Camino MMXXVI: breezing thru the mesetas
Day 2:
"Open your heart to silence"...."conserve your energy” …were we practicing mindfulness after our inspiring encounters the night before, or trying nicely “shut up” a group of loud pilgrims photo-shooting on top of a meseta?
There we were, straight back to hard reality. Are there two (or more) parallel Caminos? The ways of the Lord are infinite and some of those involve selfie-sticks…
"No fixed price, No fixed attitude" we read in the House of Silence, an inspiring free library and meditation house in Castrojeriz. This led me to reflect deeply about the empowering capacity of the economy of the gift. How do we turn distrust and competition into cooperation, if not by giving first? How do we give freely, if not by starting from a paradigm of abundance? It may be hard to give up things already acquired and it may seem out of context in a world of increased resource depletion… but -ya know- “a boat is safer anchored at a port, but that’s not what boats are made for” (inscription we saw a few days later near the point where a 17y-o died some years ago) and “I'm the dream and the dream-maker, the secret of your life is in your daily routine" (another special-effects quote on a wall…). If you have not burst into tears yet, read on…
At the end of the walking day, the contagious negativity of the Italian man – again in distress about finding a place to sleep - influenced our choice of the auberge…We rushed into the first place we found in the village). Having realized the mistake, we then spent the whole day in the Paradise garden of the other hostel, where we met loads of international pilgrims, notably some Americans. A flamboyant guy (Zlatan) approached us as I was trying to juggle flip-flops and brought us into the group. We were suddenly popular (and therefore cool!).
An old man, the meta-pilgrim, was sitting on the background with his long collar coat, sunglasses, hat and sticks…looking at the interactions between youngsters in the sunny meadow… he saw it all, this senseless socialization dynamic...He saw me going back and forward to the bar applying my “small purchase technique”, whereby you look more respectable of a client if you purchase a lot of different items, at different times, using heavy little coins. He saw our rise and fall from rock-stars to lonely wolves.. Our expensive Cerveza habit (compared to the 2E wine bottle of the young party pilgrim) and Seyi's annoying habit of going around cashless meant I had to sponsors every single one of his cravings (…”e io pago!”…). And now, basically, we were broke. Forced to dine on small snacks and left out of the main party (the appalling Pilgrim's menu all the others went for…).
Later on, we met Kira, again, the Swiss girl last seen in Burgos, and Philip, the Swiss dude who conquered her heart on her very first day at St Jean Pied Port. We found about his fight against nicotine addiction with the help of an audio-book (some sort of repetitive voice whispering 'you are breathing cancer', from what I understood… ). After smoking 3 cigarettes in a row, he prostrated himself at our feet for having offered him an orange juice.
I spend all day in the cooler private hostel until being locked-in into it at around 21.45h. Luckly I was not kept hostage for long, so that I could dash into the municipal hostel before lock-out time (22h). Municipal hostel which was indeed pretty squalid. The only person who seemed to have spent the day there – immune to the allure of the garden of Eden- was the big German guy with the travel guide. I would always see him reading the guide at any time of the day. I think now I understand why he was so reluctant to lend it out! Is he a Camino freak experiencing FOMO (fear of missing out, the pilgrim version) or did he simply commit the typical schoolboy’s error of bringing only one book?
The guy was sleeping on the bunk under Seyi’s… He flicks the light on at 5am after allegedly going very close to Seyi's face and asking him "Do you mind if I switch on the light?". My pavid companion felt in duty to say yes...on behalf of all the other poor sleeping beauties...Welcome to Day 3…
The fist 2 days of mesetas completely overdelivered. Very green, open views free of anthropic influence, the wind making hissing waves in the grass... Needless to say, most people think they are boring, when in fact they are the Spiritual part of the Camino (reflecting your soul?), after the first part which is the physical one (cit. Monia). And what's the third part? Ah that one's different...
After expectations had been brought up, the landscape on the 3rd day was appalling. All I recall is long stretches under the scorching sun, following an anonymous road...
But in the end we got to a huge auberge run by nuns in Carrion del Conde - provided with all dreamable pilgrim facilities (shower, kitchen, laundry, washing...) and a real supermarket nearby where our heroes were lost again in the paradox of choice..
Carrion is a very nice town, we did some therapeutic foot immersions in a cold river. The kitchen at dinner time was bustling with pilgrims and we exchanged food with our American friends (who were in awe in front of our chickpeas and tuna salad!). Some convivial moment ensued, including singing songs in all languages accompanied by the guitar of an authentic bard and the amazing opera singing performance of a Japanese man (who could silence everyone in the room with his talent). I was feeling privileged and alive for hearing in person such an exploit! The dream lasted until very smiley but very assertive nuns got us all to sleep at 10pm...
Nice mesetas again (including a lunch stop in the wavy grass) on Day 4, although we were seen walking in and out of hostels for 4 times... it was a veritable race with a horde of pilgrims to get a bed. We had to suffer several blows below the belt: some were reserving places in advance, others were gaining an unduly advantage by skipping lunch, others were seen taking shortcuts on the highway or -hear!– calling up taxis!
Not to worry! … Having recognized defeat, we afford a long beer break and then embark on an evening walk, towing an exhausted Hungarian lady until the next big town (Shagun). The Albergue municipal was carved right into a church. Nice!
