The feet, ankles, knees, thighs, butt, back and shoulders are all still good for both of us so we are looking forward to a bit longer walks over the next few days.   

Today’s walk started badly only because the cafe with Spain’s best tostadas was closed despite the promise the night before from a waiter there. We had to backtrack a bit to get to an open cafe with good – not great – tostadas, fresh squeezed orange juice and coffee. Life is so hard.  Just before leaving the cafe, the helpful owner gave us directions to the nearest taxi stand to get to Zariquiegui. I’m glad I doubted her because we walked just out the door and stood there, checking Google Maps. It took some time but then the owner came out and asked if we would like to pay for the tostadas, juice and coffee before we leave.  That was embarrassing!  We forgot as we normally pay when we are served. 

The embarrassing moment that we did actually expect was not as bad as expected.  The taxi driver dropped us off at the main intersection of the small village, just on the Camino path. Last year, there were scores of pilgrims standing near that corner when the taxi pulled up and I had to say “Don’t judge.  We walked here yesterday but slept in Pamplona.”  Today, only three pilgrims and a store clerk saw us get out and they didn’t seem to care.

After all that, we finally started walking at 9:00am with a 2.5km climb up to the Alto de Perdón with the famous pilgrim statues, the civil war mass grave site and the wind turbines.  We saw everything except any dead birds under the turbines that Trump promised us. Go figure. The steep descent on southern side of the mountain seemed much less steep and shorter than we had remembered from past Caminoes. I am not sure why but I think that is good news for us. Maybe we are better prepared than I thought. 

There was still a fair bit of gradual down hill, small climbs, and rest stop opportunities to the villages of Uterga, Muruzábal, and Obanos until the entrance of Puente la Reina.  We met Mr. Maine, now known as Camino Joe, just before Obanos.  He was struggling a bit despite (or because of) recent knee replacements. He has walked plenty of Caminoes already with nothing left to prove so he’ll just be walking 10-15kms per day for a while before taking a bus to Santiago and Finisterre then flying back to Maine.  I’ll be surprised but happy if we meet him again. You never know. 

We were ahead of schedule arriving in Puente la Reina.  Our albergue today didn’t open until 1:00am so when we got to the edge of town about noon, we stopped at a restaurant I think where we stopped on all of our French Caminoes. We just shared a ham & cheese bocadillo while I drank a beer with lemon soda and Melanie had an agua con gas. We met a Dutch girl there and had a brief chat with her before we left for the final 750m to our beds. 

Our albergue today is nice but we have a private room. The bathroom is communal – and co-ed – which will take a little time to get used to.   I chatted with several of the pilgrims in the kitchen for a while but out of the six of them, I could only place one French woman. The rest were European but I could not tell from anyone’s accent where they were from despite English being the one language that everyone was speaking. For all of us though, English appeared to be a second language (I grew up speaking American).

I was disappointed to find out that there is no communal dinner at our albergue. I was looking forward to it. A lot of the pilgrims were cooking a meal for themselves so I doubt we will run into many at the local restaurants either.  We are heading off to dinner now so I hope I am wrong. We’ll see. 

Goodnight George, Leo and Stella. Have a great sleep and fun dreams. Peace y’all.