The camino ain't for sissies

We had gone 12 hard miles when Jill took her header. We had negotiated steep downhill slopes covered with crumbly rock. We had walked a dry flood way of long polished slabs of black rock. We were killing it. And then her toe hit a rock and Jill went down hard. 

I heard her cries and ran back towards her. Another hiker was right behind, a kind French woman. Soon a helpful guy named Kevin came along. We extricated Jill from her pack. She was lying like a turtle with a heavy shell on her back unable to move. 

She was a gory sight when she stood. Blood poured down from her hair to her chin, leaving a pool in the dirt. Blood mixed with mud and it was hard to tell what was what. With wet wipes we wiped away the blood and saw a big goose egg on her forehead with a small cut and a small gaping cut on the cheek that obviously needed stitches. The best part was her dramatic declaration "IM NOT GOING HOME LARAINE,   THIS IS NOT GOING TO STOP US!  It was kind of sweet and hilarious. 

This is where the tender mercies began. 

Kevin was there to carry Jill's pack. 

The highway was just around the bend.

There was a small bar on the highway.

An angelic older woman refused to call a taxi, instead telling us that her daughter would drive us in their small car.

As beautiful Lisette helped Jill into the car, her mother Lilli kissed Jill over and over, with words of comfort in Spanish. She kissed me too, probably 10 times - an attack of love and service. 

Lisette took the winding road like a bat out of hell. We screeched into Molinaseca and a small clinic that was closed and then she took us on to the big city of Ponferrada to a hospital. 

A proficient woman with no English cleaned Jill's wounds and stitched up her cheek with three neat stitches and no anesthetic. Jill only cussed twelve times. Just kidding she took it like a champ. Lisette stayed with us, making sympathetic noises. In an hour Jill was done, with instructions to take one Advil every eight hours. These Spaniards are tough. They did not charge us one €!  What?  No wonder Spain is under the economic weather. They are too nice

Lisette drove us to a lovely hostal where we could rent a private room, kissed us and refused to take any money, even for gas. It has been one interesting day. We hope tomorrow is boring.