After finally making it to the somewhat-halfway-ish point, I can say proudly that we’ve made it this far!  Whether we’ve cabbed ahead, stayed behind, skipped a few days, miles or hours of sleep — we’re feeling half exhausted and half excited.  We’ve officially cancelled all reservations except our stay in Santiago.  So I guess this is the part where we pack up and head home or we power through.  I’d like to refer to this point as the “hump day” of the Camino.

This is where everyone reading this needs to go find the Geico commercial on Youtube called, “Happy as a Camel on Wednesday” and thank me later.

You all know what I’m referring to.  Every week when Wednesday rolls around the mentality is, “If I can just make it through today, it’s basically the weekend.”  Well, that is how I’m feeling about this trip right now.  We’ve reached hump day and if we make it through, we’re golden.  mikemikemikemikemikemikemike.

The other night my mom and I were laying in bed, tucked away in our tiny twin cocoons, and I mentioned to her that this part of the trip reminded me a bit of my freshman year of college.  I figured I’d already paid my dues in sleeping in twin beds, eating bad cafeteria food and feeling homesick but that isn’t quite what I was referring to.  I’m referring to the “hump day” of college.  I remember spending the first couple months of the semester trying to adjust and having a really hard time.  I’d never lived away from home, I didn’t know a single person at my new school, my roommate was colder than the other side of the pillow… throw a long distance relationship in the mix and you have a very unhappy Freshman girl in college.  I understand Freshman year of college is known for being a difficult adjustment.  I’m not sharing this story to stand out or ask for sympathy, I think everyone can relate to this feeling of being alone or out of their comfort zone at some point in life.  What really strikes me about feeling this way is if I had decided to pack my bags and ditch my roommate, I would have missed out on one of the best experiences of my life thus far — college.

I remember the first day of Freshman orientation, I was still in that “I can’t EAT ALONE” phase of my life.  I can thank myself now for being so insecure and uncomfortable at the time because that is exactly how I met my very best friend, Shelby.  I walked up to her table in the cafeteria with my food tray, my lanyard and forced out the words, “Is anyone sitting here?” and our conversation hasn’t died down since.  She is basically the reason why I didn’t give up and go home during those first couple weeks of school… and then it hit me laying in bed, it’s the people you meet that get you through these tough times.  It’s the person who walks into your life at the exact right time, sits down at your table and asks you the exact right question.

That’s what this experience is all about, the pilgrims, Los Peregrinos.  We’ve met so many unbelievably wonderful people on this trip, it’s almost overwhelming.  The second we start thinking to ourselves, “forget it, lets pack up and catch a flight home TOMORROW.  This is NOT worth it.” we meet another amazing group of people and they somehow encourage us at the exact right time, sometimes without even knowing it.  I guess we have them to thank for deciding not give up by now.  That is what we are trying to focus on instead of our problemos, our Peregrino friends.

We basically made it through the entire first day with the help of other pilgrims along the trail.  Whether it was pointing us in the right direction, spouting words of encouragement or sticking together during the hailstorm, everyone kind of muscled through it all with the help of someone else.  Right as we had reached the very top of the mountain and we were looking over the clouds, we ran into a group of loud Spanish women who offered to take our picture.  They didn’t speak any English but they were so friendly.  When we were saying our thank yous and goodbyes, they offered us some of their almonds.  I didn’t realize it then but I am almost certain if we hadn’t been offered those almonds, I wouldn’t be here to tell this story.  WE DIDN’T BRING ANY FOOD.  Are you kidding me?  An 11 hour hike, WTF is wrong with us?

The second spout of encouragement was after our hail situation, meeting the two Englishmen at the Pilgrim dinner.  We had just finished our first hike on the Camino and we finally made it to Roncesvaille completely soaked, overwhelmed, waddling around, I had a newly developed blister and we were both feeling pretty discouraged.  We were wondering if we would be able to complete the rest of the walk, let alone the next day.  These two men were our saving grace that night.  We were so consumed with everything that had just happened, we didn’t even realize what we had just accomplished.  They pointed out to us and reminded us that we should take a moment and just be proud that we made it through the first day.  My mom and I still talk about these two, wishing they would somehow reappear somewhere along the way.

