Today I will be climbing mountains!!! It sounds like part of a motivational speech except it’s excitingly real. Yesterday was a scorching 93 degrees.
Today the Mountain Gods have been kind and we have plummeted 20 whole degrees to give us a comfortable start to our Camino. The sense of high adventure is upon us and the hostal is abuzz with peregrinos dashing in and out of the two showers shared by 18 pilgrims.
There are only 2 bathrooms and amazingly – through some unspoken staggering of wake-up times, everyone gets their turn. The showers are designed for water conservation and we have to press a knob on the wall for hot water – the water stops automatically after 2 minutes so we have to smack the knob repeatedly if we want to linger but nobody does – at least this first day. The pilgrims in my room seem to be very organized and are methodically packing their backpacks. I, on the other hand, am wrestling with mine. Items that fit perfectly the day before have suddenly grown bulk and heft and have to be pummeled violently into the pack. I win the fight but barely (and it is one that I contend with every single day on the Camino). Most pilgrims leave early in the morning – between 5:30 and 6:30 AM is peak and popular exodus hour. Nance has to wait for the post office to open and she urges me to get a head start if I want but I’m in no hurry. Marli from Brazil is also heading to Orisson as are R & M. We have all asked Elizabeth at Beilari to make us a sandwich to go – and for 5e get a long baguette with cheese, lettuce and tomatoes. It looks divinely delicious and I am raring to get going only so I can break for lunch and bite into that scrumptiousness. I am also carrying with me the two Gateaux Basque I had picked up the previous evening. I am virtuously looking forward to (literally) earning all that bread and butter in exchange for the vigorous exercise that our climb promises to offer.
It is after ten when the five of us start our Camino and we are obviously the stragglers. But we only have to walk about 9 kilometers today so are dawdling at our slowest and taking this first day as easy as we can. We are all walking at our own pace and occasionally pass each other when there is a sudden spurt of energy.
Sometimes two people walk at the same pace and fall into easy conversation until one feels like moving on. It is during one such time that Marli and I fall in step and while exchanging notes I discover that Marli has retired just a few months ago – her daughter is studying in Barcelona and M intends to visit her after finishing her Camino. Then Marli talks about the grief that she is carrying – the memory of her 21 year old son she lost to a motorbike accident two years ago. I recognize how painful it must be for a parent to lose a child and the tears that are never too far make my eyes well up – in sympathy and empathy – and we both cry – she for her son and I for my mother. Marli is a fast walker and after a while she disappears into the distance while I plod in an ambling kind of way. At some point we all break for a picnic – and enjoy our sandwiches and portions of the Gateaux Basque that I share. The climb uphill is hard and the backpack feels like I am carrying a mountain on my back even as I am climbing it. However, the views are splendid and spectacular and I am able to distract ourselves from the huffing and puffing.
We stumble into Refuge Orisson late afternoon and everything is shrouded in dreamy mist and feels like dusk. Nance, R & M all get checked in quickly, but there is a glitch in *my* booking (of course)!!!
I pull out my phone and am able to get to my confirmation email to show the pretty girl behind the counter (THANK YOU TMOBILE). Soon I am shown to my room – with 3 bunk beds – Nance and I are lucky and grab the lower bunks while R & M play gentlemen and take the upper bunks. The third bunk bed is occupied by a couple. Nance is very methodical and disciplined – her first priority is to shower and wash clothes. I grab the shower after she’s done just so I can get it over and done with. This is a coin operated shower and we are given one coin each that lasts for about 3-4 minutes total. I have been warned to be fully ready for the shower – soap and shampoo handy before I put in the coin. Even so I’m surprised when the shower ends before it begins. R & M have headed to the patio outside for company and conversation. I just lie on my bed not knowing quite how to summon up enough energy to do anything more than quietly breathe. Pilgrims menu will be served at the cozy auberge at 6:30 so I force myself to wiggle my toes an hour before and ask my wiggling toes if they want to take a walk to the patio. Their response is a firm “NO” but I drag them anyway to the crisp chill outside. R & M are chatting with Barbara who is already installed in the auberge having had a head start on us. I say hi to her and turn my attention to another pilgrim and introduce myself. Soon Mac and I start chatting – he is not a Trump fan and just as I find myself warming to him he says he didn’t like Obama either. I have a tendency to take violent likes or dislikes to people – sometimes seemingly on a whim – but decide that for the moment I neither like nor dislike Mac and I will wait to pronounce judgement.
Dinner is served family style – everyone is seated around two long rustic wooden tables. I have been assured that I will get a vegetarian dinner. This albergue is even more family-style than Beilari – Many pitch in to set the table – bring in huge tureens of steaming vegetable soup – baskets of crusty bread – and of course jugs of wine. Everyone else has roast chicken and I am given a mixed vegetable salad with boiled eggs, cheese and the freshest of lettuce, tomatoes, beets and onion – there is also another dish of potatoes, carrots and peas and dessert is home-made almond cake. The chef is introduced and I initiate a round of applause for him – he is twinkly blue-eyed and looks cute and sexy at the same time. All the hospitaleros and hospitaleras here are amazingly good looking and I wonder if it’s the crisp mountain air or if they’re all part of a family descended from Adonis and Helen. During dessert, we’re all asked to stand up and introduce ourselves – there are Germans, Brazilians, French, Spanish, Americans, Australians and 3 people from Israel! One tall man stands up and introduces himself as Joe and says “Unfortunately I am from Trump-land but please don’t hold it against me!” Everyone laughs and I go and talk to Joe later and commiserate with him on our common plight.
Nance is yawning her head off and we all decide to go to bed. R recommends some yoga stretches to end the day and take us into the night and makes the three of us (Nance, Mark and myself) sit on the cold floor with him. We ask the couple on the third bunk bed if they’d care to join us and the man who has already made himself cozy on the top bunk just leans forward to look down at us and says with a heavy German accent that he’ll just watch and observe for now thank you very much! His wife is doing her own stretches and is almost ready to get into bed. The rest of us meanwhile follow R’s seated twists and turns and hamstring stretches and as we’re going into child’s pose I hear R say distinctly – “this pose may make you fart – especially after a meal. If it does, just excuse yourself and fart!” I wonder if the German guy who is still watching with seeming fascination understands what R just said and what he makes of it! I am about to have a fit of giggles as I envision everyone stretching and being all windy and excusing themselves and my shoulders start shaking and I am afraid I will become hysterical. To avoid an inadvertent trigger of the very thing I am giggling about as well as to hide my grin which is widening out of control by the second, I quickly switch to an act of rest and redirect my mirth into the floor. I marvel at R’s casual and matter of fact relationship with wind-breaking and by the time I come out of my rest pose I have composed my face sufficiently to look nonchalant & unflappably cool. I had popped half an Unisom late evening – without this tiny little pill I seem unable to fall asleep and at some point after going to bed it works its magic and knocks me out into a dreamless night.
