Camino Reflections: Why I Came Home

Of the first things I did

When I came home 

Two weeks early

From my Camino

Was greet my husband 

Who was surprised as I

And rub the tummy 

Of little Bambino

I was hurting from days

Of hiking in Spain

And suffering from 

Dehydration

I had sweated so much

And drunk so little

That I was 

Feeling Faint

By the End of it all

I laid down in the road

Not really able 

to continue

I gathered my strength 

And conquered the hill

On a slow upward climb

Toward salvation.

With the help of my friends

To the closest albergue,

And a meal and a bed from a wonderful soul,

I rose with a pounding headache, a disengaged will, and the urge to throw up all of the water I had Tried for a remedy. 

Once I determined that I would leave Spain, I consulted with the wonderful woman who owned the albergue. (Her own father had walked the Camino, see photo above, and her general thought was that he was CRAZY!) 

She suggested a bus (and my friends: a taxi) to return two day's walk to Pamplona.  I wanted to pay her for all of her time and kindly advice in getting me home, but she refused with waving hands.  And so I leaned over my pack and gave her the Tiny Saint James that had accompanied me thus far.  She was truly moved and really understood what her hospitality and generous love had meant to me.

With hugs and well wishes all around, I said goodbye to her and my companions, stepped into the wrong car ("That's my neighbor!" she laughed)  Two more pilgrims arrived as I was working out the details, one was seriously dazed and not speaking and the next sweating profusely as he hyperventilated, slammed back a cold ice tea, and dropped into a nearby chair.   He was a 20 something man with an Atlanta T-shirt on, so I sat down next to him and asked, "Did you run???!)   When he told me no, I told him I had laid down on that road the night before and was now heading home. He smiled and told me he had laid down on the road up to Orrison.  After refusing my offer to take him too, I sloshed what water + electrolyte solution I had left in my bottle into his empty glass, got into the taxi that had just arrived, and began my two day journey home.

The Alburgue owner had researched the train times and when I arrived at the station, I was four hours early.  This gave me time to shuffle with my pack in the scorching heat toward a hospital-like sign.  When I stepped inside, I  mimed my symptoms to the attentive pharmacist.  She gave me a medicinal powder to sip slowly from a 1 liter bottle of water.   I thanked her and crossed to a cafe where through gestures I asked for the 1.5 liter bottle and sat outside to mix it and slowly, so slowly sip it all in and get myself feeling better.

Then I boarded the train for a four hour ride to Madrid.

And then my narrow focus on my pain and surviving began to recede...

And suddenly I could lift up my head, look all around, and feel

SO GRATEFUL to be making it home

under my own steam while it was still possible.

With Love, Ronda