Today’s walk

Today was the second to last day of walking.  After yesterday’s record walk of 9 hours, my body was slow to respond to the early morning hills.  We did have a great breakfast midway through the morning which helped fuel me for a little longer .at least until lunch.  At lunch I ate the biggest sandwich I have ever had in my entire life.  It was only 3e but it was at least 15″ long by3-4″ tall full of tuna, lettuce, tomato, cheese, and asparagus.  I cut it in half intending to save half for later but before I knew it I had finished the whole thing.  It will tough to give up all the bread, pastry, Wine, and Spanish candy when I get home.

Back to the walk….it was an emotional day…my feet are tired of walking, and I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed instead of a room full of bunk beds, and returning to my life at home with Terry and the girls…but I am going to miss the intense conversations with those I have walked with or dined with. I am going to miss the peaceful mornings walking alone with my thoughts and the surprises that were around nearly every corner along the way.  I will miss the slowness of the pace in which I have been living these past weeks and the awe of seeing new things and talking Spanish and laughing at the manner in which we have used charades to make ourselves understood. 

I have been humbled by the difficulty of the walking, surprised at how long it took me to really reach my limit of living in close quarters with many different people each night, and packing up each morning not knowing where we would be sleeping later that day.  I am surprised that I could wear the same two outfits every day and that I could carry Everything that I needed on my back.

This really has been a long walk .  I thought seriously about ending the walk at least twice but it has truly been the journey of a lifetime.

Tomorrow we walk to Santiago.  We are meeting at 8am to begin the final walk with Melissa from Mn, Karen and Mike from Pa, Janet and Terry from Vancouver, Christine and John from the UK, and Karen and Henry from Texas and Australia.  There are many others I hope to see in Santiago, most of which I can’t remember by name, but the stories will never be forgotten.

More tomorrow! 

 

  
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
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