Tuesday, May 14, 2024

I sleep like a rock. Maurizio had booked a room in an albergue containing single beds (as opposed to the standard two-level bunk beds most albergues offer), and our sleep was heavenly! I wake refreshed, ready for another day of walking fast, long distances. As I wake, some funny, giggling women travelling together have me laughing hard. They point out the people snoring heavily over the night, waking at 3:00 am to wait in the kitchen until 7:00 am to catch a bus to the next section of the walk. Coffee. Breakfast. Walking. We settle into a convincing pace for the day. Two 600-metre hills are climbed, two short coffee breaks are taken, and a wonderful ten-second portrait of Maurizio is taken with his permission for my footage. I am blessed with some great conversational footage of him taken while walking into Burgos. By 3:00 pm we enter the city along the river and through a very green and natural park—much more satisfying than walking along the N-120 highway. Our entry into this large city is quite beautiful. I check into the albergue and we walk into the old city for pintxos and pints. More conversation. More laughs. We made plans to meet for dinner, and his walking friend would join us for laughs later in the old city centre. Clean clothes. Back up materials. Then, I am downtown and we are laughing at it all and enjoying some wonderful food. Our lively conversation lasts for hours, until 9:45 pm, and I, unfortunately, have to leave for the albergue—it closing by 10:00 pm. We say goodbye, I wish him a buen camino, and hug this wonderful man, not wanting to let go. The walk back to my albergue is difficult—one of many difficult walks away from people I have grown very close to over this experience and wishing my heart wasn’t so broken over leaving them. Prepare for sleep, my mind buzzing over how much fun these past two days of walking have been!

Today’s distance walked: 36 km    |    Total distance walked: 324.11 km

“Read Fossett. Coelho ruined it for everyone.” — Maurizio