Camino De Santiago: Day 6-Navarrete to Najera

On day 6 I woke up and said good bye to Navarrete, along with goodbye to a group of men from Madrid. There were 3 older guys walking together--two fast and one slow. That meant that the two fast guys would zoom past me and then a little while later when they stood around waiting for their friend, I would pass them. We'd chat as we passed each other, sometimes they would sing the superman theme song for me and just generally we'd have a laugh. In the evenings we'd chat in the albergues (and very awkwardly half the time they would just be standing around in their briefs). Anyway, it was their last day on the Camino and they were headed back to Madrid. By this point in the Camino you really start to get the sense that goodbyes are a big part of it. 

OK, on to the walking! There were lots of vineyards in this area: 

Midmorning we (I was still walking with my two pals from the day before...no matter what excuse I came up with they were committed to walking with me) stopped for a coffee/snack/rain break. We sat around in the cafe for a while and eventually two people I had met from the hostel the night before came in. Itziar is Basque, from Vitoria (I love those people from Vitoria!), and had the best English I have ever heard on a Spaniard (turns out she is an English teacher). She was on the Camino just for the weekend to  walk and visit with her friend Jimmy. Jimmy was in his 70s (can you believe it?!), from Scotland and was a great storyteller. Turns out he is a poet/writer/artist/retired champion rockclimber.  

I'm telling you--you meet the most interesting people on the Camino!

We got to talking in the cafe (in English--yay!) and ended up walking the rest of the way to Najera together. Not only was it a nice break from the "Spanish" I was trying to understand from the boys, Jimmy was full of great stories and tips and it was great to have some female companionship for a while too. 

Jimmy! He has a thing for split rocks

There were several of these beehive huts along the way. 

When we made it to Najera I stuck it out with Jimmy and Itziar as we picked up a few essentials (like bread that was still warm) and then had a picnic in the park. After that we checked into the albergue--it was one giant hall with about 100 beds in it. I had the unfortunate experience of sleeping close to an older British man who was a serious snorer the night before. When I saw his son I asked where they were sleeping and chose a bed as far away from them as possible. The albergue in Najera also provided me with the my first cold shower on the Camino. 

On the plus side, Najera had a nice monastery. 

There are lots of cliffs and caves--in fact the monastery is built right into a cave. 

After I got back from the store with things for dinner my pilgrim friend Claire informed me that she was already making dinner for the lot of us. I also took the hospitalero's chilly advice and went down to the river banks in town to ice my ankle (which was already giving me trouble) in the cold, cold river. Overall it was a good day.

Camino De Santiago: Day 5-Viana to Navarrete

Next up day 5! Not a lot of interesting pictures because day 5 and part of day 6 were spent with these guys: 

Oh man. It was mentally taxing. They both insisted on sticking with me and talked constantly in "Spanish"--one was speaking Portuguese and the other was speaking Spanish with such a thick Catalan accent, and spoke in riddles, that I could hardly understand either one of them (especially after a few hours of hiking). 

We quickly made it to Logrono. It was early on a Saturday morning and the streets were full of people in green vests. It turned out to be a "photography marathon" which meant, especially in all our pilgrim gear, that we ended up in a lot of their shots.

My favorite moment in Logrono was a little further into the city. We were walking down the main drag looking for a specific pilgrim's cafe and I heard these two men on a bench next to me yell, "La Tejana!" (the Texan!). It was one of those moments where you look down to see if you are wearing a name tag with a flag on it or something. I was incredibly confused until I realized they were two pilgrims I had met from Alicante who were ending their Camino in Logrono (lots of Spaniards do the Camino in stages). I didn't recognize them at first because they had shaved, were wearing normal clothing and were sitting around with their wives. It was fun welcome to the city.

A typical midmorning Camino moment: map, cafe con leche, tortilla, icyhot

Leaving Logrono there was a nice park and even a lake. Since it was Saturday it seemed like the whole town was out relaxing. We sat down, had Cokes and enjoyed the view for a while. 

As much as pilgrims like to stack rocks (see the last post) they also like to make twig crosses in chain link fences. 

Feminist that I am, I got really excited to see that they had made a female pilgrim sign. Just when I was ready to applaud Spain for their gender inclusivity I realized that someone had just taken a permanent marker to the standard sign to make it into a peregrina. I figure it's a win either way. 

Yet another cemetery

Once we got to Navarrete we had a nice lunch and then tried to find a pharmacy. In what seemed like a cruel joke the one in Navarrete (a pretty small town) was closed--the sign on the door said the nearest one open was in Logrono (not that far in a car, but painful when you think that you walked all day to get from there!).

So there we go! Another day on the Camino de Santiago. I remember at this point thinking it was a bit disheartening because I had walked for 5 whole days and would still see road signs showing Pamplona as just a couple hours away in a car. Poco a poco!

