What a lovely walk we had today. Slowly we are building up distances but this distance was actually a mistake. Tomorrow’s walk will be very short. But that is actually a problem I will save for tomorrow.
The village we were planning to stop at today was Azofra, 2.2km up the road. Due to Booking .com’s policies and their loosening grip they had on the Camino accommodations, I mistakenly booked a room in a pension in Alessnco which is not on the Camino route. Since that was non-cancelable, we planned to take a taxi those last 2.2km. We tried to get something to eat first though but the bars we found not only didn’t have food for lunch, they didn’t have any pinchos / racciones / tapas either. Also, it turns out that Azofra is too tiny to have taxis either but there is a saying “the Camino provides”. After walking only 200m toward the main street that goes down to Alesanco, we spotted a pilgrim standing on the corner. As we got closer, we realized that she was just about to climb up on a bus! We ran towards it and checked to make sure it was heading to Alesanco. It wasn’t but at least we got in a little exercise in today. Actually, that 2.2km did go by quickly. We must be getting in shape.
We left our room today at 6:30am to beat the heat. If that shocks you, several of the other pilgrims in our hostal were leaving at 5:00am. I felt a little guilty and lazy – but not crazy. We actually only started to walk at 7:00am since the the hostal’s bar was open for breakfast already. There we met the three Irish Amigos. These guys are walking from St. Jean to Burgos this year dueto time constraints. They were all quite nice but I swear the quite one from Dublin was the spitting image of Glen Hansard. Not now, of course, but a couple of months ago, I would have asked him for his autograph.
By the way, I have to shoutout to our hosts last night in Navarrete at La Iglesia Hostel in Navarrete. They have been the best hosts we wave had in years on the Camino. They are a lovely and fun pair. Now, if they could only put a little WD40 on the rooms’ door hinges to stop the squeaking, that would help a lot. One other tiny improvement, they could put a lock on the door of the shared bathroom so I don’t have to guard the door while Melanie is showering – that would be nice.
One Camino character we met at dinner last night was Acosta Rican Roberto Rodrigues. He had walked 40.5km yesterday and he got in at 6:00pm. He figured he has to average 32km per day to reach Santiago before his scheduled flight. He was suffering. Today we passed him as he was resting in a ditch along side of the trail. He looked content so we just waved and continued onwards. When we ran into him again, it was at a dingy bar in Nájera. Apparently a couple of pilgrims tried ito rescue him from the ditch. Still others warned him of ticks, Lyme Disease, etc. That is also where mmm Melanie found out Roberto’s last name. She was amazed by the coincidence of meeting a fellow Rodriguez this far from home. She asked “what are the chances?” Roberto quickly replied “this is Spain – there is about an eighty percent chance that there are several people in the bar with that name.
Since we had only one small breakfast and we shared one small sandwich for lunch in Nájera, we were delighted to find out that there was a real but basic restaurant in Alesanco as well as several bars. After cleaning up, we walked into town and found the restaurant. The barmaid was apologetic but told us the cook didn’t feel like making dinners. Oh boy! They did have a few slices of tortillas for sale but we tried the popular bar across the street. They had a great menu but the barmaid said that was only for lunchtime. She pointed to the display case of some small, day-old empanadas and a few other pinchos. We bought most of what was there. It wasn’t enough. Today we probably took in half the calories we expended, at best. Much of those calories we took in were isotonic drinks, soft drinks and beer. That can’t be good, can it?
I saved the real complaints for last. Our air-conditioning doesn’t work in the room and the night is still hot. Also, through “dinner”, everyone else there was just drinking (since someone bought all the pinchos). As a result, everyone was yelling to be heard over the din of the other people yelling. I have been to quieter English Premier League matches. But here’s the thing… while walking today, during my thinking time, I realized that I complain about things too much. I need to fix that. That’s one reason I am not elaborating on the complaints. That and it’s bedtime.
Peace y’all. Goodnight G, L & S!
