Month: September 2022

During our rest day yesterday, we reassured ourselves this isn’t a race. We don’t have a set date we have to be done, so we can and should take our time. We don’t have to do 20+ kilometers a day. We are blessed with freedom. Most folks walking the Camino need to get back to their jobs, families, or school.  They have a hard date and a return ticket. Since we don’t have either., we can take it slow. So, we set the alarm and went to sleep only to be awoken by a party outside the window at 5a. 

So we got up and set out in the dark of the early morning in search of a bakery (panadería) to have our first breakfast of coffee/tea and bread, we found the city quiet after the festivities the night before. Nothing was open. Even the supermarkets opened later than usual due to the holiday. We were in trouble. Here we are setting out for our 12 km hike this morning with only the emergency energy bars in our packs and one bar I saved from breakfast the other morning. Three bars in total. We were lucky enough to pass by a supermarket on the outskirts of town, but it hadn’t opened yet. Do we wait the 45 minutes for the store to open, or do we put 3 more kilometers behind us?  We sat on a bench and ate one of the bars, then got up and kept walking. There was nothing between Logroño and Navarrete but lovely countryside views. At about halfway, we sat on a shaded bench and ate the second bar. We shook our heads knowing how stupid we were for not going to the store last night assuming something would be open this morning. Quieting the hunger monster, we set out again. Under pure determination, we rolled into Navarrete and found our Albergue, checked in, dropped our packs, kicked off our shoes and left in search of food. The bar’s pintxos had been picked over so there wasn’t much left to choose from. But we were so hungry we weren’t picky. We had a ham sandwich, which consists of half a small baguette cut in half, with a small drizzle of olive oil and one single thin slice of Serrano ham smashed between them. Amazingly simple and quite good.  Down right delicious when you are as hungry as we were!

The bar owner must love the Beatles because the speakers were filled with Beatles tunes on repeat. In the time it took to have our sandwiches and a small pastry with two beers, we must have heard “Hello, Goodbye” five times. 

With bellies full, we explored the Iglesia Nuestra Senora de la Asunción (Our Lady of the Assumption Church) right next door to the restaurant. While weathered on the outside, the inside was extremely ornate and decorated in gold behind the altar. We stopped for a bit to admire the craftsmanship that went into constructing this beautiful building. It is quite an accomplishment given the tools and construction methods of the time. 

Day 11 – Sept 16, 2022 – Villamayor de Monjardin to Torres del Rio (19.84 km)

When all that’s around you for hours are manure covered fields and gravel roads, you welcome a crate bench to rest your feet and eat the “second breakfast” you’ve been carrying since it before dawn. From perfectly placed benches to a musician at our Albergue playing a hand pan and sound bowls after communal dinner to help us sleep, magic along the Camino today was plentiful. 

Day 12 – Sept 17, 2022 – Torres del Rio to Logroño (20.2 km)

Today was grueling. We’ve learned two back-to-back 20 km days are too much for us at this point and our feet are protesting loudly. 

It started out well enough, and we made it to the summit of our first major hill of the day just in time to see the sunrise break the horizon. It was breathtaking. As we climbed, there were messages on the ground and benches here and there. I was happy to have the inspiration to keep going. I just wish the messages continued. As we grew tired, the messages and benches disappeared (apparently no one else had the energy to write them anymore at this stage of the hike either). I wish we had more of that much needed motivation closer to the end. We dragged our tired asses into Logroño over several kilometers of paved roads (we HATE walking on paved roads) at 4p and immediately fell into bed quickly fell fast asleep.  After our well-earned siesta, we went in search of painkillers (cervezas and vino) to quiet our throbbing feet. 

This weekend Logroño was having a fiesta celebrating the city’s birthday.  Wine seemed to be a central theme. The fountains sprayed pink water, there were crafts, concerts and people everywhere dressed in white shirts and red bandanas tied around their necks. Many of the young people had their shirts stained pink from an apparent “wine fight” earlier in the day. 

The celebrations continued into the evening with kids enthusiastically chasing each other and throwing a never ending number of “poppers” on the ground. As our tired bones were settling in for bed at 9p, a marching band started a procession down our street playing loudly. They repeated this again at 10:30p, but after we inserted the ear plugs and closed our eyes we didn’t hear anything else and slept hard until 8a. 

Day 13 – Sept 18, 2022 – Logroño (0 km)

Today was a planned rest day and it was so needed.  We had chores to get done (laundry), reservations to make for the coming week, and resting to do. 

We found a laundromat and a young lady who spoke English was leaving just as we arrived. She couldn’t use the detergent she bought and gifted it to us. More Camino magic. We were excited to wash and dry our clothes in actual MACHINES today. What a delight to not have to hand wash and dry today!

The rest of the day we spent making phone calls to loved ones taking advantage of good WiFi, and watched a movie while we gave our feet and legs the rest they badly needed. 

A free wine fountain, yes please!

Day 7 – Sept 12, 2022 – Pamplona to Uterga (17.3 km)

Snippets from our day…enjoy!

Have you met my friend BABs?

On the day which shall not be mentioned I gained a new friend. Her name is BABs.  She’s the big ass blister I got on my left foot between my heel and my ankle bone. It isn’t from my shoes but from the way my foot creases on certain side slopes. It has been with me for days now creating nothing but pain and discomfort. So today, after much research, Doctor Rex (he only plays one on the Camino) performed a blisterectomy.  After some betadine and Band-Aids, BABs will trouble me no more. Bye bye BABs! I won’t torture you with before and after pictures.  Let’s just say it was gross as a blister and even more gross after the ectomy. Then doctor Rex delivered some bad news. He said my foot modeling career was probably over.  Gee thanks Rex, I was rather counting on that!

