Leon to Villar de Mazarife...

I have found the camino to be very well marked, much to my surprise. leon, however, i found to be not so well marked and i kept wondering if i was on the right path. i dont really like traveling through the cities as i feel like it takes a long time, hours sometimes, and im under the impression that the innercity mileage/cross city mileage isnt included in the mileage in my book, so it feels like "getting no miles walked" time.... leon didnt take near as much time to pass through as burgos though. a lady on the street pointed out to me as i was passing the pilgrims church of santiago, dedicated to pilgrims, i think or something, and indicated that i should go there. i stuck my head in, and it was warm and dark and quiet inside, and i would have liked to have gone in for a while, but there was a lady who had just gone in, and i didnt think i could take the dog in, so we kept walking. the urban area of leon doesnt end very quickly, it turns into another area, then another, then another before you are finally out of the citified area. i met up with 2 guys as i was leaving leon, a german who had just started that day from leon, and a spanish guy. i was busy trying to follow arrows that didnt exist when i saw them coming, so i just waited for them and figured i would follow them. we saw some funny hobbit-hole houses on our way out of leon; i had previously seen some in moratinos, i think they must be quite dark inside though i guess they are supposed to be warmer because built into the earth?i thought those were only from lord of the rings i didnt know they actually existed and people living in them! 2 guys at the albergue i am at now told me they actually broke into one cuz they were curious. they said it was dark and dingy and rundown inside, but i guess noone was living in that one. the spanish guy i met on the way out of leon said they were actually once wine cellars. they look funny with tv antennaes sprouting out of the dirt on the hillsides, and the entrances below ground level. I told the german guy that he certainly didnt pick the prettiest part of the camino to start at... the path out of leon is dirty, litter-strewn, industrial, not pretty. again, A MILLION TIMES A DAY I HAVE TO KEEP REMINDING MYSELF THAT THE CAMINO PATH WAS NOT BUILT/DESIGNED/MADE FOR BEAUTY OR NECESSARILY FOR COMFORT; IT WAS NOT MADE AS A HIKING PATH FOR SIGHTSEEING. i think it was probably made for directness as much as possible, and there are some very beautiful sections of it, but when it runs along dirty busy roadsides or through dumps or yukky industrial areas or whatever, i have to keep reminding myself over and over that the purpose of this path was not for sightseeing or beauty.

finally, outside of virgen del camino, we were out of the industrial area. the path splits there and then joins up about 35 k later, i opted the villar de mazarife path. i didnt know it at teh time, but i guess the other path runs along the roadside so im glad i took this path. i was windy and cold, but at least the sun came out. i left the 2 guys in virgen del camino when they stopped for lunch. they didnt know what path they were taking but i guess they either must have taken the other one or stayed at another albergue cuz i havent seen them again. the landscape was more gentle hills etc then the past days from burgos to leon had been, and i much preferred this landscape to the flatness. there were also some trees, and i felt like there was more character and variety to the landscape. we arrived at chozo and i was glad to find we only had 4 k left. the last 4 k was really hard though as my feet really hurt and you were hiking against the strong wind in your face. nice the sun was out at least it wasnt raining, but the wind, aaarrrgh. and no trees to windbreak it either. when i got here i asked if we could stay an extra day to rest, then yesterday asked if there was any way we could stay tonite too. i was just SO SO rundown, i feel like we have been racing the weather all the time and just racing to get from one albergue to the next to get out of the cold--except sometimes you arrive and then you are just as cold cuz the albergue is unheated and then its so discouraging to know that you have to wait another 24 hrs until you get to the next albergue until you have the possibility of being warm anywhere but in your sleeping bag. so we have arrived here on i guess... thursday. its so easy to lose track of the days. we will leave tomorow. in the meantime we have had a kitchen and there are 2 shops in town. we werent able to stay in the actual part of the albergue being used now becasue of gro, so we have an unheated room in the old part, but at least it has beds, and blankets, and the kitchen and sitting room are heated and i can leave her in my room and go warm up in the other places. we have to take advantage of rest days when we can get them because often either the albergues are unheated so we wouldnt want to stay longer, or we are just getting by by the skin of our teeth staying there in the first place, sleeping in some back hallway or whatever, becasue of gro. it seems rare and difficult to find everything i need in one place--a heated albergue, with a kitchen, and a shop in that town, where i am able to stay with the dog. often you get one or two of these things but not all at once, partly because alot of albergues are closed. even without the dog, i would still be faced with many of the same circumstances. this village has 2 shops, and i was able to get some of what i feel like my body needs--dried fruit and some nuts...i spent 2 hours last night cracking walnuts out of their shells with a knife. might sound crazy but i am craving that kind of fuel. so now i have a small stash for the road.

the hospitalero here and other guys couldnt believe the weight of my pack. i have no idea how much it weighs but one of them says 30 kilo. i think thats exaggerating but he says its def more than 20. he says he wouldnt even last a day with that pack.... and that no wonder my feet hurt. i did a ruthless evaluation of the contents of my pack this mornign and found about maybe one and a half kilo worth of clothes to ship home and a few other things to get rid of. most things in plastic bottles got relegated to plastic bags, the maps from my book (jessica) are getting left behind here, and i tried to see anything else not being used....the bag of alfalfa seed thats supposed to be sprouted and mixed into gro's food for enzymes is getting dumped in the grass tomorrow morning, etc. i would like to ditch the tent but i cannot do so. everything else i think of mailing i keep using...hoodie sweatshirt is heavy but i have been wearing it nonstop for 3 days... etc. i ran out of the baking soda i was using as toothpaste and am not buying more cuz i dont want to accumulate anything else... ..im using the dr. bronners magic soap that is supposed to have a million uses.... i know other people who brush their teeth with it...but i do wish i had peppermint or orange or almond scent rather than LAVENDAR. ICK... people are warning me that there is snow in the mountains and it is really important to have your pack as light as poss for the mountains too... so hopefully i can get this stuff mailed back to pamplona or something. i dont know if we can actually make it to santiago...we are being warned about snow in the mountains and ive also been told that the dog will be a huge problem in the gallicia region... i.e. no dogs, no exceptions... so i dont know. id really like to go through til the end and we cannot rent a car anywhere between ponferrada and santiago...so i dunno.

