General Happenings

So we haven´t updated in a few days and in all honesty things have been chugging along nicely. Our physical endurance has increased so we are stopping for less breaks and experiencing less pain at the end of the day so we get around faster. Awesome. Unfortunately, 100 km is the magical number of km to walk to receive a compostela so right around there the trail became flooded with people. Literally there are people walking around with support vehicles. They carry nothing and stop at specific points to eat and rest with their group. They charge past us and are looking for lodging at the same places we are which is frustrating because there are only so many spots and there is a constant threat of having to find an overhang to sleep under if we don´t make it in time.

It felt like it was turning into a foot race, with people waking up at 3, 4 am to walk in the dark just to be able to secure lodging. We felt we were losing the experience of the trip and just stressing over how fast we were going and how many people passed us. We arrive in town after walking for 6 or 7 hours, before noon (today we got here at 9:30 am!) and the albergues would be already booked. One night we even slept on a concrete floor outside a restroom in a gymnasium that was converted into a sleeping area for over 300 people (imagine that smell...).

So... we decided to get out of the rat race mentality. We gave it up to God and decided to trust that he would provide for us. We have since made it into two albergues and are able to walk at our own speed with the comfort that if we don´t make it we´ll find a nice spot to camp and that we´ll be OK... no matter what. We feel much calmer and so lucky, especially because today we were numbers 45 and 46 in an albergue that only holds 46 people (we started out at numbers 49 and 50 and some people decided to leave, others were not accepted because they hadn´t walked far enough).

The kilometers are flying by. This region of Spain has posts every half kilometers that count down towards 0. We decided to sing the songs from each decade as we counted down... the 80´s and 70´s were particularly awesome, and we struggled to remember the precise lyrics to American Pie for almost an hour. It´s been awesome to sing to pass the time. If you need a laugh... picture two Americans in a sea of foreigners belting out ¨The Warrior¨ by Scandal. Awesomeness. That is apparently Dan´s 80´s jam. I also did a rendition of America the Beautiful and I´m Proud to be an American that turned a few heads. =)

Oh! Yesterday we tried a dish that the town of Melide is apparently well known for...the pulpo (squid). I had tried pulpo before in STL with the students before we headed out and enjoyed it, but this pulpo was less... trying to hide the fact that it was a squishy tentacled sea creature. We went to a pulperia that was really crowded and where I imagined Barb Passanise would have brought us if we had wanted to try it. It looked like THE place for pulpo. We walked in and there were big cauldrons boiling in the corner and after sitting down a man came from the back wheeling a giant bucket filled with squid (pictures to follow!). They boiled the squid, a man clipped them into chunks with scissors, and then they sprinkled what I think was cayenne pepper on them. That´s it... personally I think sauteed would have been a little better because the flavor was decent but they were so incredibly squishy that it made me feel nauseous to eat them. We had half a plateful, decided to not force ourselves to clear the plate, and left. Dan says ¨the flavor was good, but I had a problem when the pulpo would roll around in my mouth and I could feel the suction cups on my tongue¨... yea, it was creepy.

So, right now we´re under 40 kilometers out (less than the distance to my mom´s house!) and we´re going to take it slowly so we get into town on the 25th. It´s going to be crazy and absolutely packed with people, but if we show up the 25th we have a hotel room so we don´t have to worry about sleeping in the street. It is so awesome to feel good, to not be hurting most of the time when we walk, to be adjusted to the routine of things, and to be so stinking close. The feeling of counting down the numbers makes me just want to go further and walk for longer, to get to the next town and to make it to Santiago. We´re SO close.

Love you all! Take care!