Day 3 -- Riego de Ambros to Ponferrada

Tuesday, June 5
12 km

There is nothing as delicious as a good night´s sleep when you really need it. A bed with real sheets, in a room with no one else. Heaven! And a tiny bathroom all to myself. Of course you have to sit sideways on the toilet, but who´s complaining. And a view of the mountains almost as spectacular as the one from yesterday´s trail break.

Everything looks brighter today. I even saw Nola/Passion and her lot on the trail and thought, they´re all probably nice people. Why begrudge them their silly names?

But my feet and legs. Man oh man. Not doing so good. The blisters are no better or worse, but the very structure of my feet feels overburdened. The arches feel ready to fall. There are pains running up the outside of each calf. And the blisters are now making me limp, which in turn causes pains in other parts of my legs. I´m a wimp. Others walk 30 or 40 km a day and they´re fine.

There is definitely a lot of competition among pilgrims. Everyone wants to know where you started and how far you´ve walked today, and they like to tell you how far they´ve come and look! no blisters. Last night, having dinner with the Gallego and the Brazilian, he asked me why I didn´t push on to the next town, as they were going to do.

I´m tired, I said.

How far did you walk, he wanted to know.

When I told him 20 km (which I was kind of proud of), he snorted in derision and told me that he and his muy mujer Brazilian were doing more than 30 km a day.

And today, only 12. What can I say? You´ve got to do the Camino your way, and right now I´m in pain. Plus I needed internet. All the towns I´ve been walking through have had 10 to 50 full-time residents. I´m now in Ponferrada, which is huge at about 130,000, I think. It´s also hot here. Or rather, the sun is very strong. The temperature itself doesn´t seem so high but you simply have to get yourself out of the sun, especially at midday.

Also wanted to get something decent to eat, but failed there. Eating here is such a pain I often find myself having peanuts and raisens for dinner. And it´s expensive. This morning had a nice simple bolillo--crusty bread, serrano ham--a glass of oj, and coffee. 8 euros.

Did manage to try my frist glass of the white wine of the nearby Bierzo region. The taste was so startling I exclaimed out loud, causing those at nearby tables to look up. It has fumes like a medicinal liquer or maybe a cognac, mixed with a sharp clean taste. Truly weird. Like no wine I´ve ever drunk. Don´t know if this wine was bad or this is how the wine tastes here. I´ll have to do more research.

This may be the last internet for a while.

I miss you all so much!