Los Pies de los Peregrinos

Ah, so nice to put on the sandals at end of the daily walk.

Wynette: No, not talking about bakery items in title of this post.  Pies = feet. My original foot problem (pain in toes and ball of right foot) finally got better so we started walking longer days and that’s when the blisters started. So back to shorter days till we get those under control. Charlie hasn’t had any problems except his high maintenance wife, but we’ve encountered many other pilgrims with foot problems. I hate to admit it, but misery does love company. One young man told me about his blisters then said “it has been very humbling.” On a busy sidewalk in Burgos, I passed a 40-something couple on the street in sandals; the woman was walking very carefully. Even though they weren’t in backpacks, I blurted out “peregrinos, verdad? (pilgrims, right?)” Sure enough. The sandals and hobbling were dead giveaways. She said they’d just gone to the hospital because her blisters had gotten infected. (We ran into that couple twice over the next 4 days.)  Back before Burgos, when we decided to take a bus to Burgos to deal with the problem, we met another man who said he’d ignored his blisters for days, trying to stay up with some younger men he was hiking with, and suddenly he was crippled by them and was bussing to Burgos to recover. More and more, we see people taking a break with their shoes off, fiddling with their feet.