Azofra

7pm

Albergue de Peregrinos Municipal de Azofra 

Comin’ at ya live from Azofra, where we’re staying in our first municipal albergue of the trip. Basically that means, the most affordable you’ll find, generally packed with people and pretty minimal services. No frills. This is probably one of the nicer ones along the way, as there are only two beds to a room, no bunks, and lots of great indoor and outdoor space to enjoy. 

We arrived here about 1:30pm, I showered while my dad napped, he showered while I napped, and we are having a true pilgrim experience tonight. We went to the market for supplies for what had become my go-to Camino meal, a bocadillo con tomate y queso (a cheese and tomato sandwich, but almost always on DIVINE bread). We also picked up some chips, Aquarius, and breakfast stuff for tomorrow. We walked back to the albergue to prepare our food, sit in the table area to charge our phones (no outlets in the rooms), and decompress a bit. Even after our 2-hour naps, we’ll probably be in bed by 8ish. Which will allow us to maaaaybe get up as early as we’ve tried to do every day... oops... 

Today’s walk was gorgeous, once again through miles and miles of vineyards. A few good climbs, but nothing we haven’t conquered before! 

I had a really cool moment about halfway up one of the larger hills today. I was listening to some pump-up music and thought about stopping, when I thought to myself: No. you can do this thing. And I decided to just do it. I took a deep breath, felt the oxygen flow through me, and forged ahead. As I stepped to the beat of one of my favorite songs, I felt like I was almost outside my body. Like the pain and exhaustion was there, but nothing I couldn’t handle. I felt SO STRONG. It gave me goosebumps, it just felt so good to power through something I almost gave up on. My first inclination when faced with something that will be hard to accomplish is to shy away a bit. I don’t want to fail. I don’t want to fall short. I know I’m in good company with that; it’s human nature. But the best things that have ever happened to me have happened after I decided to take a deep breath and leap. And this philosophy just keeps delivering.