Camino De Santiago: Day 4-Los Arcos to Viana

By some calculations (they always differed) day 4 was a short day--only 18 kilometers. Lots of people went all the way in to Logrono to eat tapas for the night, but just getting to Viana in one piece was enough of a challenge for me. 

The day started off well enough:

 I don't know what these little rock stacks were, but they were everywhere. Pilgrims will stack rocks on top of anything. 

And then we got to this little town straight away. I always liked it when there was a town just a few kilometers out after starting the day--it was nice to wait and have breakfast or a coffee once you had walked a little. 

 Just after the village I saw a water fountain. I was so happy that I took it's picture (with my relatively new best friend/walking stick):

 I had filled up my water bottle in town, but figured I would top it off. Then I decided I could probably use all the hydration I could get and just downed the whole bottle so I could fill it all the way up.

And then...I learned one of the Camino's most valuable lessons. Always test the fountain before you drink all of your water!!! That's right, the fountain didn't work and I had to walk 2.5 hours in the blazing sun with no water. It was a long day.

We also by now were realizing that the Camino would take you by any cemetery it could find. A subtle reminder not to over do it. 

Even with the heat and thirst, there were some beautiful landscapes

Then it was incline time! There were two steep hills in the middle of this stage. I kind of laughed when I saw that someone had written in "oh, oh!" on the sign. Two steps later, that is exactly what I said. 

It's much steeper than it looks in pictures!

Also...I am not to vain to show you this next picture: 

It was incredibly hot. It hovered around 95 all day and there was no shade. Especially without water I was starting to lose my mind. The night before in Los Arcos I bought this light cotton scarf to wear around my neck so it would stop turning abnormal colors from sun exposure. Well, I got so hot that I decided to go Arab. Fellow pilgrim Manuel took to calling me Lorena de Arabia, but I didn't care. 

I finally staggered into Viana and found our Albergue for the night. In a Camino first it had bunk beds stacked 3 beds high. It also shared a courtyard with a ruined monastery (or church? or? I forget...). After washing my clothes I asked the hospitalero where I could hang them. She told me to hang them out in the courtyard. There was a beautiful view of the valley and hundreds of years old ruins all around--it just felt wrong to hang my wet hiking clothes there. But of course I did. 

The town also had a really nice church which held nightly pilgrim masses

It was a nice town. In the end I was very glad to have stayed in Viana and not in Logrono. I also met a lot of people in the hostel that evening. Some memorable ones included a group of Cantabrian women and a retired couple from Sevilla. 

Camino De Santiago: Day 3-Estella to Los Arcos

Although I was incredibly sore, when I woke up on day 3 I felt in my bones that it was going to be a good day. 

There was a beautiful sunrise:

 Some beautiful old buildings:

And. What is this? We passed right by a bodega.

It wasn't just some everyday bodega though. There was...

 An actual fountain of wine! The sign read, Peregrino, Si quieres llegar a Santiago con fuerza y vitalidad, de este gran vino echa un trago y brinda por la Felicidad. (Or, Pilgrim, if you want to reach Santiago with strength and vitality of this great wine have a drink and toast to happiness.)

And even though it was not even 8am, well, I wanted to reach Santiago with fuerza y vitalidad. So I downed the water in my spare bottle of water and had a sip. I'm no wine connoisseur, but the wine was fantastic--and, as we were told repeatedly, good for sore muscles!

Just a little bit later we came upon a split in the Camino. Periodically the Camino would branch in 2 different directions. The distances were more or less the same, but the right route went through several towns whereas the left route was all countryside. It was written up as "stunningly beautiful countryside" so I broke from the group and took the left route.

It turned out to be a great choice because it was mostly...shaded! Which in the 95 degree heat we had that week was a huge plus.

It was also pretty secluded. I had the entire trail to myself. Then out of nowhere someone said hello from right behind me. It was Karl from Vienna! Even though he walked quite fast we ended up walking together for most of the day.

And the countryside was indeed stunning.

From here we sat and had a little sit-down, shared our snacks, and enjoyed the view.

Eventually the two branches met back up and the Camino flattened out. We joked as we saw each person because I would run through my mental file to try to recognize them from a distance. (Red backpack...red backpack...oh it's Michelle! Grey shorts...grey shorts...It's Roberto!) A few hours later we found the single tree, sat in the shade and had a feeding of the five thousand-esque snack time as we all shared what we had and ended up with a feast of cereal bars, dried fruit, cookies, nuts, etc. Even though we were made up of a French, an Italian, an Austrian, and an American and we didn't speak too much of each other's languages, it was surprisingly nice. 

We finally made it to Los Arcos. Unfortunately I made the mistake of waiting around to eat and then had to wait for all the kitchens to reopen at 7:30 or 8.

When the kitchens finally opened, it was worth the wait. I walked down into the bodega where the dining room was and saw three of my friends from Puente La Reina. We had one of the best pilgrim "menus" of the trip and some delicious homemade flan.

Good company and clean plates! (American, German, Brazilian and Hungarian)

A great day from start to finish!