Day 78 - Arca - October 1 - On the Camino 40 days
Today has been amazing, extraordinary and beyond belief! I found out yesterday that the American Pilgrims On The Camino had donated some money in memory of or honoring those people affected by the train crash in July. So the Catedral was going to swing the botafumeria at the Pilgrims Mass at noon today. I wanted to be there so I set my alarm for 5:30am and paced up everything so I could pretty much stuff my sleep sac in the pack, put the bears in there places, put on my boots and take off. As it turned out I was woken up at 5am by some other people determined to get an early start.
I got out the door about 5:30 to 5:45. The sun doesn't come up this time of year until about 8:30am and it was raining and cloudy so it was pitch dark for the first three hours. Because of the dark and the rain I had to keep my eyes on the ground to avoid stumbling. I didn't totally avoid stumbling and with your eyes on the ground in the dark with wind driven rain, it is easy to miss the yellow arrows or other directional signs. I missed a few , got off course a couple of times, but nothing too serious. I had been told at the albergue there would be a place open for breakfast at 3 km and 7 km. I arrived at a place but to this moment I don't know if it was the 3k or 7k one. So I really didn't know how far I had gone and how far I had yet to for most of the morning. I just kept walking as fast as I could.
After the sun came up I started stopping to take pictures. I made it to Santiago, to the Catedral at a little before 10:30am. As it turned out I got to sit right up front with the American Pilgrims for the mass and the swinging of the botufumeria. It was really spectacular. After mass we went to the apartments and I got reacquainted with the stuff I had left in Santiago. After that we all went and had lunch and chatted. Then we went our separate ways with an agreement to meet at seven for dinner. I went and got my box I had sent from Bercianos and my suit case and went to check into a pilgrim's room at a former monastery. Then I went and stood in line for my Compestela. The people that work at the pilgrim's office seemed genuinely glad to see and made me promise to come back. They wanted to know if I was going to work another two weeks. I said no, not this year.
All day long everywhere I went I kept meeting people I had met on the Camino or at Bercianos when I was hospitalera. I saw Charlie from APOC, the nurses from Canada, the Australian couple I met at the Pulpería, Silk one of the young German women I met at Bercianos, and the cranky woman who had a breakthrough at Bercianos and was full of joy when she left. I ask her if she had enjoyed her Camino and retained her joy. She said she had. That was so neat.
We met at 7pm for dinner. There were 10 of us. It was lovely group. Tomorrow I'm going to do a day trip on the bus to Finisterre with Daniel, one of the Hospitalero trainers. After that I'm going to rest for two or three days and then decide if I want to walk to Finisterre, take a bus to Cordoba (a place I've wanted to visit for a few years now, go to Porto in Portugal, or come home early. Tonight I need to get some sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment