Nájera to Santo Domingo de la Calzada – 20.7km, 5.0 hours, Hostal Carpe Viam, 58€

Today’s walk was a planned short one. So far, we have ended up following the Brierley guide book’s recommended stages. The last time we did this route 11years ago, we walked further most days and stayed in smaller towns and mostly albergues. This time, we are trying to stay in private rooms most days, either in pensiones, cheap hotels, B&Bs or even private albergues so we are sticking to the bigger cities. We also find it nice that many of our friends are also sticking to the same schedule. Scottish Jack and John, Brazilian Vanessa, Louisiana Anne, Jones, American John, Dwaina and Lori, the Italians, etc., we get to meet and either dine with or walk some with every day.

(One side note about Scottish Jack… we met Jack and his sidekick John at dinner tonight while we were eating with Anne. We introduced Anne to them and Jack, ever so humble and kind, told Anne that she can call him Jack but his real name is Matt. Who knew that in a Scottish accent, Matt and Jack sound exactly the same???)

We made some new friends today too, Ecuadorean Mike and Californian Pepe la Pew. Pepe is actually a woman who is walking with two other women from Oregon and Washington. She got her nickname from the noise her backpack makes while she walks. I happen to think it sounds like she is transporting a live frog in her backpack but everyone else says it sounds like she has gas. You can hear her “sneaking up” from behind from 20 or 30m away. Pilgrims have been asking her if they can take videos of her walking while a friend walks behind, waving away the foul air. They are a riot. By the way, Melanie and I have been drinking agua con gas (carbonated water or literally “water with gas”) with our meals. I think “con gas” is a much better nickname than Pepe la Pew.

Today started out a little cloudy and foggy but the sun burst through fully by 10:30am. It really got hot and I pulled out my semi-functional shade umbrella. Several women stopped to look how I used it and then they would tell their husband to buy them one. I had to apologize to many husbands. It did pretty well to cool down the area around me but if you get one, keep in mind that it doesn’t work miracles. While walking with my hat, I was sweating up a storm, constantly mopping my brow with a bandana. After changing to the umbrella, my head was dry, cool and hatless all the way into Santo Domingo.

Once again, we could first see Santo Domingo about four kilometers away. That’s too far. It gives us some hope but it’s still almost an hour’s walk away. Santo Domingo, the man, was a self-taught engineer and building contraction fro the 11th century. He built many bridges across rivers in the region to make pilgrim’s travel easier. He also built some of the churches in towns along the Camino Frances. It he had somehow managed to add air conditioning and non-floodable trails, I’d vote for him into sainthood too.

I have to admit that I have been neglecting my clothes washing duties. We are not walking like Pepe la Pew everyday, it just seems that every hotel, pension, or albegue has someone who will wash a load of clothes for you for somewhere between 4€ and 10€. That saves a lot of time for me. Those prices usually include drying the clothes too. The most expensive though was last night in the fanciest hotel we have stayed in so far. The clothes were only partially dry so I still had to hang them up to finish the drying. We also had the special bonus of being returned to us reeking of excessive powdered laundry detergent. I was so afraid it would rain today and we would start to bubble up. I couldn’t live that down.

I have one final comment about grapes and last night’s dinner. Melanie,as always, invited a lone stray to eat with us. This time it was a Canadian woman doing he first Camino. The subject of eating the grapes from the vineyards came up and she mentioned that she had some that day. She was told by someone that eating the grapes was somehow encouraged by the farmers and that is why there are so many vines near the trail. I am not sure who started that rumor but please, it you walk a Camino, gratefully take what is offered but that doesn’t count unattended grapes. That is someone’s livelihood.

We are off to dinner now so Peace y’all. And goodnight to George and Leo.