Distance traveled: 20.1 km

This was my first day walking without my backpack, and it felt very strange. I’d been told that the backpack becomes like a turtle shell: you stop feeling its weight, and you feel naked without it. This had already become true for me. While I didn’t love the idea of making things easier for myself by sending my backpack ahead, I knew that was a better option than continuing to put more pressure on my injured feet and potentially having to stop walking altogether for some period of time. So, the day began with attaching a little envelope containing 5 euros to my backpack and writing the address of the albergue to which I wanted it delivered; I just needed to trust that it would be waiting for me when I eventually arrived!

Despite the bizarre feeling of walking with only my little collapsible backpack on and the fact that my feet still hurt a ton even without the extra 25 pounds of weight, I loved our morning walk on this day. We had clear blue skies, variable landscape (fields, hills, valleys, vineyards), and wonderful conversation. It was my first day walking with my core Camino family of Adam, Lou, Bill, Chuck, Kim, and Agnes. We didn’t walk together as one big group, but we always reunited when we arrived in a town to take a coffee break, and I got to rotate my conversations accordingly.

As we neared our final destination, I was using my trekking poles almost as crutches, trying to take pressure off one foot at a time by swinging myself forward using the poles. Wearing my normal pair of sneakers rather than my boots hadn’t made any difference in terms of giving my toes more room, and I was really starting to get concerned that, at best, I was only preventing the blisters from getting worse rather than actually helping them heal. I stopped in a pharmacy in a small town just before Torres del Río and had the undivided attention of the pharmacist for a solid ten minutes of discussion about how to treat my blisters and tendinitis. I left with a fresh syringe (to drain the blisters) and a new supply of Compeed (blister band-aids), individual toe protectors, and a gel form of ibuprofen to rub onto the areas that were more swollen from tendinitis. It occurred to me in this moment that I was experiencing a good metaphor for the need to take care of yourself in everyday life, particularly in the sense of not pushing yourself too far. I’d been living that reality in my maximum-stress job for the past few years and burned out; on the Camino, I probably gave myself the tendinitis as a result of walking too fast and made my blisters worse by being unwilling to do more than ditch my backpack and walk shorter distances. Neither approach is a recipe for short- or long-term success!

Our albergue in Torres del Río was run by a very friendly and generous man from Bolivia. He hooked me up with an ice pack, which helped my tendinitis feel better, and I spent some time sitting in the courtyard next to a little pool. Back inside, people continued to help me treat my blisters. A Hungarian lawyer (my first lawyer on the Camino, in seven days!) sleeping in the bunk next to mine offered some of his own ointment, and Agnes washed my clothes for me so I could stay more immobile. Pilgrims really support each other.

So here’s how far I’ve come now after seven days of walking: 143 kilometers, or 89 miles. In a week I’ll arrive in Burgos, the first major city on the Camino and the end of this first and most physically challenging part of the journey.