A moment of crisis

04.10- 07.10.2013

León was one of the most beautiful places I have been to during my pilgrimage and I would like to be back there one day. It was also a place where together with two friends we have discovered that the night before we were attacked by bed bugs. They are a nuisance on the Camino de Santiago which is hard to avoid. Despite the extensive measures undertaken by the owners of the albergues, on occasion you might be bitten by bed bugs when you sleep. The bits are not dangerous in any way, they simply annoy you since they are very itchy. The only problem is to make sure that you do not take them with you when you go home after reaching Santiago. There are two things you can do, one is to use a certain chemical substance I did not want to use because of its smell, two is to wash all your clothes after you have been attacked. So the three of us were washing everything at the same time when we discovered what had happened the night before. On the plus side, the washing machine and the drying machine were available to everyone for free in our albergue so we did not even have to pay for them. A day after León I have stayed in a town called Hospital de Órbigo in an albergue verde. (Spanish for a green albergue) It was one of those extraordinary albergues on the Camino de Santiago and it was run by two great Spanish people who were vegetarians. Everything inside was ecological or prepared in an ecofriendly way, the symbol of a snail was all around the place, the people who were staying there were more than friendly, there was a dog running around and during a communal mean we all shared you had a great chance to socialise with everyone. An extraordinary place. There were more of them on the Camino de Santiago.

After I left the albergue in the morning and walked 15 km more, I arrived in Astorga which is where a region called the Maragatería begins. As my guidebook says, the Maragatos, of an unknown ethnic origin, are proud people with unique customs and high respect for honesty. In the area you can see many ruined buildings which make you pause for a moment and reflect. Few metres from them there will be buildings that have already been renovated during the economic recovery of the region that is due, to an important extent, to surging popularity of the Camino de Santiago in the last 15 years or so. A place worthy of a visit, not only during a pilgrimage. Even more so as it is where the so-called Cruz de Ferro is located. Originally, a sign for pilgrims crossing the mountains that was supposed to guide them, it is a place around which a tradition has developed. Pilgrims who arrive there are carrying a stone from their home country or hometown and then they leave it there as a sign of having gotten rid of a negative feature or character trait of their own. There is a circle of stones of around 30 metres in diameter at the bottom of the cross now. 

 

When you leave the Maragatería you enter another region that deserves a recommendation, el Bierzo. Not known outside of Spain, in this country it is famous for its wine and the beautiful landscape. In fact, the Camino de Santiago crosses through Cacabelos, a town in the heart of the region, and shortly after that you yourself walk though the vineyards and observe how people of the area tend to their fruit from which an excellent final product will be produced. Even if you do not drink wine, to see a place full of vineyards located in-between two mountain ranges is in itself an unforgettable experience. However, as the Camino de Santiago crosses northern Spain, it on occasion goes also through places which are less beautiful and more industrial. It is the case, for example, with Ponferrada, a city located at the border between Maragatería and el Bierzo. Although it has a location that is hard to beat in terms of the beauty of the surrounding areas, the city itself is not that pleasant, if not, simply speaking, ugly. Very industrial it does not fit well with what you see before or after it. Another example of this contrast would be Burgos and its outskirts. The city centre with its old building, an impressive cathedral and cosy traditional Spanish restaurants and bars is, in this case, complemented by industrial areas the you are crossing through when you both enter and leave the city. For instance, for some 15 minutes you are walking next to the fence of an airport. This contrasting places are yet another of the things that you see when on a pilgrimage. As I said before, I have not been spared physical difficulties on my expedition. After I have crossed the first mountain range in Castile and León, I have developed a condition called tendinitis on my right leg. Having rested in Ponferrada I was hoping to be able to continue the day next. And I was walking but it was far from good and I was feeling the pain. The worst part was that it was not disappearing, it was getting stronger. So strong that around 3 km before Villafranca del Bierzo I simply had to sit down on the ground as I could not make another step forward. This has been a moment of a crisis and I was not sure that I will be able to continue. I have rested for some time and then I managed to somehow walk those missing 3 km to Villafranca where I went to an albergue. 

Photo: El Bierzo, the Camino de Santiago