Day Five - Small Victories

Day Five on the Camino del San Salvador - Bendieños to Mierea

Today was the day my pack felt light when I swung it  off the bed and onto my back.  It is that singular Camino  moment when your stride is a fraction longer, the cinch sits easier around your waist, and your gaze sweeps over the expanse and not just the few feet in front of you.

We left our donativo on the mountaintop, the four of us. A yellow sticker, placed as a joke by a youth perhaps, promised a quick return to the path. After 1km of walking down a steep slope, we arrived at a locked gate. We retraced our steps a bit  and found another “road,” which also ended in a crude gate, but with barbed wire this time. None of us were inclined to retrace our journey, so after some consultation with our various maps, we threw our packs over the gate and carefully climbed over both gate and wire.  Two additional gates later and several pastures, I was lucky to spot a sort of gully, which we lowered ourselves into and followed into town. Eva and Jose, both Spanish, said for the record this was not a recommended way to return to the Camino. Our plan, if any angry landlord approached us, was to blame it on the one American in the group, because Americans always think they know the best way to do everything.

We celebrated our return to the path by drinking cortados at a cafe, where I was told by a Spanish woman that she had once been to Washington DC (hard to explain to people that there are two Washingtons) and something about Putin coming.   I now understand how foreigners feel in our country when we keep taking louder if they don’t understand what we are saying.

A hard day’s walking after that, 15 miles, mostly by the side of the road and on asphalt. Mieres though - what a wonderful city! I could sit in its town square and watch the children playing soccer and families eating, drinking, arguing and gossiping, all night.