Wonder

CAMINO STAGE 10: Laredo to Guemes Camino Del Norte Route -El Camino De Santiago 18 miles 28 days remaining

“Most of us shell our days like peanuts. One in a thousand can look at the world with wonder.” Amor Towles

“He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.” Albert Einstein

Time felt like it bent backwards on itself today. We lived on Guam for 11 years in the 2000s. We hiked or “boonie stomped”through jungle, over slippery and sharp coral and limestone cliffs, pulling ourselves up with vines and narrowly escaping falling. Today, climbing the cliffs, above the playa de Heljueras past Santona, felt very similar to Guam and, despite the terror that made some hikers turn around, I smiled as I looked down on the ocean far below in wonder.

When we reached the bottom, we got a good laugh walking along the three mile Playa Trengandin as it was a nude beach. I did not gawk in wonder as we’ve stumbled upon nudist beaches before. We walked on and picked up the Camino again through town.

“There are those much more rare people who never lose their curiosity, their almost childlike wonder at the world; those people who continue to learn and to grow intellectually until the day they die.”William Herbert Sheldon

“Wonder is the basis of man’s desire to understand.” Neil Armstrong

Past town, we entered cornfields and walked right through harvested fields, just like I used to walk through as a child. I resisted the urge to pluck a couple ears of corn and eat while we walked. Cows were grazing everywhere with their lovely bells sounding in the wind.

Maybe the most fascinating of all today that filled us with wonder was the Roman bridges and rock walks that withstood the test of time. Even some of the trails we climbed had stones placed by Romans to roll their carts along. We walked in wonder.