Day 14: the bus that never came


When I woke up today, I knew I hadn’t slept enough. I paid the price of yesterday’s nigiri-frenzy and not even the breakfast+shower power combo could truly wake me up.

Moreover, the tendon between my right foot and leg had been hurting for a good part of yesterday’s walk.

When the hotel I wanted to book refused my booking because they were already at full capacity, I thought “Well, fuck it!” and called a day off.

Then, out of regret, I changed my mind to a half-day off and decided to walk to the temples #31 and #32 in the afternoon. In order to reach them, you have to climb two hills and I was happy to do it without a heavy bag.

Pilgrims at the 31st temple of the O-henro.

I’m not sure it was the right call, but my body feels better tonight. I’ll take it.

It was also a few days I hadn’t written on my journal. The free morning was a good opportunity to put some words on paper. 

Before that, I spent a considerable amount of time looking at the stories from the Humans of New York Facebook page. From time to time, it’s a good reminder of how happy and “easy” our lives are compared to people who have endured serious pain or difficulties over the past years.

More than 800 Km to the last temple. My Camino begins now, basically.

I reached the temple #32 at the end of the afternoon. To go back to my hotel, I decided to take a bus and checked the route and schedule on Google map. As you might have guessed from the title of today’s post, that bus never came. I was left to wither on a small bench, at the mercy of many mosquitoes.

To preseeve both my mental and physical health, I decided to hitch-hike instead. Best decision of the day. The man who picked me up was very kind and brought me straight where I asked him to.

A statue at the temple #32.

For dinner, I bought some rice and sashimi at the supermarket, which was way cheaper than yesterday’s restaurant. My face in front of the food right now is something like:

Tomorrow I will set an ambitious goal to reach. Every day on this pilgrimage is a test, and that became very clear today.

I undersrood that there are no easy days. There are just days where I don’t risk going completely mad about something.

What will be the cause of such likely madness tomorrow?

Nobody knows, but I’ll accept guesses.

There is, eventually, only one supreme way to find out: to keep on walking.