The Rain in Spain Falls Mainly on the ... Pilgrims

Leon (Return Visit)

Complaints, complaints, complaints. I had a few days off in Leon and missed two days of inclement weather, so I really should keep my mouth shut. It was a soaker yesterday but I got 10k in before it started and only had to do another 20.

It is raining all over Spain. Most of the Iberian penninsula is having flash floods. Or I see pictures of men in bombiero suits rescuing old ladies in knee deep water on the ever present news on the television while having a cafe con leche.

This is a picture of part of the meseta, the high plateau between Burgos and Leon. It is supposed to be the most boring part of the camino. I loved it last year in the bleak of winter. I thought this year it would be parched and dry and that I would be suffering. But it was glorious sea of green--I think I mentioned that earlier. There are tons of wildflowers. Puts everyone in a good mood.

Other things--less and less people are getting up at 4. There are still a lot of frayed nerves and more developing (along nationalistic lines it seems). There are many Germans as usual but more so now because of a best seller in Germany about the camino written by an overweight gay German comedian. Strange?

The alburgues are consistently full. There seem to be enough of them that people aren´t turned away. But the rain yesterday put a lot of people in a small alburgue in Religios about 24km from Leon. This was the overflow room. The wind and rain continued and the room got a little flooded. I think it was a mess. I had a bed upstairs that sagged in the middle but somehow found my sweet spot and had about 7 complete wonderful hours of sleep.

I also got to do some doctoring. A French woman was near me in the kitchen where I was having my soup. I could see her swaying and the condern in her friend's voice. I quickly got up and caught her just as she fainted--right into my arms. I laid her down and started the ABC's (What's A again? Oh yes, airway...) Her left arm was in a tonic contracture for about 10 seconds but she woke up right away. I found out she had been eating normally and wasn't diabetic and figured that it was just a vasovagal bout due to all the heat in that corner of the kitchen. But one of the Germans shouted out, "Is she taking Magnesium?" [They have a mystical passionate love for the electrolyte.] Then he said, "does anyone have any magnesium?" I kid you not--three people whipped out vials of the yellow powder and were mixing it up straight away. Then they looked at me with that "Should we or shouldn't we?" look. I guess I was running the code here and was in charge. I said that it surely wouldn't hurt her and it made them happy.

About 12 more days of walking. I am going to try to sprint into Santiago. I am getting a bit tired of the whole packing, sleeping, eating thing. The walking continues to be spectacular even if the bones and joints keep whispering "que?, que? que?"