Feeling much better today after 2 days of rest. yesterday i was still feeling like crap. i slept most of the day, had a headache, didnt feel like the sleep was restful, etc. today, much better. but ive also had a kitchen to use and feel like i have more nourishing food for a few days, so that has made alot of difference. also, ive had opportunity to regroup, and reorganize my pack, and not feel like we're on the run for a change so that makes alot of difference. still feet hurting though... ;the bone in my right leg feels like its going to go through my heel through the bottom of my foot... ive had this problem before, i think when i was doing bike courier work and was always carrying too much weight. i think its just from too much weight. im going to try to buy insoles next time we go through a town where i can get them and maybe that will help too. so, more rest today, santibanez tomorrow probably, and astorga the next day. a hospitalero told me his friend runs an albergue in hospital orbigo a ARRRRGH. i was working on this post and another peregrino just came and took me by the hand to go show me something, saying he was taking me TO EAT... he led me over to a bulldozer...that had a dead pig with its throat slit hanging upside down. he thought it was really funny that he took me there. i am so traumatized. im vegan because i hate animals getting killed. it totally kills me to see stuff like that. argh. ARGH..... which means that the reason the guy next door was pulling his bulldozer out this morning was to go do that and the ruckus ive been hearing outside was probably from/for killing the pig as well. or maybe they killed it before and its just been hanging there, but i dont think so. ARGH. ok i SO want to leave this village right now. ack. my warm fuzzy feelings about rest days here are quickly dissipating at the moment. argh. im glad i wasnt aware of what was happening as it as it was going on at least....except i think i can hear another pig squealing. gosh i hope they are done for the day. oh my god i wish i had earplugs right now to at least block out the potential screams, if there are any. makes me feel SO sick. there is a herd of sheep just brought in next door, i hope to god they dont start in on those too...so so cruel. so cruel. grab a living creature by its back leg with a chain and bulldozer, turn it upside down, and slit its throat. SO CRUEL. i just dont get how people can do this, and be so unaware and disregarding of the beauty of the life of the creature for itself, in its own being, as a being worthy of being allowed to live, and the worth of the life of that creature to that creature itself. Every creature in the world struggles and fights to preserve its life, perhaps as much as we do. Let it live.

ok ill try and get back to what i was just writing about. we might try to stop in hospital orbigo because a hospitalero told me that his friend ran an albergue there and that dogs were ok there and that it was open. but he also thought alot of others were open that havent been.

grainne is spending the day outside today, she seems to be content enuff if she is tied in the sun and if she doesnt see me. she has gotten alot better on this trip about being left alone in rooms and stuff, as long as my stuff is there and she knows i am "settled" there and coming back, then she feels safe to go sleep and i can go take a shower or whatever. so she is much better than she was at the beginning of our trip.

im just "resting" for the day. id like to work more on this blog, but the room the computers are in is open to the outside, and its below freezing, so my fingers are freezing. maybe i will try to add explanations of some of the pictures later. gonna go make some soup. i sprouted lentils last night (hahah hope remember rome when even nicole was making and eating sprouted lentil salad?) and i have a sprouting bag so i guess ihave to just be more resourceful about ways to get in the fresh stuff that i feel like my body is craving. so im gonna go put them in soup. i really wish i could get some untoasted unadulterated sunflower seeds to sprout with them though...

ok this relates to a previous post, but i keep thinking abuot how i meant to write it so ill just include it here: i wrote about my "worstest" night that we spent in the tool shed with the mice running around... the thing about that night that topped it all off was that not only were we in the middle of nowhere, in the cold and dark, not knowing the lay of the land or if there was anyone scary out to get us, and with literally nooone in the world knowing where i was, in the case that i just dropped off the face of the earth-- except maybe those workmen at the albergue in the previous village who had sent me there, but to top it all off, i thought at least i would call my mom and tell her the situation and the name of where i was , and ask her to call me the next morning to make sure i was ok, just so SOMEONEwould know where i was...to top it all off my phone got no service out there. so we were literally totally completely alone and could have dropped off teh face of the earth and noone would have known what had happened to us. so scary. and the next morning i foudn a tent out back up against the building that looked like someone might have been living in it. so who knows. but it was so scary.

ok going now. fingers frozen.dodgey keyboard to start with and frozxen fingers =no more posting now. oh yeah and today i have to remember to make sure we have enough food for tomorrow. its really troublesome with NOTHING being open on sundays. no shops, no nothing. i mean i think its great that everyone gets a day off, but its so hard when you want food and theres none to be found. i keep losing track of the days of the week but trying to keep track of saturday at least cuz last sunday we got caught with not enough to eat...first no shops then no open shops etc. at least we finally found somewhere with bread, but i have to be more prepared.

argh.im so mad at that guy. that was such a shock. and him making it sound like he was taking me somewhere to have food. and he KNEW i didnt eat meat. not that i had made a big deal of my not eating meat to make him feel defensive and want to scandalize me or whatever, so i just dont get why people insist on doing crap like that. i told him it was really cruel of him to show me that but i hate how people think its funny and dont think its a big deal.