Puebla de Sanabria to Padornelo
Distance: 7 miles ( twice ) / 12 km.
You should know before reading that all ends as it should have, but that today was that kind of day that really tested my patience, my stamina and endurance and most importantly, my mental ability to stay focused on task and to achieve what I needed to achieve despite all kinds of serious problems being thrown in my path.
I know blogs aren't supposed to be long but so much happened today that I need to put down in writing.
Notable memories
I woke up at 7 to get started and the first thing I noticed was that it was still completely dark. Okay, no problem. I've hiked in the dark before.
When I got outside and started walking, it was amazingly cold outside. This kind of surprised me. Although I had appropriate clothing on, my gloves were buried deep in my backpack, and I was hesitant to stop and dig them out.
Within about an hour even though the sun had started to break on the horizon behind the mountains, my fingers were numbing up. But I pressed on, and after a couple hours the cold temperatures finally broke.
The hike itself was pretty fascinating: passing through groves and woodlands, walking along the banks of the Rio Castro, visiting an old chapel, seeing many beautiful places along the trail. I was enjoying the peacefulness and solitude.
When I got to Requeho, today's midpoint, everything completely fell apart.
When I took my backpack off to get a coffee at a bar, I noticed that the side pocket of my backpack was unzipped and completely open. I instantly feared that I had lost my passport and my pilgrims credentials. I looked through all my stuff and could not find the packet with my papers.
I immediately asked the bartender to call me a taxi. I needed to get back to the albergue in Puebla de Sanabria. I placed a call there but no one answered.
The cab driver took me back to Puebla de Sanabria. At the hostel, no one reported seeing my passport. I also checked with some pilgrims on the street who were headed down the Camino. I asked them to keep an eye out for my passport and we exchanged phone numbers.
Next the cab driver took me to the Guardia Civil police station where I filed a report on my lost passport.
I also called the embassy and they gave me instructions and how to get a new passport. Basically I had to go to Madrid in person.
I decided that my best option was to retrace my steps which meant walking the entire day's Camino all over again. But I felt I had no choice.
So I started out at 1 p.m. exactly in the same place where I started out at 7:30 a.m. earlier in the morning. I had prepared myself to retrace the entire eight miles.
I had no luck anywhere finding my passport. I knew it was a long shot at best.
I arrived back to Requeho sore and tired and hurting. I called the cab driver and asked for a ride to the next town.
Once in Padornelo I checked into a hotel and I tore my bag apart. And at bottom of the bag buried in a bunch of stuff was my passport and in a separate packet was my pilgrim credential. I don't know how I missed it earlier in the day when I did the earlier check, but I did.
Simultaneously with the passport, all day long, I had to decide what losing my pilgrim credential meant to me. It's important because it gets you into pilgrims hostels which you can't otherwise get into.
But emotionally it also meant I wouldn't have a certificate for completing my Camino Sanabres.
As the day went on, I fought back and forth within myself about what did it mean to walk the Camino without the official papers. The truth is I already have three certificates from past Caminos and I have two completed credentials from past Caminos. So how important was this lost credential?
The interesting philosophical point of today's experience for me on the Camino is not that I lost the passport or thought that I lost the passport.
It is that I had to decide quickly whether to repeat my actions hoping for a different result or to press on and put in the past what had happened, accepting the consequences of the decision.
Regarding the passport I decided that I would just have to go to Madrid and get a replacement. But maybe I'd spend a day or two there and enjoy the city.
Regarding my Pilgrim credential, I realized that the question was 'How important was the paperwork to me over actually enjoying the Camino'? I decided that I didn't care anymore about the credential. I was walking the Camino for the simple act of doing it.
I think philosophers could debate on end about the ramifications of reliving the past or moving forward. I only know that today in a very problematic sense, I was faced with those decisions.
I can't say that I like the choices that I made today, but it is what it is.
And it's a valuable lesson from the Camino to me.
Follow up: I left the hotel to get some food for tomorrow. I stopped in a little store. The owner did not have fresh fruit available. But he went in the back, grabbed four pears from the harvest and gave them to me for free. I did not realize how significant his act of kindness would be.
I hadn't walked 5 minutes down the road when for whatever reason, I had a complete breakdown. I couldn't stop it. That after such a hard day, I would come across a person who would display such an act of kindness was beyond my comprehension.
I went back to tell him how important his act of kindness was to me. I'm sure he thought I was crazy or out of touch or whatever. Or maybe he's helped other pilgrims.
To know me is to understand how deeply I believe that the Camino provides what we need, not what we want.
I needed today to be a test of faith. Sometimes the Camino gives what hurts - a lot - but it's what you need the most.
Alto de Padornela - Early evening
