Running with a burrito in Peru (Day 13)

They say you see strange and different dreams on the Camino as your focus is different from you regular daily life.

Last night I dreamt that I was chased for the burrito in my hand in the jungles of Peru. I woke up in panic and the last memory of my dream is someone trying to snatch the burrito out of my hand.

I tried to make sense of this dream this morning and came to this conclusion with regards to the significance of the “burrito” and “Peru”. I have been very very hungry on this Camino feeding mostly on chocolate bars, patates bravas, bread and occasional garden salads. I believe the “burrito” signifies my yearning for foods I like. The Peru piece is complicated but also explainable. There is a great guy from Boston named Royce which is a complete mystery for all of us. He mostly hikes alone (super fit and fast) but sporadically joins us for dinners. Royce is lean, tall, charismatic and in his early forties. What makes him very mysterious is that he is very talkative, interesting and funny but doesn’t give any information about himself. He is an extravert that doesn’t like to talk about himself and changes the topic when you ask him about himself. The only thing we know is: name a place in the world that is dangerous (Honduras, Nicaragua, Middle East, Columbia) and he has “hiked(?)” there for 3-4 months. They way he talks about South America’s most dangerous jungles with a great admiration and no fear makes it very very suspicious. He also carries a burner phone. So we believe he is some sort of a covert operative (which I shared with him last night). Royce is super friendly towards me (no surprise on the Camino), but I convinced myself he can kill me with only needing his fingers. I think it was Royce that was chasing me for my burrito in Peru last night!

Today is a rest day and I woke up with the rigor of a champion who had to accomplish two major tasks today. First one involves a decision I need make that is pushing my intellectual horsepower to the brink: should I continue the journey with regular socks or should I switch to toed socks that some people are wearing as the weather is warming up. I was overwhelmed by the complexity of trying to decide something beyond my usual 3 decisions of the day (how far to walk, what to eat and where to sleep). Life doesn’t need these types of complexities. I realized I didn’t have the capacity to make the deciosion and knew (knowing myself) whatever decision I made on this very important topic I would regret. So I am continuing the journey with both types of socks and the extra 12 ounces they cost me.

The second objective of the day was to tour the Burgos Cathedral which is a vast gothic structure built in 13th century. It also holds the tomb of El Cid which is an important knight and ruler in Spain’s history who was born in a village of Burgos in 11th century.

Photos of the cathedral from last night and today. I like this first night one with the crescent moon in the background.

I was also able to sneak into the the ancient library inside the cathedral (not sure I was supposed to) and took photos of books that were hand written all the way back in 11th century.

At the exit I ran into two of my favorite Camino friends (somehow The Way made us all show up at the piazza at the same time) Frank the comedian and Jeff the amazing human.

Kms today: 0