Day: April 10, 2024

The New Mexico state question is “Red or green?” One big Camino question is “Poncho or rain jacket?” The Camino forum has numerous posts about this. Ponchos are faster to put on but flap around in the wind. To put on a rain jacket you need to take off your pack, get out the rain jacket, put on the separate pack cover and put the pack back on.

This year we are trying something new: the Altus poncho. It is kind of like the “Christmas” answer to the NM question since it is a poncho but it has sleeves and a zipper so is good in the wind. You can put it on by flipping it over your head without taking off your pack. Advice: do this while facing into the wind so the wind will help with the flip. Note that this is exactly the opposite of the advice about pissing into the wind.

The only problem with the Altus is that it looks kind of nerdy. Here is Wynette in hers during our sudden rainstorm. You can judge for yourself.

Pasajes is on a ria, a fairly wide inlet that turns into a river, so it has a part on each side of the ria. (The long way to say ria is estuary. We never knew the word ria until we came to Spain but turns out crossword puzzle makers like the word.) We have only seen the eastern shore.

Tomorrow we cross on the little green boat which ferries you across and runs every ten minutes.

It is a cute little town with one street, right by the ria. Our hotel is one of the first things on the street as you go south.

The first day of the Camino del Norte is the hardest of the whole walk. We did the Norte in 2018 and skipped the first stage. This year we wanted to try it out, seeing that we were six years older. To make it even possible we did two things. We took a taxi up to the Guadalupe Sanctuario which saved four miles and 600 feet of elevation climb. We also decided to stop before San Sebastián which saved four miles. Still it was very hard, harder than we expected.

There are two routes from the Sanctuario: the official route, which is mostly flat except for a descent of 600 feet at the end, and is pretty routine. The second is the Purgatorio route which goes to the top of Mount Jaizkibel.

Right after the two routes split we climbed a ridiculously steep trail. Here is a photo.

After that it goes up and up and on and on. Quite rocky. But the route has spectacular views. Some photos.

Once you pass the mountain top and its towers, you start down. This is steep and rocky and slow going. Finally it merges with the lower trail and it is pretty easy into Pasajes.

Numerous times on the trail we wished we had taken the lower route but when we were back in Pasajes, after checking in and having a lovely meal we decided it was worth it.

Mountains climbed: 1 (1900 feet)
Distance walked: 6.9 (hard) miles (up 1300 feet, down 1900 feet)
Taxi rides: 1 (we skipped the first four miles and 600 feet up)
Maximum heart rate on ridiculously steep first part: 139 (I think my watch alarms when it passes 140)
Number of times during the hike when we wished we had taken the lower route: at least five
Number of times we wished we had taken the lower route after we finished: 0
Most expensive menu del dia: €31.5 (but it was really excellent)
Darling little seaside towns entered: 1 (Pasajes aka in Basque Pasaia was lovely)

We decided we could handle the Purgatorio route. We did but just barely. See a later post on this. There will also be one on Pasajes.