Feet Sh-meat

2 days of hiking have gone by... and so have approximately 54km. Something else that´s gone? My poor feet. They were sore the whole first day; obviously, we were walking in the Pyrenees mountains. The view is absolutely gorgeous, and you walk right by horses and cows taking pasture up on the mountains; making it look easy. When we left St Jean Pied de Port we were in misty fog. After the first 45 minutes of walking we were well above the fog, and looking back down at where should have been St Jean! The air is so clean, you can feel it in your lungs... The entire first day was an uphill battle with a mountain; however, looking back out all around was a scenic landscape that looked like crushed emerald green velvet.

Tasha, Tatyana and I finally reached the village of Ronceveau, France (after laying down in the grass on the hill side for 5 minutes; well deserved!), I took my boots off... bloody socks. Both my heels are raw. As a lovely Austrian man said ¨It´s the meat!¨. Yeah, great.

The man was cool, he treated my meaty feet, and in the morning he wrapped them up using some kind of healing cream, a compete bandage, and some tape. Walked all day today... got to our stopping point... no room in the hostels. Our options then become quite thin. Either walk 7km back to the last town or continue to Pamploma via taxi. There were others waiting for the taxi, and I think the girls will agree, there was NO WAY we were going to be walking back the 7km we just finished!

Taxi arrived, we got to Pamploma, aaaaaaaAAAaaand no hostels there either. Good Lord.

The driver was so great, he was calm, pulled out his cell phone and began calling all the hostels in town as well as some from a few towns over. We finally found a place 2 towns over in the village of Zariquiegui, Spain.

We arrived, settled, I removed my socks... no blood... I removed my bandages... more carnage. I feel completely deflated.

Here´s the plan for the next few days. Tash and Tatyana are healthy (feet and all... sore all over as is expected!) and will continue to walk the Camino. I will take a regional bus to the town of Estella and wait for them there. It will take them 2 days to reach Estella on foot, so this gives me 2 days are 2 nights of recovery. During that time I will be using all the spanish healling creams the pharmacist recommended (One that speeds the scarring and scabbing process) so that I will be ready to go the day after the girls arrive (they need to rest too!).

We were pretty disappointed to have to take a taxi today... and double disappointed when all this business with my feet happened. Oy. I will be sure to take a picture with my ipod so that I can post it at the earliest wifi spot... brace yourselves!

Goodnight, bed time...