The pharmacist made me cry

Today I´ve come out of the camino with the following: 112 miles, 9 blisters, 1 special blood blister the size of a quarter in width, one swollen left ankle, a very sore right knee after a day full of downhill, and the thought that I would do this all again in a heart beat. Blisters and all. Speaking of blisters....

The night we stayed in Villafranca (the night of the last post) I headed to the pharmacy after the computer. The pharmacist didn´t understand english and I obviously don´t speak spanish well, so my ¨quiero syringe para insulin¨didn´t go over very well. Catie and Michael, my spanish translators, weren´t present yet. I showed him my blisters and he looked disgusted, then demanded I sit. He proceeded to poke them and then walked off, muttering in spanish the entire time. He came back with gloves on his hands, a scalpel and a little bin. I was terrified. As he put the gloves on he said ¨american?¨ (of course this is the only thing we can communicate to each other) and I said yes and he looked even more dissapointed. He also asked ¨la camino?¨Again, the answer was yes and he was disgusted with me. He cut open all 9 of my blisters with the scalpel (I was mortified and scared.. do you think this is in a pharmacist´s scope of practice???) and luckily Michael and Catie came in then. After cutting and draining them, he put benidine in each one to sterilize it.. which ironically is why I wanted the syringe. I was doing ok, laughing a bit actually, until he put it in the one on my heel. It instantly brought me to tears because it stung so bad. So something important to understand- most people doing the camino walk 8 hours by themselves and are fairly isolated from their families. This is a very physically and emotionally challenging task and many a pilgrim is known to breakdown and cry at some point. I haven´t experienced this yet, though I have teared up a few times but never broke down. This apparently bothers Catie because almost every night she asks me, ¨how are you... emotionally?¨ She´s waiting for my breakdown to occur so her and Michael´s rock bottom stage can be jusitified :) So when I started bawling while the spanish pharmacist with a scalpel scolded me, Catie found a little bit of relief. And I let the tears roll. And that is how the pharmacist made me cry.

The scenery has changed dramatically in the last week. In the beginning, it felt like we spent a lot of time in the city. We were walking within sight of buildings, under power lines and often on roads or paths next to the main road. Soon we began to walk more in what felt like the desert and then crawled up into the mountains, in fields of flowers and bushes. The last few days have been amazing- I can´t believe I can say this after what I experienced 4 days ago, but the scenery gets more beautiful almost every day. Yesterday we walked through wheat fields, gardens and a lot of wine country. Towards the end of the 15 miles yesterday we began to climb a mountain. It was much more of a climb than I anticipated, but we Montanians feel that we have an edge over the others since we have the mountain experience! Last night may have been my favorite night so far... we stayed in an albeurge on the side of the mountain in La Faba run by germans. We attended an all german mass service in a gorgeous little church and slept somewhat outside while listening to the cow bells. It was a wonderful, very surreal night.

Today, day 7, marks my halfway point. We climbed the rest of the mountain and it felt like it may never end. At the top of the mountain this morning, we could see the sun just past it´s rise and the clouds covering all but the peaks of the mountains, making them appear to be ¨floating islands.¨ After we climbed up the mountain, we of course had to climb down. It was 16 miles today but took quite a bit longer due to all of the hills. We ended primarily in farm country which was interesting to see the change and all the animals, but sure was stinky. Tonight we´re in a town that I can´t even remember the name of, but we are officially less than 100 miles and 1 week away from Santiago!

I am having such a blast, between the views either at the top of the moutain or next to the river, the people I´ve met from all over the world that we run into each night in the town we´re in, to the laughs that Catie and Michael and I constantly share. Walking alone for 7 hours a day sure gives you a lot of time to think about life and goals for the future (I´ve decided I will be fluent in 3 languages in 5 years!) and everything you´re thankful for. Despite the blisters and all the pain, I am enjoying this immensly and am beginning to worry the next 6 days may go too fast!!! Who woulda thought?!?

Thanks for reading and commenting- I really enjoy reading them! If you just can´t get enough blog, you can still follow us on Catie and Michael´s blog too ;)

Buen camino