Camino: Walking Day 5

Wynette: We walked a little further today than yesterday but it seemed much faster. It was a beautiful walk (but so was yesterday and every day). We are constantly amazed how everything is constantly changing. The weather (sunny to cloudy to rainy to windy to no wind, repeat), the landscape and view, the path itself: dirt, mud, gravel, cobblestones, concrete, pavement, big rocks, pebbles of all sizes,  repeat. One constant is that it has been lush green everywhere. And the Basque people have been kind and helpful everywhere.

Today we saw our first vineyards. I think we’ll be seeing many more. Tonight we are staying in a private room in a wonderful albergue: Maralotx in Cirauqui. We ate with the pilgrims. The owner told us the wine was made in this village. When we get Internet access I plan to post some pictures of this albergue. The owner is clearly an artist and she has made this place colorful and fun.

Camino: Walking Day 4

Wynette: We walked about 9 miles today. Stopped a little before we planned because of my achy feet. But got a little further today before they started killing me. Still a few more things to try. We are staying in a private room in an albergue (pilgrim’s hostel) . We’ll eat dinner with the other albergue guests. They call it a pilgrim meal. We had a pilgrim meal after walking day 2 and it was delicious.

Walking the Camino

Wynette: When we first had this crazy idea to walk the Camino it was very abstract. How hard could it be to walk 12 miles a day for 40 days, allowing for 10 extra rest days when needed? Now for the reality. I realize now that if I’m able to do this it will be a huge accomplishment. I feel a bit stiff and sore at the end of each day and feet hurt like crazy, but energy has been good. I’m sure energy is from that high altitude Albuquerque oxygen still in our blood. But I’m very slow,  especially on the long steep uphills followed by the long steep downhills, repeat, repeat, repeat. Charlie has been patient and wonderful. He could easily be going twice as fast as we are going.

April 7

Charlie: We decided to skip walking through the suburbs of Pamplona so we took a 15 minute bus ride to Cizur Major and walked half a mile to rejoin the Camino. We walked 9.3 miles and are staying in a private room in an albergue in Uterga. Wynette was just getting sore feet so it was nice to stop. No wifi so no media.

We are about to go to another communal pilgrims dinner. We washed out our things and hung them to dry.

Snow in Pamplona

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Wynette, April 6: This is what we saw out of our hotel room window this morning. Coldest day so far. I’ve never seen such variation in weather from hour to hour,  anywhere. The first day was mostly sunny, perfect weather. Cool but not cold. The second and third days were cloudy,  sunny,  snow,  sleet,  drizzle, changing from one to another about every 15 minutes. (I’m really not exaggerating very much.) Our rain gear has been excellent. We have been warm and dry, including our feet.

Bar Tapas

Wynette: We went to a nearby bar for tapas for dinner. Actually they are called pinchos here in Basque country. It was a lively crowd. We like the way all ages mix in the bars here. You never see anyone drunk. We often see parents with young children.

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