Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Day 10
Queridos Amigos,
An absolutely perfect day. It started with a stiffer, colder wind right in my face. Loved it. As I crested the hill leading out of Najera, there was a pine forest. The sound of the wind in the pines was as transporting and as striking as any rushing brook.
Just one gorgeous valley and vista after another, all the way into Santo Domingo.
There was a young woman behind me who, when I reached an ambiguous crossroads, would catch up with me and tell me the way to go. Although young, for some reason she was slow. After several encounters like this I pulled far ahead and reached another ambiguous crossroads. Yes, there was a yellow arrow and shell pointing one way, but the shell had writing on it and I thought it might be showing the way to an albergue. Also, I could see a pair of pilgrims had taken the other road. I decided to follow the pilgrims.
By the time the young woman reached the crossroads, I was a quarter mile away. But she waved to me that I had taken the wrong path. I checked my guidebook and she was right again. So I had to backtrack, but I never caught up with her.
No more vineyards; only vast fields of wheat and rape. While walking alongside an enormous rape field, the roar of the bees was startling. It sounded like some kind of industrial process, which I suppose it is.
I was tempted to stop taking landscape shots. My point-and-shoot just did not have a wide enough lens; not many cameras would. I took silence breaks and turned all the way around; in every direction stunning beauty, a wonderful combination of nature and the work of man.
The Open Road -- Snow-Capped Mountains at Upper Left Corner
I’ve been taking a lot of wildflower pictures and managed to take a picture of the bird with the bright yellow coloring. Mating frogs were out in force, making that noise again.
Tonight I’m staying in a parador. In the last century, Spanish authorities were trying to decide what to do with all the crumbling, abandoned monasteries, convents, and castles. They hit upon the idea of turning them into luxury hotels. Interesting places with terrific breakfast buffets.
Arrived in Santo Domingo and was surprised by the all the closed shops. Turns out today is the feast of San Isidro, the patron saint of agriculture. There was a large procession with a band, then more music by another band and a lot of socializing. There was a long, long line of people. They were queued up for donuts, passing around a porrón, a curious wine bottle with a slender, tapering spout coming off the side; you tip it up and pour in your mouth without touching your mouth. All very traditional.
Drinking From a Porrón
I did catch up with two Spanish girls on the road who were taking lots of pictures and asked them to take one or two of me, which they did.
Yesterday evening when I used the public library computer, I went way over the time allotted, infuriating the librarian. She hovered over me, then paced back and forth, but to her credit, let me finish. She must have had an important engagement waiting. So I signed out, picked up my camera and left. Two blocks away I remembered that I had left my camera card in the computer.
A pair of Birkenstocks has rarely covered two city blocks in less time. I waited for an eternity for the elevator to come, then rode it to the only other floor, another lengthy wait. The librarian was waiting for the elevator herself. I dashed past her into the library and plucked out my card. She had to wait for me; she couldn’t leave a foreign visitor in her domain, I guess. When I returned she had given up on the elevator and took the stairs down. Then I discovered why the elevator was so slow. We must have walked down five or six floors.
This morning I had breakfast in a cafe. The paper on my table and the television on the wall were all caught up in the big demonstration in Madrid. Some 2,500 people were arrested and face two-year prison terms.
Why can’t Spain get its economy moving? My scholarly army buddy follows European developments closely. He sent this observation:
In the early 1970s Spain had 800,000 workers in the public sector and unemployment was 4.5%; now it has 4,500,000 on the public payroll, 30% of whom earn 3,000 Euros a month compared to 12,000,000 working in the private sector, of whom 40% earn 900 Euros a month or less and unemployment is about 25% now. Spain now has 17 regional governments and 18 parliaments, all of which feed at the public trough.
I have a hard three-day, 48+ mile slog ahead of me, with lots of climbing. With luck that will bring me to Burgos, where Susan and I spent a delightful day or two in 1999. I plan to take my first rest day there in a nice hotel. As of now, I’ve completed some 133 miles.
I know my feet will appreciate the break. Foot pain is down considerably, but still there, especially after 5 or 6 hours on the hoof. My Ten Little Ones then begin to make their disfavor known. I can only reply, “I feel your pain.”
I devised some extra padding for my shoulder straps, which helps a lot. But I keep increasing the weight in my pack.
My sunburned arms began to hurt when the hot water of the shower hit them. I went to a farmacia to see what could be done. Farmacias are ubiquitous here, always visible by the bright green neon cross in front. They are very clean places, staffed by well-groomed, often pretty, women in white lab coats.
I explained to a young woman about my arms and she said my face needed help too. So I walked out with two creams, one to heal and a sun block. More weight, but what can I do?
The shower in my hotel last night had two different shower heads plus a panel of six nozzles. It was like taking a shower in a car wash.
One of the handiest pieces of my gear is a compressor sack. Looks like a very large, very heavy duty zip lock bag, and in fact, the top closure is a zip lock. At the bottom are air valves. You pack clothes and fabric things neatly inside, seal it, then sit on it to squeeze all the air out. It whistles while you ride it down. The experience is not unlike sitting on a whoopie cushion. I doubt if all my clothes would fit in my pack without it.
It's ten til eleven here and I have a long day ahead of me. Glad to hear that Austin is having a rainy cool spell. Is the drought officially over?
Un abrazo para todos,
John
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