Accidental 31k

Today was lovely as ever. Bea and I set off to besecon, a 24k day. No big deal! We can do more! We walked about 5k and ate a quick desayunos of tostadas. I'm becoming fluent in Spanish food. A bit later we wandered  to a little town with hobbit houses. True story, there was a hill and there were tiny house built into the side. We went to look at them more closely and bumped into an older Asian man that kept popping up all day. He was bizarre. He was walking alone, and talking loudly to himself jovially all day. It was weird, but he did seem very happy on his Camino walk. I hope he finds someone to talk back to him along the way. This is a semi racist transition, but speaking of Asians, there is a group from Korea that are walking the Camino and being filmed the whole way along. They are about 6 people, all wearing giant what I suppose are traditional Korean hats. It is very interesting. None of the woman are wearing cool clothing.  They are covered in long pants, long tee shirts, and one woman is wearing gloves. I imagine they are used to the heat, here I am sweating like a fat man at a cubs game, wearing shorts and a tank top, trying not to melt to the ground. Props to them. 

We popped into an albergue at the hobbit town to pee and started chatting with the worker there. I thought she was American due to her accent, but she is Canadian (I am the worst with accents). She has done the Camino twice and has started working at this albergue as she is recently retired. I can't wait to be retired.

We made it to shaguhn, which turned out to be quite a big city. We followed our Asian talker friend in, while he chatted happily to himself. Around the city there were these huge gates up. It looked like they had just been set up. We eventually figured out that it was for the running of the bulls event. Last night, they had a bull run through the town to the colosseum in perperation for the bull fight that takes place tonight. Apparently, it will involve six or so bulls that will die at the end. It sounds awful. The town was packed. But i will retrack my judgement in an effort to foster different cultural views. There was an open air market, so a lot of people were out. They were also preparing for a carnival which I assume is due to the fight. After a shortish break we headed through the hot dessert to besecon. It was an open path with baby trees to the side that did provide some shade. 

We walked another 10k in the hot afternoon heat. We met up with Luke and the Germans along the way. The Dutch were soon out of eyesight. I walked the hot unshaded walk alone and was still quite merry albeit slowly melting. I finally got to the city, and at that point I was dreaming of either a bath of ice cubes or to be an NFL coach that gets a cooler of water tossed on him.  When I got there, the Dutch informed me that they were told the albergue was full. It is possible that I was seen with my head down on my trekking poles shouting fire truck. I was just so overheated. I just thought it was over. We took a break at a lovely cafe that somehow exists in this ghost town. Bea feed me a coke. My dream of ice was shattered as the bar didn't have any. So I took the cold empty coke bottles and put them on my arms and neck to try to remember what cold was. We were 8k from the next city. When I found this out, I had to fight back a tear or two. I wasn't tired I was just so warm. I prepared for this next leg mentally while I drank my coke. The German girl, Anna & Paulina caught up and when greated with our tragic news rang out in a "sheisser" chorus. The girls talked about getting a taxi there. The idea sounded nice, but I wasn't injured anymore, I couldn't and didn't want to justify a taxi. So I confirmed I was walking on to Bodega de something. I told them I would get a head start as whenever I start walking again after a break, it takes my muscles a good 20 min to warm up and not limp like a sad puppy. Bea caught up to me shortly and we continued our walk together. After. About 1k, we got a text from Luuk, saying that they found another albergue that had beds available. Bea and I talked out. I declared that I only walk one direction on the Camino, foward. She agreed, and we kept on walking. We passed the 2 long hot hours through seeing mirages of the city we were walking to. I kept setting goal points and envisioned that once I reached say the top of the hill, we would be able to see the city. After about my 8th prediction, I was finally correct. We found a beautiful albergue with an amazing garden complete with chaise lounges. There was a shop in this town (more like a 7/11). We were very excited by this luxury and decided to cook dinner. Bea made me dinner as I hand washed my clothes and hung them up to dry in the garden. By he time I was done, din was ready. It was delsih. Mushroom soup and veggie pasta. We each had one glass of wine and then offered he bottle to a neighboring table as we were exhausted.  Bea went to bed no followed shortly after I popped my latest blister outside in the garden as it had proper lighting. A German man saw what I was doing, looked at my feet, and after several attempts in English told me that I wod be the captain of the blister club on the Camino. Needless to say, I feel honored by the title. Since we walked 31k today, tomorrow is an easy 18k day!