Well, got out of the Albergue at 6:15 and climbed 1000 feet by 8:15 and had a well deserved café. It was freaking cold. If it weren't for my rain jacket and "Beam Me Up thermals" I would have froze. I didn't take them off unroll noon. Even with all the climbing I was cold. This morning as the sun was rising behind me I looked up in front of me and saw that the whole hillside was glowing in oranges, pinks, and purples reflected from the sunrise. God finds so many different ways to show off. The place I had my first café actually had cornflakes, very rare in a cafe in Spain, so I had cornflakes and thought of Torji, my mom in Salamanca. Corn flakes was one of my favorite breakfasts there. I have no idea why, I never, ever eat them at home.
Only two more kilometers to the drop the rock place, Cruz del Ferro. It's one of the places or events I had been looking forward to because dropping the rock was so important to me in early sobriety and continues to be.
I made it to the Cruz del Ferro and ran into Heaven there. She wanted her picture taken with me since we are like neighbors, both being from South Orange County. So she had Angel take one of us with her camera and I had him take one with mine. I will probably not see them again because I'm doing two stages in three days, rather than two days which will put them a day ahead.
I'm breaking it up because we're climbing mountains. The climbing is not a problem, I rock at climbing, getting stronger all the time. It's the downhill that makes my knee squawk and these are some pretty radical down hills. Today's downhill was three and a hall miles of Steve terrain covered with loose rocks and shale. I promised my knee that I would take care of it and that's what I'm trying to do. I have to admit that every fiber of my body wanted to keep going today. Well maybe not the fibers in my knee and surrounding tendons. The deciding factor was this Albergue has a bar with wifi.
After the picture taking, I climbed the pile of rocks and taped Daniels name to the pole. Then I made a little arrangement of Sandy's purple rock from Australia, the broken pieces of tile from Camino markets that people had broken (I know not why, maybe to take souvenirs, so sad,) my three shells from El Moro, and a rock. The idea is to "drop the rock" I hope I dropped everything that is hard in me and stands in the way of my usefulness to God and my fellows.
In the afternoon I came to Manjarín, a relic of a mountain Pueblo. Years ago this guy Tomás who was doing the Camino when he was caught in a storm in this abandoned village. He tucked in there and has organically developed an Eco friendly Refugio for pilgrims. He says he is a Knight Templar and his purpose is to take care of pilgrims. The place was a trip. I saw Tomás wandering around. There was free coffee and snacks. I bought a couple of cool bracelets. The latrine was a shack with a hole through the floor, squat model, and you were requested to sprinkle some white powder when you were done.
Speaking of latrines, one thing I cannot fathom is why women think it is perfectly acceptable when peeing on the side of the Camino and wiping themselves with tissues, to just leave the tissues lying there. Yuck. The only possible purpose they serve is that sometimes if you are lost you can look around for tissues. If there are some you are still on the route. Why these women can't just carry a zip lock Baggie to store their tissues until they reach a trash can, I just don't know. Zip lock baggies are readily available in Spain. I have under pants that wick moisture. No tissues, no zip lock bags necessary. I am Eco friendly. Enough said.
Climbing the mountains brought us to some amazing and breath taking vistas.
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