October 22, 2001
O'Cebreiro- Triacastela (wet/wet/wet)
13.5m/21.5km - 385.7m/617.1km

What a miserable day. The wind is blowing and it is raining hard. By the time we reach Padornelo, 5m/8km beyond O'Cebreiro, my pants are soaked up to the waistband, even though I am wearing my rain poncho. After Padornelo we start climbing up the side of a cliff to Alto de Poio. The rain is so bad we are walking in a miniature river than runs down the middle of the path. My boots are so wet I am walking in two warm puddles of water that have formed inside them. This is so bad J gets mad enough to stop and rage at God. I stand behind him laughing. I know exactly how he is feeling. After he finishes we plod upward.

At the top I am relieved to find a bar and we quickly head inside. The place is packed with other pilgrims and the woman operating it is letting people huddle around the big old fashion wood-burning stove in her kitchen. The stove squats in the center of the room and pilgrims sitting in the chairs placed around it are sipping hot drinks as they try to warm themselves up. One man is carefully putting some of his wet clothing on the top of the stove to dry. Every couple of minutes he turns them over to keep them from burning.

We pick up hot drinks of our own at the bar and join the pilgrims around the stove. I cannot believe how accommodating this woman is. She is trying to make sandwiches for the people out in the main room and all these people sitting in her kitchen limits her ability to move freely around but she just ignores us and goes about her business. I for one am sitting as close to the stove as I can without burning myself. If I could, I would wrap my arms around it. I am chilled to the bone.

Soon people start drifting back out to the Camino and we go out to the main room and sit on stools at the counter. Jb is there with a girl named A from Germany. There is a Foosball table at the back of the bar and J and Jb talk B and A into playing a game against them. J refers to the game as the World Cup Final between Britain and Germany. Britain wins.

After the championship game is over we head out. I am still cold and my wet pants feel clammy. When I take two steps away from the building I am hit with a sheet of wind blown rain and I stop. That's it. I quit. I tell B and J that I cannot walk anymore today and I am going to wait for the bus. B and J say they understand and that they will meet me in Triacastela. I go back in the bar and find the only other person there is the woman running it. I wander around the silent bar feeling lost and scared. I don't know when the next bus is. I don't even know if there is a bus. With B and J gone I feel like I've lost an arm. I walk over to the front door and look out. I see a girl walking by who is barelegged under her rain poncho. If she can do this, then so can I. I put my pack on, pick up my stick, yell, "Gracias, adios," at the back of the bar and charge out before I can change my mind.

I walk very fast and finally see B and J up the road. B has crossed the road to where the Camino leaves it and has turned around to watch J cross when she sees me. She says something to J and I see him turn around and look in my direction. They both stand there for a minute and then J throws his hands in the air and yells. They wait for me as I walk up. When I get closer I answer J's unasked question, "I knew I would hate myself in the morning." As we talk B pint looks behind me and says, "Look." I turn around as the bus zooms passed us.

When we get to Triacastela J and I decide not to stay in the refugio, I think it is going to be crowded with other pilgrims like us who started out for Sarria but will decide to stay here to get out of the rain. We drop B of and, after making plans to come back later, head into the town. We find a hostel and get a room with the bathroom down the hall. J strings a laundry line and, after I take a hot shower, I wash and hang all my wet clothes up. J says he wants to take a nap after his shower so to give him some privacy I head down to the bar.

I order a hot chocolate and sit at a table watching a telenovela (Spanish soap opera) on the TV. It makes me homesick because I can see it was filmed in Miami. Something from home. The owner's three-year-old daughter comes over to me with her wooden puzzle and we put it together. This means I put a piece where it does not belong while asking, "Si?", and she answers no, with all the contempt of a three-year-old dealing with a stupid adult, and then moving the piece to where it belongs. We play this game at least three times until her mother takes her away for her nap.

After that I walk back down to the refugio and meet B and we walk back to the hostel. On the way we meet Ian and R coming out of the grocery store. We have not seen them since Ponferrada. Ian says they had stop off somewhere and there were so many gay men they were surprised by it. They thought that they would be the only ones. I ask if the place was mentioned in the Gay Handbook and Ian laughs and says he didn't think so but he would check, maybe he missed that part. B and I hang out in the bar the rest of the afternoon and later J joins us. This is always the boring part of our day, waiting until it's time for the restaurant to open so we can eat.

Jb and A are staying here too and we all eat dinner together. My appetite is gone again and A splits my chicken with me. After dinner J and I walk B back to the refugio and then return to the hostel. We find Jb and A still in the bar so we all play a game of pool. Jb is very good, J is good, A, who has never played before learns fast, and I am OK. The locals at the bar watch us play. We stink but we are entertaining. Jb wants to play another game and J and A are up for it but I am too tired so I say goodnight and go upstairs to bed. Before I get into my bed I think about sleeping in my sleeping bag on top of the bed. Then I think the idea is stupid and cannot figure out why I had it. This will be the first time I will be sleeping in a bed with sheets in a long time and I think I should enjoy it. I do pull my open sleeping bag on top of me in case I get cold during the night.