Villamayor de Monjardin to Los Arcos 12.4 km

Tuesday, April 19th, 2022

12.4 km
134.9 km

Today was a hard day. There is no other way to describe it. As soon as I woke up, I wasn’t feeling up to par.. 

All along the walk to Los Arcos, I felt worse and worse. I wasn’t sure what was wrong, but I didn’t have any energy and the miles to walk to Los Arcos seemed insurmountable . This should have been a great walk. I walked a portion of it with a guy from Bordeaux France. He actually started his walk from his front door in Bordeaux! He enjoyed walking with English speakers so he could practice his English. Any other day, I would have been thrilled to walk and talk with him. Today I struggled with my half of keeping up the conversation. After a half hour, I told him I was taking a break, and he should continue on. If there had been a taxi anywhere around on this vast trail, I would have taken it. As it was, I took a break, and trudged on.

The one amazing thing that happened today was I heard a cuckoo bird! Before I started researching the camino, I thought cuckoo birds were only in cuckoo clocks and children’s songs. I had no idea they were a real bird. Bucket list item, checked!

By the time I walked into Los Arcos, I had decided to stop and take a rest day. Maybe take tomorrow off as well. I couldn’t believe how exhausted I felt. It had started raining during the walk and I felt chilled as well. It was too early to check into a hostel so I sat with a few other pilgrims and drank cafe con leche in a bar across the plaza from the church. By the time the Ostadar Pensione opened, I had severe chills. I was very lucky to have checked into this pensione. I got the last room. It’s a very lovely room with a shared bathroom and only 32 euros a night. Who knew I would spend so much time there.

I have a temperature of 100.9 degrees. Also very bad diarrhea.