The Second Day

4:57 PM, Bed 100 of Roncesvalle Refugio

When I awoke this morning after a restless night of little sleep, I had a pounding headache and I felt nauseated. But, from the first hostel to the last, a pilgrim cannot spend more than a night in each city (they know because of the stamps, los sellos).

After a breakfast of wonderful breads and horrible coffee, I said au revoir to Monique and Jacques, filled up my Camelback at the fountain, and bought a quiche from a baker for lunch. At 7:20 am, I was off.

For the first two hours (9 kilometers), the weather was cool and overcast, but the hike was incredibly steep, my head was pounding, my body ached, and I needed a bathroom. The Orisson Hostel for Pilgrims then appeared as a heaven-sent perch in the mountains, and I used its facilities and fountain. I looked behind at the tiny dot that was St Jean and felt proud. My headache had lifted, my body felt much better, and I was ready for the next leg.

I smiled as I hiked on alone. The clouds became fog and for a good 8 km there was creepy loneliness in the fog complete with faceless farm animal sounds which gave me inspiration for the fictional "The Fog" which I started to write tonight. The descriptions and the people and the dogs are all truth, but what happens in the fiction isn't.

Just as the sun was breaking the clouds, I ran into my Scottish friend from yesterday. As we hadn't traded names before we introduced each other and now I know her as Lucy, a 55-year-old recent retiree.

We walked 3 km together before I fell behind. That's what's nice about the Road: you can fall behind or go ahead without a word of goodbye. It's mutual and understood. It was at this point, too, that I was inspired and my muse bestowed me with another idea for fiction, perhaps "The Castle."

I then met 4 Canadians (the first North Americans I met on the Road!) and I fell in stride with their leader, Bishop Yonel of Quebec. After a kilometer, we parted as he split to have lunch at a group picnic where Lucy was also stopped.

After climbing to the highest point, 1.4 km above sea level, I paused to enjoy the view and during my break, Lucy had caught up. We walked the remaining 4.6 km downhill to Roncesvalle together, talking life, purpose, and religion, and it was enjoyable to hear her views.

Once in Roncesvalle, I made my refugio and dinner reservations and had a Coke in a bar while reading some of The Alchemist (one of two books that I brought). Did you know that the main character in the book is named Santiago? It's fitting, and the writing is beautiful. I'm sure I'll talk more about it when I read more.

When I went outside, I found the Dutch woman (Lisa, 26) and the South African woman (Lida, 26) from yesterday. They had joined up with Lucy and a new woman, Francesca (28, Italian) and formed an "English-speaking" group. (To note, among the 80 that are in the refugio so far, I'm still the only American. I'm also the youngest I've met at 20 years old. Average age guess is about 40.) Francesca doesn't speak much English and so I translate what she doesn't understand into Italian. Lisa and I are the only Spanish speakers so I've been doing what I can to translate since from here on out everyone in the cities speaks Spanish. I think we've formed a group, and a native Spaniard named Ismael (Isma for short, 36) and a South Korean-born Spaniard named John or Juan (25) join us. We are having dinner together at 8, watching the World Cup in the Restaurante Sabina. (Spanish fever is high here as a couple of cars have passed by blowing vuvuzelas from the windows.)

While I was going to go slightly slower and arrive at Santiago on the 11th, they all plan to be there on the 6th of August (or to depart the Road sooner). Since today was not bad at all (if not enjoyable) after the first big, and the first hike is the most difficult because of the incline, I think I will pace with them and end at Santiago on the 6th. I will then continue on, as many pilgrims do, to Finis Terrae (Finistra, I believe, in Spanish) on the Atlantic Coast to get my own authentic shell.