Day 8 – Sept 13, 2022 – Uterga to Cirauqui (14.4 km)

We had our first encounter with rain on the Camino today. The weather forecast called for rain off and on throughout the day, so we added our rain covers to our packs and made sure our rain jackets were in in easy reach in case we needed them. We walked for the first 6 kilometers in absolute solitude through a light drizzle, not hard enough to bother with our jackets, but enough to slowly soak into our clothes. It didn’t matter, because it was so cool and refreshing and we could tell our pace had increased from the previous hot days we’d had.

Eventually, we encountered heavy winds and sideways rain so we quickly stopped under the cover of a nearby tree, put our jackets on and started on our way again. About 10 minutes later, the rain stopped and our jackets became mobile saunas and we had to stop and take them off again. Hopefully we won’t have to play this game too often in our remaining days on the trail. 

In Puente de Reina, our halfway point for the day, we found a post office and finally sent home some our heavy items that we realized we didn’t need or didn’t need enough to continue carrying. We lightened our load by 5 combined pounds. It cost us 63€ to ship the box, and this is one of our largest expenses so far, but we don’t care. It may not sound like much, but 5 pounds is a big damn deal to have out of our packs and we are extremely grateful for our lighter loads. 

Tonight we are in a small town called Cirauqui and they are having their annual town festival. Everyone is dressed in white and red and there are lots of games and music. Our albergue host warned us the festivities would be going on all night. We may not get the best night’s sleep tonight, but being here to watch this celebration is totally worth it!

Day 9 – Sept 14, 2022 – Cirauqui to Estella (14.3 km)

Pretty quiet day today compared to recent days. My feet are killing me so we stopped at a farmacia for some new cushioned shoe inserts. I do hope they work. We’ll find out tomorrow. 

Something was different today. We’re not sure if it was just the culmination of the 112 km / 70 miles we’ve walked so far, the terrain of the trail, or if we didn’t eat enough today, but Rex also mentioned his legs felt a bit sluggish and we are both exhausted. We were glad to get to our lodging early and took a 1-1/2 hour nap immediately after checking in. 

We also found more Camino magic today. Fresh figs!  They were super sweet and delicious. What a treat!  The man who set up the table asked us where we were from and when we told him “Los Estados Unidos” he pulled out 3 US quarters that someone else had donated to him and proceeded to hand them to us since he couldn’t use them.

We found a restaurant in town serving a pilgrim’s meal of spaghetti bolognese and meatballs!  This felt like such a treat after all the tortilla de patatas and Serrano ham sandwiches we’ve eaten so far.

Day 5 – Sept 10, 2022 – La Trinidad de Arre to Pamplona (4.5 km)

We arrived in Pamplona for a much needed rest day. We booked a private room in a hostal so we could reorganize and refresh. We will be here Saturday and Sunday and head back out Monday morning. 

After checking in and immediately taking a couple of wonderfully long showers, we took a couple hours to book our next few beds in advance to avoid this week’s no-bed-breakdown.  Then we headed out to explore old town Pamplona. We did a pintxo’s (tapas/appetizers) crawl for dinner, stopping in several bars and for tapas and drinks. On Calle San Nicholas, all the bars served gourmet pintxos. We ate our way through a couple of places before calling it quits. 

Once we had our fill, we headed to the market on our way back to our hostel and picked up a bottle of wine for 1,99€ (not Two Buck Carlos either). It was delicious. After watching part of a movie, we crashed. It was nice to not stay n a dorm with 6-10 other people.

Day 6 – Sept 11, 2022 – Pamplona (0 km) Rest Day

After this week, we desperately needed to drop pack weight, so we cleaned out our 20+ lb portable closets onto the bed and reassessed what we’ve been carrying. 

I was able to drop 2.5 lbs from my pack and Rex lost about 1.5 lbs. We plan to to ship the items back home, donate some to hiker boxes, and simply throw other items away.  Hopefully shedding this extra weight will help.  It certainly can’t hurt. 

After searching for a correos (post office), we learned they close on Saturday at noon and don’t open again until Monday at 8:30a. Oh no!  It is going to be a hot one Monday and we planned to leave before dawn since we have a 17.5 km walk to our now RESERVED beds. It looks like we will need to carry this extra weight a bit longer to avoid walking in the afternoon. 

After a week of simple hand washing in the sink, we wanted to give our clothes and bed liners a deep cleaning, so we went in search of a launderia (laundromat). We asked our hostel host where to find one and he gave us access to his apartment complex’s laundry facilities. We were excited to find the washer and dryer were free. Yippee! 

When we were here before the start of our Camino, the energy was off for some reason.  For example, at a cafe the waiter choose not to bring us a menu even though we requested one in Spanish twice and others around us were already eating. When he finally did bring the menu (after our coffee and tea was finished), he brought us a very expensive dinner menu which lacked all the small meals others were eating. 

We didn’t feel the love from Pamplona on our initial visit, but after learning about the dining culture, we determined it was our own lack of knowledge that was the problem, not the waiter nor the cafe. So we decided to give the same restaurant (and Pamplona) a second chance. This time, before taking our seats outside we walked in, greeted the servers, ordered the items we wanted from the counter, then took our seats. This was definitely the right order. The restaurant was fantastic and attentive. Now that we’re starting to figure out the process, everything works so much better. 

There was a Basque festival in the town square with music, carnival rides, and craft booths. It definitely drew a crowd. The “pony” rides cracked me up. 

We headed off to the bull fighting ring for a tour. But it’s Sunday. They stopped tours at 2:00p. We arrived at 2:15p. Oh well, we will just need to come when the bulls are running. For now, we’ll settle for this…

It was a fun couple days of rest in Pamplona, but it is time to hit the trail once again. It will be an early morning again to beat the afternoon heat. 

Hasta mañana…