mañana for another day which will be full of surprises and wonderful little things which, when totaled, make up the grand experience we´re having.
Love to all,
Carol and Jim