20130623 Sarria, Take 2

Sarria, Take 2

Remember the picture I sent of Cruz de Ferro? Well, if you look at it, you'll notice that I went over the mountain in bad weather. It was freezing rain and pretty cold. A woman had to be driven off the mountain due to hyperthermia, but I had the proper rain gear plus several layers of warm clothes, so for the most part, while cold and anxious to get off the mountain, I was ok.

I have been nursing a cold ever since. My sinuses were aching, I've been all stuffy, and have had an itchy throat. A couple of days ago, I stopped in a Pharmacy, described my symptoms (aren't you proud I could do this in Spanish?!), and the pharmacist gave me antihistamines. I took them for 2 days - until yesterday.

Yesterday I walked from Sarria to Mercadoiro, and was stuffed up but fine. When I woke this morning, I felt extremely dizzy - enough to stumble if I wasn't holding onto a wall. The strange thing was, I didn't feel sick at all - not nauseous or feverish or feeling bad at all - just dizzy. I assumed that with my stuffy head, and my left ear having popped the day before while the right one had not (yes, the mountain was high enough to require an ear popping, and I was stuffy enough to have had plugged ears for a few days), that maybe it was simply that my equilibrium was off.

I decided to go to the doctor anyway, just on case. The hospitelero called a taxi for me to take me to the clinic back in Sarria. The doctor there was very nice, and and thoroughly examining me, told me she couldn't find anything wrong with me other than the dizziness, and that she thought maybe the antihistamines combined with the Benadryl I borrowed from another pilgrim as well as the cold medicine I got from a tiendita was not mixing well. She told me to ATP taking all of that, and instead prescribed me some anti-vertigo pills, don't me to take the day off and that I could walk again tomorrow as long as I didn't feel dizzy.

Like I said, they were great at the clinic, and it was free! We did have the majority of our conversation in front the Google Translator, but that worked out just fine.

So off I went to another hotel and another night in Sarria.

The good news is, I have finally tried the octopus Galician delicacy. You can see it in the picture. It is as delicious as they say, but the texture was strange enough for me to have declared that I have experienced Galician octopus and feel no need for further iterations!

In the morning, if all goes well, I will taxi back to Mercadoiro and continue my walk.

Wish me well, and please don't worry about me! I am totally fine!!!

I love you very much and will email tomorrow as long as I can find wifi (apparently not a guarantee in Galicia!)