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
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
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
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
Cigarettes: 0 (Bridget had more)Alcohol units: (Ditto)Total solar eclipses missed by 1 hour: 1Unpleasant transatlantic crossings: 1American airport meals: 1 (not too bad)Airplane meals: 1 (mediocre but not terrible.Number of times the word claro heard in two overheard conversations in the Madrid airport: at least 40 (I didn’t understand any other word as it was