Camino 2013

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Charlie: Wynette and the guy who walked the Camino four times

Charlie: Hey I have to give a shout out to the SwiftKey keyboard on my phone. The prediction is amazing. I type a few letters and it guesses what I want. It also has the swipe typing which is fun and fast too. I can type almost as fast as with a physical keyboard.

Any mistakes you see here are the fault of the prediction algorithm not me.

Charlie: On the third night we stayed at the hotel Akerreta. The owner told us that they had filmed part of “The Way” there. It was the part where Martin Sheen met the Canadian woman on the patio and, the next morning, saw the man practicing bull fighting with a tablecloth from the balcony.

We were hoping to see places from the movie as we walked the Camino so this was exciting.

He said they had about 100 people and several trucks and the people were all very nice. Martin Sheen and his wife wanted to stay there but the whole hotel was full of lights and equipment so they couldn’t.

We’re still looking for the bridge where Martin Sheen lost his backpack in the river.

Charlie: We are staying in hotels rather than alburgues. The first night was lovely at the hotel Roncesvalles, 70 euros. The second night was a casa rural in Viskarret, 40 euros but a common bathroom, no soap or shampoo. But we had a nice dinner and breakfast there with Glenn from Vancouver.

The third night I’ll talk about separately.

The fourth night was at the hotel Navarro in Pamplona, 73 euros. Very nice but they were full for the next night so we had to switch to the hotel Europa, also very nice, for tonight.

We don’t have any more reservations. Our plan was to get them as we go. We think that will still work since we are still early in the year.

Charlie: That’s what they call us pilgrims in Spanish. People seem happy to see us. Lots of people we pass in the small towns say “Buen Camino” to us and we say it to the pilgrims who pass us. We would say it to the pilgrims we pass also but so far we haven’t passed anyone. We are the slow ones.

Before we started I was a little worried about standing out and people not wanting us around but the Camino is part of the culture here and everyone seems to be into it. The pilgrims help out the economy too so that helps.

We were excited to see other pilgrims at the bus station leaving for Roncesvalles. Then on the trail we see a lot of pilgrims of course. It is still early but there are a fair number but not a mob.

We get passed a lot as I said. We have been starting out pretty late. After a while we start getting passed by the pilgrims who started out early from a town 10km before.

We are not staying in the alburgues, pilgrim hostels, so we don’t hang out with as many pilgrims as we would if we did but there is a comraderie among pilgrims and we are getting to know people as we go.

On the third night we ate dinner at an inn where they had a communal meal for pilgrims. There were about 15 of us and we sat at a long table and heard people’s stories. The dinner was quite good. You had three choices each for a starter, a main dish and a dessert all for 12 euros.

We talked to two 19 year old boys from Grand Rapids who were taking a gap year before college and traveling. Several other young people were taking time off to travel. There was a Brit about our age who had done the Camino before but in November.

About 60 percent are young people and about 20 percent are 60 and over.

We have met an amazing number of Canadians, like 7 or 8, from coast to coast and in between. We met a guy, about 50, in our hotel the second night. He was a bookkeeper for a non profit from Vancouver. He had started in St Jean and had a very hard first day going over the mountains. I’m glad we started in Roncesvalles. We saw him again on the trail and he was at the pilgrims dinner the third night. Wynette saw him again today on the street in Pamplona.

Yesterday we talked to a young woman who was writing a masters thesis in literature about her walk on the Camino.

Charlie: The little towns we walk through are lovely. Very quaint and exactly what you expect of little Spanish mountain towns. They have small squares and we stop for cafe con leche and people smile at you and don’t seem put out by all the pilgrims.

The countryside is beautiful too as I have described before.

Pamplona is much bigger than I had thought before researching this trip, about 200,000 people. Downtown it had the feel of Madrid.

Charlie: I’ve seen more water in four days here than in the last five years in New Mexico. We crossed dozens of streams and walked by good sized rivers. I love running water, who doesn’t, and it has been a joy to see and hear so much water.

Of course some of it is falling from the sky, and some even in frozen form but I still love it. Our gear has been great. The rain jacket breathes pretty well and keeps me dry and warm. My waterproof shoes are waterproof. I have rain pants but I have not used them as the rain has all been light. One time my pants got wet but they dried in 30 minutes as I was wearing them. These new fabrics are amazing. We have rain covers for the packs which are essential.

Charlie: Well we’ve seen everything. The first day had beautiful sunny weather and blue skies. The walk from Roncesvalles was amazing. White snow capped peaks all around, verdant mountain meadows, babbling brooks, sheep, horses, cows. As pretty as anything we have hiked through.

We were going generally downhill but with lots of ups and downs. We went 8 miles and felt okay. Stayed at Viskarret.

On getting up we saw it was drizzling. It drizzled on and off the whole second day. Some periods of sun but mostly cloudy. Still beautiful country though, farm country, mostly fields for grazing. We passed a 100 yard square evergreen tree stand. They must have had a big wind recently because there were a lot of down branches on all the trees. We stopped a little past Larrasoana.

We got up on day three and it was snowing! We had snow for a while and then off and on cloudy and rainy. On the last pass into Pamplona we had snow again. Still beautiful country, very green and pastoral.

It was cold going into Pamplona, in the high 30s. And it was rainy and cold when we went out to eat.

Saturday morning, today as I write, we woke up to snow. Looking out the hotel window it was pretty thick and piling up. Snow stopped about 10 and is a little warmer now.