We met a woman, Karín who woke from a nap on the side of the trail just as we walked passed.  She was incredibly calm, and fast paced at the same time.  She just kind of awoke from her nap, carefully pieced herself together, joined us on the trail and rather quickly passed us up.  We found out later after talking to her, she has a couple children at home and a son who had died seven years ago.  She had been backpacking for a couple months before our starting point which totally wowed us.  I am convinced that she is some sort of robot/animal/super hero.  It seemed as if she could endure anything and still power through it with all of her belongings hanging on her back.

We’ve been constantly running into these two Austrailian women.  What caught my attention the first time we saw them was that one of the women was wearing a full length skirt with TWO backpacks on.  She had one large backpack strapped to her back and another small one hanging from her chest.  We ran into them the first day a couple of times, passing each other up.  We didn’t conversate much except a few huffs and puffs and some gestures of “What the EFF did we get ourselves into?  This blows.”  It wasn’t until we made it to Pamplona where we decided to take our first real “rest” day and we spotted them “resting” too.  It was really sweet running into them because we all recognized one other in a city full of strangers.  It was a feeling of familiarity and it was comforting.  I came across them again when I walked a portion alone and we ended up talking a bit more.  I learned more about their life and I told them a little more about mine.  I’m not sure what it was about these two women but I was drawn to them.  One was wearing two backpacks and a full-lengthed skirt and the other was in a black shirt and jean pants, it was almost as if they wanted to torture themselves.  I have no clue why they were actually wearing these things but it intrigued me.

The next person that stands out to me is Benito, the german man.  I was alone when I found myself talking to him and he was just the most sweet company.  I mentioned him earlier.  His name wasn’t actually Benito but when he told me his German name, I must have looked like a gerbil trying to understand an algebraic formula because he quickly told me, “you can just call me Benito.”   He seemed to have walked up at the exact right moment, it was one of the only times during this entire trip when I felt truly alone.  I’ve been alone here and there but at this moment I was completely alone.  There wasn’t anyone in sight.  It even sounded like I was alone, just silence.

Then there was Barbara and Mark from California.  We were walking out of Puente de la Reina and we spotted a man and woman in shorts after we had just complained for a solid four minutes about how cold we were.  We just decided that our next purchase needed to be two pairs of gloves and these two were in shorts.  We ended up crossing paths and walking together for a while that day.  My mom and I both found them to be so sweet and encouraging towards each other and us as well.  When we made it to Burgos, we were wondering when or if we would see them again.  We were walking up to the Cathedral and out pops Mark and Barbara!  My mom and I agree that running into people that have made an impression on us when we are least expecting it is such a great feeling.

Lastly, the Loveless couple from Alabama.  That was their last name, Loveless.  We ran into the couple when my mom and I were trying to get into an exhibition on the Camino and its history in an old church building.  The man operating it didn’t speak English and apparently it was closed and open at the same time.  We decided we would go get some food and come back.  We were not surprised when we couldn’t find anything to eat because we seem to be constantly on the wrong eating schedule here.  When we are hungry, the bars are closed and they only serve food after 9pm or before 4:30pm and in between 1pm and 3pm.  Makes sense, right?  So we decided to drink away our appetite problems.  We found a seat outside a restaurant and had a couple beers.  The couple walked up and we asked them if they wanted to sit down and join us and they did.  They reminded us of home, they were so warm and welcoming.  We then find out they weren’t even on the Camino!  They were just passing through this village in Spain on their annual trip by car.

Moral of the story, people are great.  Here are pictures..

We got to see a huge tractor take out an entire field of dead sunflowers the other day… really cool.  So we’ve officially seen a fully bloomed field, a dying field, a dead field and a field being harvested.  That was our “circle of life” moment.  The tractor took up the whole road and was coming right for us.  It made a sharp right and then started really loudly chewing up and spitting out sunflowers parts everywhere.

Mom at dinner..

Sheep in the street, nbd..

This was our view one night when we stopped for a couple beers….

My mom asked me one night, “Why are people calling us animals at the end of the day?”  My response was, “Um, you’re crazy.”  It turns out people are actually saying, “Animo!”  Which is a term of encouragement in Spanish. Kind of like, “We’ve got this!”

HOLY guac. alright, I made up for the days of bad wifi and being too tired to post.  I’m taking way too many pictures at this point to keep up with doing them in order so it’s a scramble from here on out.  Enjoy!