Almost there

It’ Raining, It’s Pouring, the Men in the Albergue Are Snoring

July 1, 2014

No wifi yesterday. It wasn’t working at the bar. So we sat and ate our eggs, salad and peach and watched the World Cup. We were rooting for Nigeria, while others were cheering the French on.
When we got back to our bunkbed we discovered that Abby’s feet had developed some reddish looking small bumps. Laundry detergent reaction? Walked to long that day? We didn’t know.
The Albergue room was stuffed full of weird people. The group of older Germans that wanted everything their way. When we were napping they talked loud. When they were napping, they glared at others for making noise. And so it went all night long with them. The Spanish guy who was on his cell phone. And when he wasn’t, he was sitting on his bed farting-loud and proud. Two un identifiable country of origin people- an older guy with a much younger woman. They were in the bunkbeds above us. They stunk. They reeked of human waste smell. His backpack should have grown legs and ran away it smelled so bad under our bed. When he came back from the bar I asked him to move it further away from us because of the stink. He smelled it and was surprised at how stinky it was. He dug through it to find the source of the smell- a large mass of unwashed clothes- and he acted so surprised that this was the cause of the smell. But like I said,” It’s the Camino. It happens.”

But, those two love birds just couldn’t keep their clothes on and their hands and body parts to themselves. What a night. And then this morning when I got up, this time I was surprised with a woman’s naked butt hanging off the top bunk. Did she care? Nope. She just swung her legs over on top of the naked smelly guy. I will not miss surprises like this in the morning or evening.

Oh and to top it off, a Spanish couple came in late. The woman turned her music on until 11 pm. It was great. The German group were having a fit. Of course they came in at 10 pm making lots of noise while others were sleeping, but they didn’t care. When I saw the look on their face with regards to her music playing, I yelled out to her, “Muy bueno musica!” And gave her a thumbs up. She turned it up louder.
Ya…I was stirring the pot.

We patched Abby’s foot up this morning. Still lightly red. Her tummy still bumbly and we set off. In the rain. And it rained almost all the time we walked today. Ponchos sticky with sweat on the inside are not fun to wear. But we remained dry.

The Camino was very crowded with a large group of youth walking, about 75. Very crowded in the cafés. The older guys ( 18 yr olds) were buying shots and drinking beer at each cafe, starting at 9 am. I don’t know how they were able to keep on going, but they did.

We were planning on walking into Santiago. Figured we could do it. Well…Abby’s body wasn’t cooperating. She was in pain. Her feet were on fire. Her tummy throwing fits. It was raining. It was 2 pm. We had walked 20Km. It was time to stop. So here we are, just a couple of miles shy of Santiago. We are staying at Monte do Gozo. This place is a HUGE complex for camps. Holds about 400 people spread out in many different dorm barracks. Has a cafe, laundry, 24 hr self- service bar. And only 20 people are here. The host gave us our own room. He also said he would take Abby to the pharmacia in his car (but it got a little busy and he hasn’t been able too). But he gave her a pair of his own brand new clean socks for her to wear out in the rain since we were coming to the cafe to eat and it was raining. How nice is that?

Anyway, I have given Abby, Benadryl and Neosporin for her feet. Could be a reaction to walking in poo water. Who knows? We will go to the pharmacia in Santiago if it doesn’t clear up tonight. It is looking nasty.

Oh! And we heard from one of the guys we see every so often, that other people were having stomach issues after eating octopus in the same town we had eaten it at! Mmmm…perhaps this IS the source of our stomach problems after all.

And we continue on our journey with one adventure after another.