Getting lost on the Camino

Did I tell you about the time we got lost on the Camino and had to turn back.

In Logrono my accomplice Rob Warren McWallace decided he had to buy a porn magazine. The first one was not hard core enough so he purchased another one from a roadside stall. I tried to give the first one away without success…no wonder we got lost…this was supposed to be a spiritual pilgrimage not some murky exploration into the seamier side of Spanish life. The first guys I offered it too just laughed and said they already had it. Next I offered it to a young guy who was clearly not amused by it… the expression on his face said it all… shocked and angry…I cannot really blame him…it was a tacky thing to do…I threw it in the  bin.

Leaving Logrono…first thing I noticed was the smell of sex…in the street of all places…it was truly disgusting Sandy…God knows where it was coming from but it permeated the air along one rather large section of the street…The Camino was about to teach us a lesson.

Getting out of the city entailed a long walk through park land. I remember seeing a Spanish couple embracing lotus style…a tantric sex position.  Somewhere along the way we took a wrong turn. After about two hours we found ourselves standing by the side of a highway and no yellow arrow in site. We crossed the road and walked to a service station and spoke to the attendants there and they confirmed our situation…we had taken a wrong turn.

It was late in the afternoon and the sky was grey.  We were hungry so we bought some chips and some coke and went and sat on a nearby hill to discuss our options.

I had a look at the magazine Rob had purchased…it was terrible and heightened my sense of unease...it basically consisted of page after page of wide open vaginas and erect penises…I was shocked by the colour of the women’s genitals…they were purple, almost black…I felt sick.

I looked around me….there was rubbish everywhere and the vista was bleak…it was as if the Camino was saying…when you immerse yourself in garbage you end up wallowing in it….and it wasn’t even my idea to buy the magazines…I certainly didn’t get a kick out of them…my interest in them was one of morbid curiosity alone…nothing more…but…having said that perhaps I should have exerted more of a good influence on Rob rather than indulging him or rather not putting up any opposition And here we were…sitting on a rocky hill next to a gas station on a highway surrounded by garbage...lost.

We decided to walk back to Logrono and spend another night in the hotel which was expensive…but we didn’t have the time or the inclination to go looking for an albergue in the dark…and that is what we did…it was a most memorable day but not one I care to remember.