Today marks our 11th day of hiking the Camino. We are hiking for a total of 33 days, so that means we are one-third of the way through. There is a saying about the Camino: the first third is for the body, the second third is for the mind, and the last third is for the soul. The first third being for the body seems true so far. The first 4-5 days were very humbling physically, given the toll that the daily hiking was taking on us. But now, our bodies seem to be acclimating and we have developed a routine that seems to be working well for us, ie: wake up at 6am, pack everything, eat on the way out and hopefully leave town around 7:45am. At any stops, we take off our shoes to rest our feet. Also, we usually stop for a mid-morning snack and then have a late lunch (around 1 or 2pm). Once we get within 3-5 kilometers of our final destination, we change into sandals, again to let our feet breath and avoid getting blisters. Once we arrive at our hotel (ideally by 2pm), we typically shower, take a quick nap, then go out and explore around the town, looking at different sites and also scoping out potential places for dinner. Then we are target to be back in our hotel room by 9pm, and ideally lights are out by 10pm (although we usually stay up a little later reading).
Some of the pictures below relate to the aforementioned daily routine. The first picture is of the morning sunrise coming up this morning as we are hiking on the trail. When we leave town at 7:45am, it's just starting to get light out, but the sun is not fully up yet. The picture below was taken around 8:30am, with the sun peeking up above the hillside. As we continue to head further west and get further into the autumn season, I'm guessing the sunrise will occur even later in the morning, which means our cool mornings will last even longer, which is great for us.
The second picture is of our feet after we have changed into our sandals. Linda's feet are on the left. You can see that she continues to apply her "mummy wrapping" on 3 of her toes, but this is more of a precaution, since her blisters have healed. My feet are on the right, and it is true that I walk on the Camino and around town with socks and sandals on. It helps to provide some additional cushioning, and to keep the dust off of my blisters. I'm sure my kids would love to be seen with me walking around town like this :-) Sometimes, when I'm feeling really stylish, I wear my dark socks with the sandals.
The third picture is from yesterday, in the village of Belorado. It turns out this past weekend was their celebration of thanksgiving for the recent harvest. As part of this thanksgiving, different groups of people wear their own unique patterned overalls. There were families that wore the same set of patterned overalls, groups of girls who wore their own patterned overalls, and groups of boys like the ones in the picture below who wore the same patterned overalls. Linda obviously talked to the boys to see if they were okay with her taking their picture, and you can tell from the poses they struck that they had no problem with it. One of the boys even said something about the picture appearing in the Estados Unidos (United States).
Now that we have finished the first third of the Camino, we are anxiously waiting to see what the second third will be like, and how it will challenge our minds, like the first third challenged our bodies.
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