I left Leon at little past 9am after our buffet breakfast with bonus sandwiches for lunch. The objective today is to reach Villar de Mazarife and stay at the albergue San Antonio de Padua. Marybel left the hotel Pax at 10:30am. This was to give me a head start so that we may reach our destination at the same time. The challenge today is to find the right markers to Villar De Mazarife as we are taking an alternative route. We were told that our original destination Villadangos del paramour did not have any lodgings open at this time. It rained all day today so my rain pants and rain sheet came out.

I encountered some pain again on my left leg while walking on extremely muddy roads to Villar De Mazarife. Perhaps my mind is reminded of my fall in the mud on my first day and this pain is just asking that I be more careful while trekking through mud. My shoes became caked with mud and I used my walking stick to get some of it off when I walked on the country highway.

Marybel caught up with me at 2pm and we connected for a little while and then she walked on. I finally arrived at our albergue for the night at 4:20pm. This place included a physiotherapist who is also a healer as well. As I was in some pain, I decided to see if he can help. He massaged my leg and performed some reflexology. I felt so much better after the treatment. While he performed reflexology, I felt a pain leave me from my shoulder too. That was a great healing. Tommorrow he will advise me on how to take care of my knee. I felt quite good after, so Marybel decided to use his services too. He did not charge us a specific price but merely ask for a donation. Given how good I felt, I decided to pay him $10 each for our treatments.

We had our first vegetarian meal for tonight. The healer was also our cook. It was a gourmet vegetarian meal with a beautiful starter salad, followed by a vegetarian paella and ended with a chocolate drape crepe with strawberries.

He told us that he has done the camino many times and designed the meal according to what he liked to eat but could not find on the camino. He has walked 6000 kms combined on several caminos. I also suspect that because he is a healer, he also followed a vegetarian lifestyle but I did not ask him this night. I shall ask him tommorrow when I receive his counsel for my knee once again.

With a vegetarian meal in me for this night, I do believe I will have a peaceful night. Our dinner companions for this night are two Brits women, Megan and Sue, and young Madeline from New York. Megan and Sue are on their fifteen day and Sue is suffering from blisters on the soles of her feet. Madeline is a student and will be doing her post grad program this coming fall. This is the only largest time slot she will have in a while and thus she can do the camino now.

I had an onset of a small blister under one of my toes but due to quick tendering of the blister once I felt it, I have managed to put it at bay. I just placed a blister pad on it and it does not hurt anymore.

At dinner time, I found out that I have really done 25 kms today. I originally thought it was 20kms thereabout. I neglected to take into account that the alternative route is longer and that I had to walk 3kms from our hotel in the city of Leon to get out of Leon. Grand total of 25kms. This is the furthest distance I have done since starting my Camino and I did not do this purposefully. Ignorance is definitely bliss in this circumstance as I would not have taken this route all at once. I would have broken it up into two parts if I had known.

Well tommorow we will head out to the town of Hospital De Orbigo. It will be around 16 kms. I am not sure that I am able to repeat today’s efforts again, at least not for a few more days until I have built up more stamina.

I realized that my Camino seeks to surprise me at every turn. I found that I could walk 25kms in one day and when my leg pain came back, there was a healer at the end of the day’s journey who helped take care of it. I also realized that God also will give you only what you can handle. If you are not able, he will be there to help you out. I am truly blessed.

Good night my friends and family,
God bless!

Peace and love
Hilda 🙂