October 19 2019

I went with option 1 – walking through the towns with potentially some longer miles.

I woke up at like 2 am stressed about this decision and texted my friend who’s dad had done it last April to see what he did. 

He told me his dad did option 1 too and had done a lot of research; that helped solidify the decision. That, and it was supposed to rain all day so having towns would allow me to duck into a restaurant and warm up a bit if required. Whereas, option 2, was said to be flat wide open grassland with no trees and no cover for 15 miles! (I originally thought it was just 12 but then found out it was actually 15… woof)

It started off with just sprinkles so I thought maybe I’d luck out but then RAIN it did.

I stopped around mile 8 to warm up and the place a chose was not only a cute hipster bar (in a town of like 150?) but also had a fire place!

My core was okay, I had a wool top, covered by water resistant shirt, with a down jacket and then a windbreaker… but my legs… forget about it.

SOAKED! I was afraid the weight of the water was going to pull down my pants at one point. 

After about 15 min, I headed back out for another 5 miles.

I stopped for lunch around mile 12… When I walked in, I just dripped all over the poor man’s floor. I had two jackets on and had put one of the hoods on but not the other, and when I took off my jacket- my hood had like half a cup of water in it, which also proceeded to dump all over the floor…

I sheepishly apologized and mopped up with some cheap napkins as much as possible. Then ordered an omelet for lunch and headed to the bathroom

In the bathroom, I rung out my socks. I squeezed quiteeee a bit of water from them, and tried to dry my legs off with paper towels as much as possible.

It took me like 30 min to stop shivering. 

Two other dudes had joined the cafe but other than them, I didn’t see a soul in site all day. We were all hesitating the thought of going back outside and then with some sort of unspoken agreement, all got up and dressed around the same time.

One guy, seemed to chicken out and head to a hostal. Then, me and the other guy trudged on. The next town was 9.5 miles away. Means about 3.25 hours of walking. He was way faster than me and took off. I just walked with my head down, hands in my pockets- listening to a murder mystery book. (Thanks Trina for the Rec!!!)

The walk to the next place was really pretty. Started looking a lot like fall. The leaves were changing and there were pure yellow and orangey red corn fields.

I reached the next town with the intention of getting a snack before my last 1.5 hour stretch but hardly anything was open and the one bar that was, was packed.

I didn’t want to wait and get colder sitting – so figured I’d suck it up and trudge on.

I made it around 5:30pm about 8.5 hours of walking later. My phone was so wet and my hands so cold, I couldn’t get my phone to work to find my lodging at first and had to huddle under s church.

Once I located it. The lady was appalled at my state. I sadly dripped all over her kitchen and accidentally repeated what I had in the lunch place and dumped a hood-full of water everywhere.

Once I got checked in- I tried to take a shower and IT RAN OUT OF HOT WATER. Like 5 minutes after I got in. What a god awful, terrible surprise. Took me another 15 minutes in all my wool layers in my down sleeping bag to stop shivering again.

Then I had a snack. Rested a bit. And then begrudgingly headed back in the rain to buy groceries. This place has a kitchenette and although I’m super floppy right now, I get really tired of eating out. I got some turkey bread, broccoli, red wine and cheese and headed back to cook myself a feast.

The kitchenette didn’t have a wine opener…

I tried to follow this tip of using a key but the key just ended up pushing the cork into the bottle… so here we are haha

After a very delicious meal and way too much chocolate. I will now head to bed

I am very happy I made it!!!! And tomorrow will be half the time and distance to León!

Last big town before the end! ⅔ there