Walking update.

OK, Now it´s time to update my physical progress. I left Belorado a few days back, after staying over night there to tend to my sprained ancle as well as say goodbye to my friend Randi. At dinner that night I asked a spanish guy if he spoke English as I wanted to find out if the tape Randi had gotten me for my ancle was ok. The first guy did not but he called over to group of spanish cyclists if any of them spoke English. One of them got up and told me that he he did. I asked him about the sports tape and he told me it was good. He offered to tape it for me too,and I said that it would be perfect if he could do it the next morning. At 6am sharp he was ready to tape, but only after he prepped it and put sports cream on my leg. The tape job was fantastic!!! It allowed me to walk to Ages, 27.6 km away. It was definitely one of the roughest days on the camino, but with the help of this Spanish peregrino I made it. At times that day I truly wondered why I´m putting myself through all this pain...for what? But, that too did pass. And I hope I am done with days that send me back to turtle pace. They are no fun. That day after showering and doing my laundry I was sitting on my bed fixing my blisters as Ilkka came from the store where he had gotten some more supplies for his feet. He sat down and started doing his thing, and after a bit opened his bag of sterile compresses. There were quite a few of them in there so he threw a few packages over to my bed and told me to take some. I did not think too much of it, though this time the packages were yellow. We are in Spain after all. After a moment Ilkka bursts out "Well, these will NOT do they job." I looked up as he was pulling a feminine pad out of it´s package, holding it up for me to see. I laughed so hard that I could not talk. He went on and gathered the rest and said: "here, you take them!¨
The next day we were out again at a good time, shortly after 6am, and again I had to use my flash lilght to see. I´m getting used to this flash light in the mornings and it has it´s own charm. The leg of the day was to Burgos, but I had told Ilkka the night before that I did not want to sleep in Burgos. He was ok to push a little harder and by the end of the day after visiting Burgos and doing our stuff there (visiting the Cathedral, which is absolutely beautiful, the train station as well as the bus station) we were on our way again. But it was already 3pm and we had spent three hours in the city. By the time we arrived in Rabe de las Calzados we had been walking for over 11 hours (35km). I was exhausted!!! Dinner was served at the local bar by our hospitalero, who took very good care of all the peregrinos who stayed with her. We all sat at a long table and ate together; a bunch of strangers from all over the world. It was nice, but I was quick to head back to our room and crawl into bed. The next day we walked from Rabe to Castrojeriz. It was an ok walk but I could feel the previous day in my legs and feet! This morning I was a bit quick in checking the directions (wearing my head lamp at 6:30 am) and led us astray for about 20minutes before we got back on track. We stayed at a little albergue in Castrojeriz and managed to get lunch at the local hotel just before they stopped serving it. I was relieved, as I was starving and would not have been pleased to have to wait to get anything until after siesta, which supposedly is holy in Castrojeriz. Ilkka and I had a quiet evening as the last few days had taken a toll. Yesterday we left Castrojeriz at 6:30am and walked to Fromista, 25.5km away. We got there early and it was nice to have a long afternoon to relax and recover. But we did go out for a nice lunch at a local restaurant, which served authentic Galician food. I´m glad I tried it, but it does not stand out as something unique. My feet were so sore that it was hard to walk so later I brough a bag and went to the bar and asked for ice. I put my feet on it and iced my feet, top and bottom. It did help as they were much better today. Speaking of today; I walked with Ilkka in the morning to his final destination, had breakfast with him and said goodbye, after five days of walking together. He has been a great travelling companion and we have had some great conversations. But, the best part about Ilkka is that he made me laugh. He has this amazing sense of humour and usually he would say something without a warning, making me laugh so hard that at times I could not walk. I´m sorry to see him leave, but this is the camino; everyone on their own journey. And his was done for now. Meanwhile I had been talking to two American girls last night that were going on. So I did too, another 17km. I have to stop now, my time is up.