Day XIX: San Martín del Camino -> Astorga; 16.6mi.

🛏:5€.

With a goal of Astorga, we knew today would be a short day mileage-wise and chose to start the day slowly. After the most adorable buffet breakfast at our lovely albergue, we set off on what ended up being the most eclectic and cafe free day yet, full of spontaneous stops along the way and diverting away from walking alongside a busy road.

🛑 1:

As we stumbled upon a town called Hospital de Orbigo, we found hundreds of individuals exquisitely dressed. We soon learned that they were getting ready for a dance ceremony that takes place once a year on what is the longest bridge on the camino. We were there in time to cross the bridge (we have since heard of several ‘peregrenos’ who got stuck on the opposite side of the bridge well into the afternoon) and find a nice balcony where we sat, observed and drank warm drinks before continuing on our way.

🛑 2:

We’ve passed a handful of ‘donativo’ (donation) stations with refreshments for peregrenos along the way, but nothing as extravagant as ‘Cantina la Casa de los Dioses.’ We spent a good hour eating fruit, peanut butter (!), sitting in hammocks, singing Coldplay songs and somehow avoiding an unintended siesta. It was impossible to beat.

There is a service along the Camino called ‘JacoTrans,’ which shuttles peoples packs between lodging facilities for 5€, enabling participants to travel with a lighter load. Eighteen days of pack-trekking paired with a bad habit of tensing my shoulders (my high school track coaches were consistently pointing this out) left with me with a severely aggravated left shoulder. I resisted turning to this transport service for a few days out of pride and then a few more with unwarranted anxiety about being separated from my pack (it’s become a part of me these past – almost – three weeks). But today I decided it was my best defense against serious injury and it was the best decision. I might be an addict, now.

It should probably be noted that today included another accidentally-ordered-potatoes-when-I-didn’t-mean-to mix up. We went to a pizza place for dinner. My obsession with ranch and pizza led my eyes to the french fries on the menu, which came with a dipping sauce that sounded comparable to ranch. I ended up ordering the huge plate of fried potatoes with my pizza-dipping-sauce on top of them. I made due.

🎧:

I caught up to a friend from Tennessee (who now resides in Germany) during today’s final stretch. He asked what I was listening to and I responded by disconnecting my headphones. His face lit up as ‘Luckenbach, Texas’ played and we sang along together all the way to the albergue. I’ll never hear that song and not think of him again.

“.. Waylon, Willie & the boyyyyyys ..”