[Gocamino] Difficult Day

[Glenn Jilek]

From: peregrino_05 at hotmail.com
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Subject: Difficult Day
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:54:45 -0400



I had one hell of a day yesterday!!!!
 
I arrived in Jaca by bus from Pamplona and settled in for the night in a very nice refugio.  I met two Germans who grew up in Spain.  They came here two weeks ago to walk, but found that Somport, the starting place higher up in the Pyrenees, was snowed in.  So they started at the nearest village about 6 km below.  They returned to Jaca and wanted to do that section to complete the Camino Aragon.  That night there was thunder, lightning and pouring rain.  They said that probably that meant snow in the upper altitudes, but we all made it to the lower village.  There we met a Spaniard and a Frenchman who also wanted to go to Somport.  When the bus came to take us up, the driver said that there was much snow and the Germans dropped out.  We decided to see for ourselves.  Yes, the driver was correct...in fact a blizzard was still going on. The Frenchman took a bus back, but the Spaniard, with more grey hair than I and mischievious eyes said "Let´s try".  He bought me a cup of coffee, and somehow I saw some wisdom in his eyes and decided to trust his judgement.
We left and started walking but there were about 6-8 inches (16cm) of new wet snow.  We could not even see the path, so walked the road down.  There were few cars to dodge, and it was only a bit tense when the snowplows came by.  I took a couple of Photos but not more because of the wind and snow.  It was really beautiful when you could raise your head to look.  It was a very steep decline so gravity helped us down.  It took a bit less than 2 hours with some stops to talk about the sites and try to photograph them.
The Spaniard, Jose, had left a bicycle at the hotel at the village Canfranc Estacion and would continue on by bike.  Canfranc Estacion, he told me, was used in the filming of Dr Zhivago, and is a grandiose trainstation of the early 1900´s.  I continued by myself.  The snow had become just cold rain.  The path was a still very steep downhill trek made of rocks of various sizes from pebbles to small boulders.  This made it very difficult to keep your balance, especially since the rain and runoff from the tops of the mountains turned some stretches into little streams of water.  My ankles would be going one way, my knees another, and my hips still a different direction to keep balance.  Along with this being my first day of walking, I was quickly becoming very tired and hurting a bit.  I knew I would not be able to make it back to Jaca, and saw that there were accommodations in Villanúa.  This meant only 16 km that day, but they were strenuous ones.  Just as I got to the town, the temperature dropped, and a strong wind came up.  Then it began to hail...pea sized hail.  To my dismay, I found the first Refugio closed...and the second...and to my horror the only hostel in town was closed.  I stopped in a bar and asked about a place to stay and they told me of some hotels on the main highway.  By this time the hail was thickly frozen on my hat causing the brim to droop. I walked on to the highway.  Then I saw a door open and a repairman was there talking to a lady (Isabel).  I went up to them and told them of my situation.  The lady invited me in, perhaps the frozen look of desparation spured her compassion.  She and her husband (Felix)from Logroño were there on holiday.  They made me hot tea and he phoned around to find that even the hotels on the highway were closed.  He explained that the last day of ski season was Easter and that was probably the reason that everything was closed.  It didn´t explain the refugios being closed...but then there were obviously not many "pilgrims" around.  After sitting and warming up and getting refreshed.
The weather had cleared up a bit, and Felix called the next village, Castillo de Jaca, and secured a room for me.  Any room would have done, but this one had a tub...a rare and welcomed feature during my time in Spain.  I soaked for a half hour.  What a delight!!!!
 
All emotions that I experience here on the Camino, are more intense than normal.  This is especially true when I experience these random acts of kindness like I did from Felix and Isabel.  There seem to be a lot of mysteries on the Camino, and  one is tuned to interpret them mystically.  I chose to think that the hardships of that day set me up to have the peak experience of the  kindness shown to me by these two EX-strangers.  That is what I will take back with me from this difficult day.  That is what will  remain in my heart forever.

 

Glenn







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