May 13, 2023

Woke up this morning to a black eye, but my goose egg on my forehead has receded some.  I need to be out of my current room by 10:00 am, I will need to wait until 1:00 to move into my room for tonight.  I will be in the families other hotel across the street in the village.  I was so happy that when I went to turn in my key at the restaurant, my other room was ready.  Louis’s wife took me right to it.  I used my translator on my phone to explain that I has bled on the hand towel and wanted to pay for it, she would not let me.  Afterwords I came down stairs for a slice of egg tortilla with ham and cheese and a coffee con leche prepared by their daughter.   I didn’t do too much that morning except lay on my bed, listen to music and ice my face.

In the morning is also a time for calls and texts from friends and family on the west coast.

In the afternoon got a tall beer from Louis and sat out in front of the hotel in the sun, trying to escape the wind.

My eye is a conversation starter for sure and I do believe that most locals in the village know of the American that was injured on the Camino. Everyone is very friendly, they are used to this steady stream of people walking through their village everyday.

I thought that I should have a proper walk about the village as I have pretty much been limited to the 2 hotel buildings.

I entered the village church expecting to see the same as other churches I have been in on the Camino. But this one was different, the block had been painted inside and one of the side alters has been dedicated to spiritual people who were not necessarily catholic.

As I walked down the street I realized that in my fall yesterday, I had also banged up my right knee again. This morning I had not put my brace on since I was not planning a long walk, I could definitely feel my knee acting up again.

This little village is in much better condition than some of the other towns on the Camino. The biggest house in town on the main drag had its own artist.

Now I walked back up the hill to the hotel for a nap before dinner, when in Spain do as the Spaniards. I just wished that someone would sell sunglasses in this town, I struck out yesterday when I went to the pharmacy and ATM.

I came down for dinner around 7:00 so that most walkers would have eaten and would not have to look at my eye. Louis came to offer me the dinner of beef, eggs and potatoes. I noticed that others got the one size fits all dinner plate of a salad, fries and pork. Mine was specifically for me.

Steak and eggs is a favorite breakfast meal, this worked equally as well for dinner.  2 glasses of vino tinto as Louis taught me, a bottle of water for my pills and a chocolate ice cream cup.

It was time to go back up to my room to do my stretches and ice my eye again.

I have decided to taxi back to Burgos and take the train to Leon, Spain for a couple of day to recover again from my newest injury.

I will admit that this has taken the wind from my sails. I may decide to possibly stop my Camino at this point and return in the future to pick it up again where I left off.

Louis has arranged for a taxi to pick me up at 11:00 tomorrow.